National Scholar Andrew Tuz ’26 reflects on the eye-opening experience of a study abroad trip to Greenland
Untouched beauty is something I have only just experienced alongside 13 other members of the National Scholars Program during our study abroad trip last May. I felt like I was trespassing in a land that should remain undiscovered and whole. And yet, I could not take my eyes off the sun as it bent to kiss the horizon at 2 in the morning, illuminating the world’s most productive icefjord in Ilulissat, Greenland.
We were there to witness the sustained impact of the global climate crisis on the Arctic region from scientific, artistic and cultural lenses. Led by Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies Todd Anderson and Kris Fuller, associate director of Clemson University’s National Scholar Program, our trip provoked discussion, reflection and artistic responses through drawing, painting and journaling.
It was the overwhelming sensory details in what I thought was a barren land that I will remember for the rest of my life. Upon first arriving in Kangerlussuaq, a former United States World War II air base home to roughly 500 people, the silence was deafening; it was total; it was consuming. Only when you accept it for what it is do you start to feel the landscape come alive. You sense the ice sheet shifting as it creaks, you hear the glacier thawing as water trickles from it, and you start to notice the wildlife hidden in the rocks and grasses far off. Your senses sharpen, and you become more aware of everything working in harmony. We got to experience a lot of these moments throughout our nine-day stay in Greenland.
We took a ferry ride to Disko Island and spent half our trip in a settlement below a backdrop of snow-capped mountain cliffs. During our stay, we went on a whale-watching tour, where we got an up-close view of an incredible bowhead whale and watched in awe as the whale bobbed just below the surface and sent sea spray over our heads. We trekked through feet of snow on trails only recognizable by tracks of sled dogs. One night, we braved the freezing temperatures and did a polar plunge into the Arctic Ocean before running to the nearby sauna to thaw. When we weren’t outside taking in the surrounding beauty, we indulged in the native flavors of halibut, muskox tartar and snow crab legs.

The other half of our adventure was spent in Ilulissat, the iceberg capital of the world, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, we explored the icefjord, hiking trails that led to dramatic views over the ice and going out on a boat to get close enough to the icebergs that we could actually touch them. My favorite experience, however, was going up in a helicopter over the icefjord and nearby glacier to take it all in. Large boats looked like little toys against the massive sheets of ice as we flew the length of the ice field.
During tours of the city and icefjord, we learned about Greenland’s fragile ecosystem and the impact global warming has already had on the country’s fishing industry and way of living. With the loss of year-round sea ice, seal hunting and fishing are harder for the native Inuit population. Despite the thousands of sled dogs we saw in Ilulissat, transportation by dog sledding into remote places for travel and hunting is getting harder. Warmer temperatures increase the opportunities for mining, causing further environmental damage, and disrupt animal migration patterns.
We were able to sketch and write about these effects, hearing about many firsthand from locals. We depicted the melting sea ice we saw and envisioned the negative effects on the fishing industry and native marine life. This experience reinforced the importance of reversing the effects of climate change and showed us a firsthand account of what happens if things don’t change soon. Because even when we don’t directly disrupt the natural world, our actions have profound effects that reach even to places of untouched beauty and the communities that have thrived in these environments for thousands of years.
The National Scholar Program is designed to develop a community of scholars and leaders by recruiting the nation’s top high school students to the Clemson University Honors College. Unmatched experiential learning opportunities like this study abroad trip to Greenland play a role in cultivating the scholars into civic and academic leaders at Clemson and beyond.