Live from the South Pole: Resources for Celebrating Antarctica Day

Free virtual event

Wild Rose Education is hosting Sarah Wilson, an engineer live from the South Pole to share her experience in the moment. Educators, mentors, advisors, career counselors, coaches, parents, and anyone who helps guide young people to jobs and careers are encouraged to join in this virtual event.

This discussion is timed just in advance of Antarctica Day, which is celebrated annually on December 1st, the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. Antarctica Day is a terrific time for educators to introduce their students to the Last Continent. Together, Sarah Johnson and Sarah Wilson will give educators enough background and scope on Antarctic happenings for them to guide activities about the importance of protecting and studying this unique place.

Wilson joins us as a multidisciplinary engineer currently supporting the IT infrastructure that underlies scientific research at the South Pole. Antarctic research stations rely heavily on logistics support, including a vast array of technical trades that are rarely associated with the science taking place here (like vehicle maintenance, airfield operations, medical and fire safety, construction, powerplant and water treatment operations, etc). It is Wilson’s aim to increase equitability of access to the Antarctic experience by highlighting the importance of these roles and underscoring how scientific research cannot take place without them.

Check out Sarah's Instagram channel complete with almost daily posts from her experience in Antarctica. 

About Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson is a multidisciplinary engineer and outdoor adventurer. She’s currently stationed at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where she is providing IT support to the US Antarctic Program. Her career has straddled biomechanics research on the ski slopes of Colorado, robotics on strawberry farms of England, and data science in agricultural water conservation - and her focus is on implementing scientific research and climate technologies in harsh outdoor environments around the world.

Between chapters of her professional career, Sarah has bicycled(solo!) from Colorado to Alaska, and across the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the Arctic Ocean. She’s also a fully-certified ski instructor and former professional extreme freeride skier.

At the intersection of it all, Sarah’s true passion is in inspiring others – particularly young people – that they can be anything, AND be more than one thing. Thanks to her energy for STEM outreach, Sarah was named an Ambassador to the IF/THEN Initiative, a program by AAAS and Lyda Hill Philanthropies which aims to increase girls’ interest in the sciences by elevating the profiles of real women mentors. The program culminated with the IF/THEN Exhibit, a collection of 120 life-sized, bright-orange 3D printed statues of women in STEM (including Sarah!), which was featured at the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C. in 2022.

Sarah Johnson of Wild Rose Education met Sarah Wilson in 2018 while co-creating a pika citizen science program for Girl Scouts of Colorado on the Grand Mesa along with fellow IF/THEN Ambassador Dr. Johanna Varner of Colorado Mesa University. Both Sarahs have stayed in touch and are excited to amplify each other’s STEM projects.