Explore all Your Potential

Jill Heinerth encourages BCHS Grade 9 kids to dream big and go for the impossible.

Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) Explorer in Residence, Jill Heinerth, spoke to grade nine students from Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS) on Friday of unlocking potential. Heinerth was brought in by Osum, as part of an initiative to support and encourage student to pursue careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

“More people have walked on the moon, than have been to some of the places my exploration has taken me; right here on earth,” Heinerth told the students of her journeys exploring the earth through the watery caves and crevices. “I swim through the water veins of earth, revealing the secrets of our planet.” Heinerth says she became exploring in her youth my digging holes to China in a neighbours backyard and never stopped exploring. She encouraged the students to take that youthful lust for science and continue on with it.

Justin Robinson, with Osum, says the company is constantly looking for ways to enhance the communities it serves, “we’re here to unlock the potential of the community, its people and resources. Especially, the youth. Youth is where the potential is, so we’ve always focused on unlocking that potential.”

“I have followed the course of the Earth’s water to wherever it may take me,” Heinerth says when she was young she couldn’t articulate what she wanted to be when she grew up. She laughs that lots of the technology she uses in her explorations had not yet been invented. “You may not know what you will be because it hasn’t been invented yet!”

Robinson explains Osum looks to inspire by bringing in guest speakers to schools, such as Heinerth, “Jill is the perfect match. She’s an explorer, she’s going into the unknown territories and she’s working with so many different types of scientists.”

“I have combined technology and curiosity to further explain our fragile planet. I look forward to inspiring today’s youth to realize the full potential is at their finger tips,” Heinerth hopes to pass on the love for exploring with the younger generations, “by embracing exploration they can take on the political and social challenges of the 21st century. Creating and applying new technologies they will carve out careers that are on new and unexplored paths.”

“My goal is to inspire young Canadians to pursue and investigate all possibilities,” during her 60 minute presentation Heinerth spoke of explorations to desert lands, ancient myan ruins, and the Antarctica. She was one of the first explorers to ever swin in the near sub-zero waters, exploring some of the largest icebergs on the planet. Heinerth also spoke of new technology that makes her explorations easier, with the ability to navigate through waters and areas that no human can reach.

Osum was recently given the Friends of Education Award from Northern Lights Public Schools, Robinson says it’s an honour to continue to enhance schools and students’ learning, “it’s really an honour to have the partnerships we have with the science teachers from schools across the Lakeland. What that award demonstrates is a reflection of the amazing partnerships we have had the privilege to be a part of.”