The 11th PANGAEA Young Explorers Selection Camp for Mike Horn's Expedition to the Amazon in Brazil takes place from Monday January 30 to Thursday February 9, 2012. During these 11 days, I am staying in Château-d'Oex at the Mike Horn Expedition Centre in the Hôtel-de-Ville as our days start before 7 AM and usually extend beyond 11 PM every day.
From hundreds of applications, a selection of 18 young adults, aged 15-20 years old, were flown to the Mike Horn Expedition Center for this 10-day selection camp in the Swiss Alps. A group (6-9 young explorers) will ultimately be chosen to accompany Mike Horn on a three-week eco-education expedition to the Amazon Rainforest and River in March 2012.
The 11th application cycle for the (Pan Global Adventure for Environmental Action) PANGAEA Young Explorers Program was open from August 20 to December 05, 2011. From hundreds of applications, the Mike Horn Expedition Center staff has officially extended invitations to 18 standout young adults (14-20 years old) from around the globe each fit to attend the elite 10-day selection camp at the PANGAEA world headquarters in Château-d'Oex, Switzerland.
South African, Mike Horn, is acknowledged as the premiere eco-explorer of the modern era. After his own personal exploration feats, he vowed his life work to share the Earth’s largely unseen beauty with young people everywhere in an effort to empower them with a sense of appreciation, the will to conserve and the unique perspective needed to inspire sustainable action plans for the future. Mike calls his project PANGAEA [pan-ˈjē-ə] – a namesake inspired by the Greek locution which literally means 'all-earth', as in, the ancient supercontinent that once existed with each of the world's present-day landmasses joined together as one before they drifted apart and settled into the world as we know it. Appropriately, PANGAEA is used to describe the grassroots movement of Pan Global Adventure for Environmental Action that Mike and young people around the world power forward with constant endeavors.
The following Young Explorers take part in the present Selection Camp:
- Shaya Laughlin – Trinity Beach, Queensland Australia (Smithfield State H.S. ’12)
- Tom Van Maarseveen – Brisbane, Australia (South Bank Institute of Tech.)
- George Legget – Auckland, New Zealand (Kings College ’12)
- Shruthi Vijayakumar – Gaborone, Botswana (University of Auckland ‘12)
- Timothy Tong – Malaysia (T.W.G.Hs Sun Hoi Directors’ College)
- Yoav Balaban – Mevasseret Zion, Israel (Harel High School ‘13)
- Louise Louw – Cape Town, South Africa (Jan van Riebeeck HS ’13)
- Lani van Niekerk – Port Elizabeth, South Africa (Outeniqua H.S. ’11)
- Reghardt Pretorius – Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa (U. of Stellenbosch ‘13)
- Alizée Cugney – Dijon, France (School of Architecture of Versailles)
- Sarah Hanus – Altenholz, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (Altenholz, ‘13)
- Anna Konobrodzka – Gdansk, Poland (Gdansk High School No. 3 ‘12)
- Alexander Minder – Monaco (International School of Monaco ‘14)
- Julia Fontana Desinano – São Paulo, Brazil (Nossa Senhora das Gracas '10)
- Stephane Vincent – Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College)
- Bobby Coleman – Los Angeles, California, USA (International Academy '15)
- Gunnar Norback – Cheshire, Connecticut, USA (Cheshire H.S. ‘13)
- Timothy White – Baldwin, New York, USA (UCLA ’12)
You can find out more about the PANGAEA project on the Mike Horn web site, on the Mike Horn FaceBook page and on the Young Explorers FaceBook page.
