College Expeditions
Alaska Endeavour -- in partnership with the Institute for Field Research -- runs 12-day expeditions for college students 18 or more years old. Each expedition is led by an accomplished professor or researcher, and each expedition is specific and different depending on the professor's field of study. It could be volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula, birds on Afognak Island, bears in Katmai, walruses in the Bering Sea, fossils on the Lost Coast, whales in the Aleutians ... or something else entirely.
Each expedition has a week-long online class before boarding the Endeavour for the field work. Students earn six college credits for the expedition.
As with our other student expeditions, students in teams of two are responsible for specific tasks: galley duty (cooking and cleanup), deck duty (fenders, lines, maintenance), and watch duty (weather and tide check, helm watch, and logbook). The teams rotate through the different duties every three days.
Students sign up online with the Institute for Field Research. Use the links below to reach course listings on the IFR website.
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Our college expeditions for the 2025 season are:
John Muir in Alaska​
Join this expedition led by Dr. Tobias Menely, chair of the English department at UC Davis, reading John Muir (and other nature writers) while roughly tracing Muir’s routes in the inside passage of his in 1879, 1880, and 1890 travels. We’ll visit the same glaciers and see bears, whales, salmon, and old-growth forests. This is an extraordinary opportunity for any nature writer.
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Onboard: July 1- Jul 12
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Faculty: Dr. Tobias Menely, University of California Davis
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Credits: 6 semester (12 quarter)
Flights are into Wrangell and out from Juneau (both Alaska Airlines).
Paleontology of Southeast Alaska
Dr. Murphey led our very successful Paleontology of the Lost Coast expedition last season. The fossils collected by the students are now being prepared for curation in the Museum of the North (Fairbanks) and are being identified by paleontologists at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the University of Northern Colorado, and elsewhere. Join us for a fossil hunt this year on Dall Island and elsewhere in the archipelago.
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Onboard: September 1- September 12
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Faculty: Dr. Paul C. Murphey, CEO, Paleo Resource Specialists, and Research Associate at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
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Credits: 6 semester (12 quarter)
Flights are into and out of Ketchikan (Alaska Airlines).
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Dr. Bruce Molnia monitoring glaciers
A desmostylian fossil found on the Lost Coast
Listening to whales in the Arctic
WIldflowers at Kujulik Bay
Young paleontologists on the Endeavour.
For advance notice on future expeditions, sign up for our Captain's Log.