LONGMEADOW – An eighth grade student from St. Mary’s Academy is currently working in the Bahamas a part of the Jason Argonaut program.  

According to the Jason website, the program is named after the band of explorers in Greek mythology who accompanied Jason in his quest to find the Golden Fleece.  The program invites selected students and teachers to travel to Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas to tag and track Green Sea Turtles.  Dr. Robert Ballard, the explorer who discovered the location of the Titanic, founded Jason in 1989.

Adam Witrowski first learned about the Jason program when he was on a family trip to Mystic Aquarium at the young age of 6.  At the time, the aquarium had a live feed from the Nautilus research vessel where audience members could speak to the researchers who were on board.  The Nautilus research vessel was Ballard’s, and seeing the footage first-hand lit the fire for Witrowski’s interest in marine biology, according to his mother Amy.  Since that experience, Witrowski has had the opportunity to talk with Ballard twice.

Though St. Mary’s doesn’t offer courses from the Jason curriculum, it is possible to home school the courses.  Amy completed online training so that Adam could complete several modules of the curriculum on top of his schoolwork from St. Mary’s.

“Adam has been working toward this since he’s been little by taking as many courses, lectures and camps as we could find for him,” Amy said.

To be selected for the Jason program, Adam had to complete the curriculum, an intense application that included several essays, a video about himself and three letters of recommendation.  Over 1,000 students apply from all over the world and only 15 to 20 students are selected.  

This year Jason’s Argonauts are traveling to five different expeditions, the Arctic, Acadia National Park, Cape Eleuthera Institute, the Amazon, and Malaysia.  Adam’s mission has five teachers as well as four other students.

“Adam was most excited about the total immersive experience in an actual research mission and to be taking part in it as an actual scientist,” Amy said.

Though it may be nerve wracking for parents to send their child so far away from home for eight days, Amy is confident Adam is in good hands.

“I get to see pictures every day, but due to the location of the facility and constraints on electricity, we received a phone call from Adam upon his arrival, and we’ll get one phone call during his stay.  He sounded thrilled and excited when we spoke and had already made some great friends,” Amy added, “We can’t wait to see what next great adventures this opportunity will lead him to.”

Adam will be returning from the Bahamas on July 21.  To see photos from the expedition, search Jason Learning on Facebook or go to ceibahamas.org.