Whittier encourages students to see the world, but Auden Mucher ’22 (also known as Scout) took that mission a significant step further: a year-long assignment in Antarctica.
The unexpected adventure began in Professor Jordan Hanson’s history of science in Latin America course. For weeks, the class opened Auden’s mind about different ways to do science and the largely unheralded contributions of Latin Americans to the body of scientific knowledge. In particular, she enjoyed learning about the different ways scientists there have expanded our understanding of the cosmos.
Then, near the end of the semester, Hanson took a moment to turn his students’ curiosity about the world further south—much further south. Spinning off the jungle expeditions they’d covered, Hanson showed his students that expeditions are still possible today, including places like Antarctica. After showing them a virtual tour of McMurdo research station, an American-run base on the frozen shore of the continent, he made a surprising pitch to the class: If you wanted to go, it really is possible.
Hanson described his rationale behind the pitch to his class: “You’re young. You have your 20s ahead of you. You can go on an adventure and you can learn things from this. This will benefit your life.”
Knowing little about the southern end of the Earth, its icy frontier loomed big, mysterious, and magical in Auden’s imagination. Later that day, she pinged Hanson’s inbox: I want to go. How?
Hanson, who used to conduct physics research in Antarctica, guided her on how to apply to join the U.S. research team for a season in the snow. All the while, Auden felt a magnetic pull to the Earth’s southern pole. She couldn't stop thinking about it.
“When people ask me why I wanted to go to Antarctica, I usually tell them that I wanted to feel how cold it was. This is absolutely true, as I am fascinated by extreme environments and all-encompassing weather. But I also went because it sounded difficult,” she said. “What would it mean for me to travel 10,000 miles, alone, to a barren continent to go live in a small town with a population smaller than my already tiny college? … I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.”
On top of that, Antarctica offered Auden artistic inspiration. At Whittier, she double majored in both environmental science and digital art and design. Blending the two, the natural world has inspired much of her work. A journey to the extreme end of the world would give her a lot to work with.
Otherworldly Beauty
Stepping off the plane on Ross Island, Auden took in the view of her summerlong stay in a seemingly alien world.
“It was the most beautiful place I have ever and will ever see,” she said. All around her, she saw vast barren white fields, rolling hills, mountains, monumental shadows and dappling sunlight across miles of ancient snow, blue ice, and not a single plant. Seals, whales, and penguins playfully or majestically displayed life’s ability to thrive in difficulty.
“I can't tell you how many times I looked outside and just cried,” she said.
She made sure to take a picture by the base’s large sign to email to Hanson, standing in her U.S. team-issued parka and smiling ear to ear. He’d inspired her to go, and she’d made it—with a great deal in store.
The most immediate task at hand: bread. She’d been as a baker in the research base’s dining hall. Each day, Auden completed an age-old chemistry formula—fine grain plus select wet ingredients and heat equals delicious bread—that she proudly served to cold and tired scientists and laborers. Living so far from civilization, food isn't just a lifeline, it’s a non-negotiable source of joy, she said. “Without morale, our mission there becomes futile.”
Fostering Community and Creativity
The gravity that drew her there also kept her there. She extended her contract from four months to a full year. A promotion soon followed to dining attendant supervisor, and she began organizing weekly morale trips for the team. As the seasons changed, she discovered another beautiful side to the bottom of the world: sunsets that would last six hours, and auroras that painted the sky.
Beyond the work, one of the best things she remembers fondly about Antarctica is the same characteristic many students enjoy about Whittier College: the sense of community. The “small town” of researchers and workers lived by side, working together, eating together. Relationships develop fast, and richly, Auden said.
McMurdo Station also doesn’t use money for goods and services; instead, everyone pitches in to help each other. While everyone gets paid for their work, part of their compensation is food, housing, healthcare, and other essentials. Everyone ate Auden’s bread for free. If she got sick, she didn't have to worry about affording medicine.
Auden also found a supportive, welcoming place to explore her creativity. Her ideas, no matter how imaginative, were met with not just supporters but collaborators. In the year she spent in Antarctica, she wrote and produced a Christmas musical, planned an interactive murder mystery night, hosted a weekly sewing class, guest starred on three radio shows, delivered two lectures on the social science of clothing, planned McMurdo’s biggest holiday event of the winter, and showcased her work at two art galleries—just to name a few.
“I wrote, drew, or sewed nearly every day, and ended up producing my second clothing collection out of scrap material while I was down there,” she said.
Onwards
When she returned to America after her year in the ice, Auden launched into her fledging art career. She splits her time in her new home in New York City between a fashion apprenticeship, supporting the production of art books, and a personal business designing eco-friendly fashion—a combination of her dual scientific and artistic majors. (One of her latest lines: Ice Princess.)
When she reflects on her time on the frozen continent, both the scientist and the artist in her comes out in her appreciation for the natural wonders of that far-off world. And yet, among all the words she has for that transformative adventure at the edge of the world, one thing remains elusive.
“While the reasons for going, and reasons for leaving, might be different for every person, we all have something that unites us,” she said. “I don't think I can put it into words, but it's something that I have, something Professor Hanson has, and something Antarctic explorer Earnest Shackleton had. And we all went to the end of the world to find it.”
