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Tiso and The Polar Academy

The Polar Academy is a ground-breaking Scottish charity of which Chris Tiso, our CEO and Tiso Group are proud to be a founding supporter. The charity was set-up by Craig Mathieson in 2013. Craig is Scotland’s greatest living polar explorer, an inspirational Tiso Ambassador and one of few Scots to be invited to be part of the illustrious Explorers Club. His feats have included skiing to the North Pole and South Pole and a traverse of Shackleton’s Route in South Georgia. Craig founded the charity with a simple vision and mission – to help young people to redefine their physical and mental limits through exploration.

Over the past seven years, teenage boys and girls aged between 13 and 17 years old and representative of over a dozen Scottish secondary schools, have been selected to be part of a Polar Academy expedition or leadership team. Only ten individuals are annually selected for a Polar Academy Expedition Team. All of the teenagers share one common factor. Like Craig Mathieson, they all feel invisible at school and are affected by mental health issues like crushed self-confidence, low self-esteem and anxiety. Following a challenging final selection weekend at Glenmore Lodge near Aviemore, the teenagers selected for The Polar Academy are immersed in a rigorous 9-month training

The months before Greenland are filled with physical and mental tasks. Like nights of relentless circuit training, long weekend hikes in the Scottish higlands, learning to navigate and use stoves and the challenge of hauling tyres for miles along tracks and beaches. Such training builds more than physical strength. For with every session, the individuals grow stronger in their minds and as a team. They start to recognise what can be achieved with effort and commitment. Steadily, self-confidence grows. By month nine, all are ready for Greenland. Over 10 days and 100km, every participant skis and navigates the group through the stunning but unforgiving snowy wilderness of the world’s largest island. All must haul their own 45kg sled (polc). As a team they cook and camp on the snow – and share in the wonder of observing the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and meeting local Inuit.

Crucially, in every instance, the experience of The Polar Academy positively transforms the mental wellbeing and outlook of the participants. Moreover, each participant is tasked with directly recounting their personal experiences and impact of The Polar Academy to over 3,000 school-children on their return to Scotland. Exuding newly found self-confidence, each participant aims to spread the message that through commitment, effort and self-belief, individual challenges at school or in the home can be overcome. That cherished dreams really can be realised. Tiso is very proud that through its support, that of Bergans of Norway and other organisations and individuals, the charity is continuing to engage teenagers throughout the country with a ‘can do’ message and determined mission to positively transform young lives. However, the charity (that in the autumn of 2019 was featured in a 4-part BBC Scotland documentary – The Arctic Academy), continues to be wholly dependent on donations to raise the £170,000 necessary to annually operate.

As a Charity, The Polar Academy rely on donations; whether financial or kit, to annually delivery their vision of inspiring youth through exploration. Find out more about the Charity and how you could become involved or make a donation here.