In August, 22 students left Bermuda on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Borneo.

The third largest island on Earth sits in Southeast Asia. It is a two-day journey from Bermuda, particularly gruelling is the 19-hour flight from New York to Singapore, the world’s longest non-stop commercial route.

But as far as the Bermuda contingent was concerned, every single second they had to endure was worth it.

Borneo is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet and the travellers were all Junior Volunteers, members of a programme created by the Bermuda Zoological Society to “inspire appreciation and care of island environments” in students ages 14 through 17.

They landed on August 13 and headed straight for Mabul. The small island sits off Sabah, a state that is part of Malaysia, one of the three countries that divide Borneo.

By mid-afternoon the next day they were snorkelling in the Celebes Sea.

“It [wasn’t a special site], just near the resort, and it was already really exciting,” said Alex Amat, the JV co-ordinator.

“That region, part of what is known as the Coral Triangle, is the centre of biodiversity for the world ocean, so you will find its coral reefs with all the species of corals, invertebrates and associated fish population striking. Here in Bermuda, you have double digits, let's say 24 species of shallow hard corals and of those 24 species, half of them are very rare.

“Over there you're talking about hundreds of species of corals. It's totally different even the landscape of the coral reef itself – the diversity and the beauty of the corals is just, whoa … It's kind of like an explosion of colours and shapes and you can spend hours watching in just one metre square.”

Flamboyant cuttlefish, which put on “a light show” with their colour-changing chromatophores, mesmerised the group as did the hammerhead and other species of sharks they saw. Turtles were initially a favourite but interest faded as they were “everywhere”.

“There would be dozens of turtles in one dive so the students were like ‘OK, give me something else’,” Dr Amat said.

The seemingly endless list of entertainment continued on land, where there were orang-utans, sun bears, pygmy elephants, monitor lizards and leopards.

It was much more than Dr Amat had hoped for when, at the suggestion of Choy Aming, the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo aquarist, she put Borneo forward as a potential place for JVs to visit in 2020.

The pandemic stalled the trip. The group that travelled to the Pacific last month was a mix of the JV cohorts since. Typically, the BZS trips are held biennially.

“We've been travelling to different destinations over the past ten years and I think this one hit all the points that I wanted to hit,” said Dr Amat.

“Ideally we want to travel to islands because [the students] relate more; it's more in alignment with what we do. So that's why Borneo was relevant – because it was an island. We've been to Madagascar, we've been to the Galapagos. We try to always have a link to us here and we have the Galapagos tortoises, the Madagascar exhibit.

“We don't have any orang or sun bears [in Bermuda] but Borneo is the centre of biodiversity, especially for the ocean. So it's big in what we do being an aquarium and there's a very big environmental conservation issue.”

The Junior Volunteers programme runs from October through June. It accepts only 18 students, all of whom must commit to spend either Saturday or Sunday mornings at BAMZ where they learn “the ropes of an aquarist for a term, they learn about being a zookeeper for a term and they work with education for a term”.

“A lot of people don't realise that BAMZ is the physical facility and BZS is the charity that supports BAMZ, that does all the education,” Dr Amat said.

Students who continue with the JV programme can be hired as junior staff members. Although it is not essential, everyone is encouraged to become scuba-certified.

“There's always snorkelling options but we always have to do an underwater component because of the aquarium aspect of the work the junior volunteers do with us.”

Students did both in Borneo. They also had the opportunity to observe wildlife in their natural habitats and at Matang Wildlife Centre, utilise husbandry skills taught through the JV programme here.

“It’s really showing them an aspect that is different from any regular zoo that you could go to in the Western world. Because it's a rehabilitation centre you are exposed to animals that end up in captivity just because they cannot be in the wild any more for different reasons.

“It gives them a way to kind of see first-hand, somewhere else and use some of the skills that they learnt here, elsewhere,” Dr Amat said.

The group volunteered their time in Borneo, which added a service aspect to the trip that was “relevant because it was husbandry and it was connected to wildlife and connected to all these issues”.

This was the fourth JV trip since the economic dip of 2008 and probably the most ambitious. The age range was also the biggest because “some of the kids who were meant to be on that original trip in 2020 were still interested, and not only because everything was prepared and paid for – the wildlife was calling!”

The trip was voluntary with costs covered by families if they could afford it.

“The way we approach them is that we try to keep them as affordable as we can. And if you cannot afford it, we fundraise for it as a group,” Dr Amat said.

Each family are responsible for “at least a small sum” and BZS has been able to offer a bursary that covers 100 per cent of the travel costs, “from time to time”.

“And some of the events that the Bermuda Zoological Society has been running, when they are staffed by junior volunteers, the profits go towards this. So it's a mixture of family participation subsidised by our own fund-raising with the kids’ hard work.”

The impact the trip had on the JVs was incredible, even for those who are not interested in a marine career.

“It's definitely not a prerequisite. With the JVs we are not trying to create 18 environmental/zoologists/marine scientists/vets every year because we're going to saturate the market really quickly.

“So the thing is, whatever these kids are interested in, as long as we plant that love and that environment care in their hearts, wherever they end up they will bring it to tomorrow's world. Yes, there will be some of them [who are interested] but a bunch of them, they're 15, they still don't know what they want to do.”

Dr Amat is now on to the most difficult part of the Junior Volunteer programme, selecting 18 students out of the many who have applied to be part of the next cohort.

“We do an interview. It's not first come, first served. If you want to become a vet or you want to become a marine scientist … they are good criteria to have.

“If you've been doing the camps and all the activities that we have to offer since you were three years old, you probably belong in the Junior Volunteer programme when you turn 14. And so eventually, when you show up at the interviews, even if you're really shy, there's a good chance.”

She continued: “But you have to compete. So you come in the pool and you will have to compete with dozens of other applicants. I wish we could take them all but we do have to make a choice because we want the programme to be really meaningful and so we can't just flood the aquarium and the zoo.”

• The next Junior Volunteer cohort begins next week. For more information on the programme, visit tinyurl.com/2jtyp4c5