By KATIE SMith, JRN 111 Student
For Maura Vizza, the world isn’t just a string of destinations, but a source of constant learning and connection. She can be working on campus or exploring one of the wonders of the world, but no matter where she is, she is always eager to learn something new.
Vizza, 45, has worked at Moraine Valley for 13 years and attended the school before going away to a university. She works in the marketing department as communication specialist and also serves as the college’s sports information coordinator. Vizza discovered a passion for writing at an early age, which steered her in the direction of journalism as a profession.
“Well, I’ve always been a writer. Even when I was little, I just enjoyed writing stories,” Vizza said. “I was always writing something!”
“It really did feel like I went to outer space and landed in a different country, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m at the bottom of the world.”
Maura Vizza, on her visit to Antarctica
While she was a student at Moraine, she loved to write for The Glacier student newspaper about everything going on around campus, but she was also interested in learning about the world around her.
“I think at first it was about the writing. I am a very curious person, and I ask a lot of questions, so I want to figure out how things work or how things function,” Vizza said.
Vizza’s curiosity spans far beyond her work life, though. While her passion for writing is deep, she has an even bigger passion for travel. She has been to places all over the world, but the most notable by far was her trip to Antarctica.
“My friend said, ‘Does anyone want to go to Antarctica’ and so I thought, ‘I don’t know, do I?’ Like I never really thought about going until she mentioned it,” said Vizza. “It was kind of intimidating, but I decided I would never go on my own, so I’m just going to do it.”
Vizza knew she made a great decision when she agreed to go, but getting there was an adventure in itself.
“I had to fly from Chicago to Texas, Texas to Buenos Aires, and then Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, which is the farthest southern city in the world, and then you have to take a two-day boat ride to cross the Drake Passage.”
Crossing the Drake was one of the most memorable parts of the trip for Vizza due to its danger. Although it was considered calm at that time of year, she thought it was anything but: “It could be the Drake Lake or the ‘Drake Shake,’ and fortunately, we were going early enough in their summer that it was the Drake Lake. But it was still not calm!”
There was smooth sailing after the passage, and as she got closer, she could see chunks of glaciers floating all around her.
“It really did feel like I went to outer space and landed in a different country, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m at the bottom of the world,’” said Vizza.
For two weeks, the group lived on the boat, which had beds, bathrooms and a kitchen.
“You slept on the ship, you ate on the ship; it’s where you went to the bathroom, and we would take excursions during the day,” Vizza said. “We sat in the lounge and played board games too.”
Daily off-boat activities included some of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. The group would go out for two or three hours at a time, returning to the ship to eat and learn from their guides.
They would learn about the different places they were going to and watch whales from the boat to pass time. The ports the group visited were named after certain formations of ice or different types of native penguins.
One night, they had the option to camp on land instead of on the ship, but they couldn’t put any tents up. They had to sleep fully out in the elements, so her sleeping options were not exactly conventional.
“After we dug our hole for sleep, we stayed the night, and then you just had to shovel it all back in as if we were never there,” she said.
The wildlife that Vizza encountered while in Antarctica was incredible as well. She saw four different kinds of seals, four kinds of penguins, three kinds of whales and a great number of birds.
She especially remembers a time the group had an unlikely visit when their zodiac boat broke down on the water one day. As they were waiting for their boat to be fixed, a penguin decided to keep them company.
“We were just hanging out in the boat and chit-chatting, and all of a sudden, this penguin jumps into our zodiac,” she said. “I think it just thought we were a glacier or something.”
Whether she is writing about Moraine Valley or traveling the world, Maura Vizza is always learning new things. She advises students to do the same.
“It’s easy to be scared of what you don’t know,” she said, smiling. “Just don’t be afraid to ask questions and try to understand something that’s totally foreign to you, because there are amazing things if you just ask and keep an open mind.”
Velocity 
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