Abriana Peto was one of 33 students worldwide chosen to participate in a program sponsored by Polar Bears International, a California-based nonprofit that seeks to raise awareness of the problems faced by the massive white bears in the changing arctic.

"Earlier this morning, I was about a foot away from a polar bear cub," an excited Peto explained to her classmates, gathered at the Granite School District office.

Peto is spending her days on the tundra in a makeshift shelter comprised of rugged vehicles, which the more curious of the bears sometimes approach.

"My heart was pretty much pounding out of my chest," she said of the encounter. "It was the coolest experience I'd ever had in my life."

Peto, a teen volunteer at Utah's Hogle Zoo, said she's excited to return home "to spend every single weekend I have to spend at the zoo talking to people about polar bears."

She may soon have some help. Hogle's long-term plan calls for a polar bear exhibit. Contingent on funding - part of the plan relies on the passage of a $33 million bond in next month's election - the exhibit may be built by 2012 or 2013, zoo officials say.

Peto's tundra blog can be read at www.opbbs.org.