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Greetings from 30,000 ft. – Some thoughts on Adventure Treks – July 11, 2012

Evening Meeting in Olympic National Park

 During the summer, planes are the only opportunity where I can get enough uninterrupted time to jot down a few thoughts.  I’m currently enroute to Anchorage to help with the opening of Alaska 2. It’s a typically busy day at Adventure Treks! 14 of our 15 instructor teams are doing great things with students while the Blue Ridge instructor team enjoys a much needed day off after a very successful trip.  A lot of great things are happening as many of our students complete their final days together.  Meanwhile other students are just beginning their trips.

Yesterday, Pacific Northwest students summited Mt St Helens, saw an incredible view, and glissaded down in the snow. The Ultimate Northwest is currently backpacking on Nason Ridge, while in Colorado students are canoeing the Gunnison River.  Leadership Summit has successfully completed Wilderness Advanced First Aid (100% pass rate!) and one group is heading to Mt Olympus while the other group backpacks in the North Cascades. British Columbia is enjoying incredible scenery but dodging mosquitoes while backpacking in Wells – Grey Park. Alaska groups are currently backpacking having just finished sea kayaking and ice climbing. Utah just finished an amazing stretch of mountain biking and New England students are rafting the Kennebec. In California, students are hiking in the Trinity Alps and on the Lost Coast while a third group is rafting on the Klamath River.  It’s a pretty typical day. Meanwhile in NC, a team of 18 of our 2009 and 2010 Leadership Summit Graduates are counselors at our new summer camp, Camp Pinnacle. They are serving seventy, 8 – 13 year olds, including two of my daughters!  Exactly 256 AT students are on program today and although they are having a lot of fun, immersed in incredible scenery, they are actually learning quite a bit as well.

We hope the challenges and shared success of living in a close and supportive community will lead to increased social achievement skills. Research from the University of New Hampshire on Adventure Treks students shows that a majority of our students will achieve measurable and retained growth in this area.  Social achievement is a huge determinant for success in future endeavors. Our students are also learning leadership and personal organization while building resilience (with help from steep trails, rain, cold or Canadian mosquitoes.) They are thriving without electronics and laughing hard and frequently.  Our students are playing lots of inventive and creative games without the use of a single electrical outlet! No one has texted or facebooked in a while!  Our students are learning that it’s easy to accomplish great things when they have the support of friends.  They should be improving teamwork, communication and collaboration skills and be able to look beyond self to see what needs to be done to support the group.  These skills mirror the framework of abilities many experts say one must possess to thrive in the 21st Century.

Students come home wearing an Adventure Treks hat. Hats are a very important tool we use to reinforce the values we hold important: Looking out for others, doing nice things, doing more than one’s share, being kind and empathetic, working hard and embracing the Adventure Treks community and spirit.  Hats are presented to students by instructors  in a special ceremony during evening meeting.  It’s is a chance for students to receive a few minutes of powerful public praising in front of their peers.  Receiving a hat is a wonderful experience, one that should be remembered long after their summer. It is our goal that hats are awarded in a noncompetitive order and everyone receives a hat at a time during the Adventure when they are living up to their ideal of their best selves.  Naturally we hope this glimpse of one’s best self is something they bring home from AT along with the hat!

It’s a busy time. The first round of trips is winding down. Soon we will be welcoming another group of students to Adventure Treks. We are working hard and spirits are high.  Thanks for the trust you place in us. We hope to live up to your expectations.

Best regards,

Dock

 

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Greetings from 30,000 feet – June 28, 2012

I write this from 30,000 feet on a plane heading to Alaska to welcome two of our Alaska groups.  It’s been a very busy week as we have opened up twelve trips in five days.  Our office team needs to be commended for holding it together so well! I will manage to meet eight of these twelve groups this week while our four regional directors Ben Mirkin in New England, Stephen Gardiner in the Northwest, Dave McGlashan in California and Utah,  and Niki Gaeta in BC and Colorado, are supporting the instructor teams and students with their years of outdoor and Adventure Treks expertise.

It’s great to be out of the office, feeling the commitment of our instructors and feeding off the energy of our students.  Yesterday was a super gratifying day in Portland.  We welcomed Seventeen brand new students from 14 different states and countries to the Pacific Northwest Experience I.  None of these 12/13 year olds knew anybody on the trip previously and all arrived with eager anticipation and natural apprehension. Friendships formed in minutes.

Meanwhile 22 Leadership Summit students were also arriving in Portland. Each has on average 4 years of Adventure Treks experience and it was exciting to see the energy and enthusiasm in which they greeted old friends, initiated get to know you games with students they hadn’t met previously and embraced their upcoming experience with open arms and excitement. You could tell this was the highlight of their year and they had been looking forward to the trip for months.  This is an amazing group of students and I am gratified about the role Adventure Treks has had in helping prepare them for adulthood.  In many cases Adventure Treks has become the second or third family these teenagers chose as they naturally individuate from their parents. Having watched most of these “kids” grow up, I feel like a small part of their families.

I loved watching the Leadership Summit students welcome the 12 and 13 year olds.  Not with any condescension, but instead with a great excitement for all the adventure and friendships they had in front of them.  It was wonderful to overhear them telling the younger students that the community would be the best part of their trip, that cliques should be avoided at all costs and that they should get to know every single person, do more than their share and embrace the experience.  Some were repeating the same advice they received five years ago from Leadership Summit students when they were 13 year olds in the Pacific Northwest for the first time. With an entire camp counselor team at our Camp Pinnacle summer camp comprised of former AT students and several former AT students in leadership and instructor roles at Adventure Treks, I am excited about the giant circle we are creating.

The Leadership Summit students get to set their own ground rules in their initial circle. (Something we would never consider for first-time 13 year old students)  What was most impressive is how comfortable our students are at communicating their opinions and the strength of their communication skills. I was impressed but not surprised that our students encouraged each other to set high standards for both behavior and expectations. the majority opinion was that high expectations facilitate their quest to become their best selves.  We didn’t argue!

All I can say is that I am incredibly impressed with the caliber of our students. Anyone who speaks pejoratively of the current generation needs only spend a day with our Leadership Summit students in order to feel that the world will soon be in good hands. I expect to be equally impressed when I join two Alaska trips today.  Perhaps a year less maturity, but still incredible young people, embracing values that include looking out for each other, challenging oneself and contributing to the greater good.

Sometimes in the office I can lose sight of what we do.  Dealing with the DOT, Federal land agencies and the airlines can be incredibly frustrating.  All it takes is a couple of days outdoors with our fantastic students to remind me the great importance of the work we do in helping young people discover their best selves. This is really fun!

Best, Dock

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Hello and Live from 2012 Adventure Treks Instructor Orientation!

And the summer begins!  Today we finished our 7-day Instructor Orientation in Washington State. We feel that it was a huge success.  Since so many of our parents never get to meet us, Mike P. thought he’d make this video to share a glimpse of A.T. Orientation with you and to introduce you to some of our wonderful instructors.  We want our parents to understand how professionally we take our summer responsibilities. As a group exercise during training, we came up with our 2012  definition of outdoor professionalism:

“The essence of professionalism at Adventure Treks is striving to be ones best self through preparation, authenticity, and honesty in all of our interactions and responsibilities. We use mindful intentionality and a desire for continuous improvement of our selves and our community while making every effort to exceed industry standards. We hold the philosophy and mission of Adventure Treks at the forefront of our actions.”

Today,  12 of our 14 instructor teams began the journey to their summer trip locations (2 trips will attend a separate orientation in Washington two weeks).  They traveled by plane to New England and the Blue Ridge and via long road trips by van to Colorado, Utah and Alaska. Folks in BC, the Northwest or California have relatively simple travels. For the next 6-9 days, our instructors will scout their trip itineraries, shop for food, and refresh and improve their outdoor skills.  For example, our Pacific Northwest instructors will climb Mt. Adams, our California Adventure instructors will sail on Klamath Lake and rock climb, and our British Columbia staff team will backpack in Manning Park.  We are learning about our students and again this year we know we have an exceptional group of kids! Instructors are always working on their soft skills.  When we model a culture of kindness, creativity, collaboration and open communication, these traits “trickle down” to our students.  We have lots to do to plan the many small nuances that can take a trip from good to great!

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our students and excited to be back in “summer mode.”  We are proud of our  instructor team and the wonderful interactions these great role models will have with our students.  We will continue with the finishing touches of training this week and we can’t wait for our first opening day on June 24th. See you soon! Thanks for choosing Adventure Treks.

Best, Dock

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Adventure Treks Instructor Orientation Begins Today!

Adventure Treks Instructor orientation begins today.  We’ve been waiting a long time!  As I write this, 63 Adventure Treks instructors are converging from across the country and around the world to our base camp in southern Washington State to begin 7 days of instructor orientation.  This will be followed by another 5-8 days of orientation within their smaller instructor teams as they scout their trip destinations and learn all about their students. (we will also have a much smaller orientation in late June for instructors with trips beginning in early July)

When our new instructors arrive, we treat them just as we treat our new students.  We will eat the same “Yahoo Dinner”, operate under the same safety procedures, share the same outdoor systems, and even play many of the same games. We want instructors to be able to empathize with our new students and want our instructors to feel the same magic of the Adventure Treks community that our students will.

We are excited to see our instructors. Their average age is 27; over seventy percent have been with us previously. They average over 3.5 years of Adventure Treks experience each

AT Trip Leader Retreat meeting

We just completed five days of leadership team orientation near Mt Hood, Oregon.  Here our trip leaders and regional directors (20 of us) shared their years of outdoor and Adventure Treks wisdom to elevate all of our abilities to operate that elusive “perfect” trip.  From trends in youth development, to the latest outdoor research to techniques geared to improve our leading and management skills to an organizational safety review, we all improved our skills as we prepare to meet our instructors and students and facilitate the best possible experience for them.

The average member of our leadership team is 29 years old with an average of 6.2 years of Adventure Treks specific experience.  We are proud to have the most mature and experienced team of any program we know of. There is a lot of excitement here.  An impressive group of people are coming together to meet your child. It’s all about creating an incredible and indelible adventure for your child. We want it to be a lot of fun. Kids need a break from their hectic lives.  But we also want it to be a significant learning and growing experience. More than ever before, the benefits of time spent outdoors can have a huge impact on the growth, development and perspective of a young adult.

Got to go – it’s time to welcome our new  instructors! I am excited!

Best, Dock

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The Teenage Brain

“Teenagers develop an accelerator before they learn to brake or steer,” says UC Berkeley Developmental Psychologist Ronald Dahl.  Humans are unique in that they have the longest and most protected childhood of any primate.  How we spend that childhood has been changing. No generation has been more protected nor done fewer “practical” things than this generation. Just a few generations ago, many kids started apprenticeships in late childhood. Now adulthood is often postponed until one’s late twenties as kids pursue college and then graduate school with few real responsibilities. The paper route as a first job is becoming a thing of the past. By age 14, Daniel Boone had already spent a year wandering the backwoods of Kentucky.  Alexander the Great ruled Macedonia by age 16, and Jeanne D’Arc led French troops into battle at age 17.  I was amazed when I was recently in Guatemala and saw small children younger than age 8 diligently using full sized machetes to clear brush and collect firewood. Meanwhile, even smaller children aged 5 or 6 were caring for their younger siblings while their parents worked. I am certainly not about to give a machete to my 8 year old!

Meanwhile my kids are in school or on the soccer field.  And as they spend more time in school, research shows that their IQ’s are actually going up! And the level of soccer play by a typical 11 year old kid in an academy training program is ridiculous.  Our kids are learning things they will need to be knowledge workers in the global economy – this is important in a technological world that is becoming increasingly stratified by education and where there are real consequences for not keeping up.  But as our kids spend less time learning in a hands on fashion, they encounter fewer opportunities for real responsibilities.

Research shows that the growth of our kid’s prefrontal cortexes is actually being delayed.  The prefrontal cortex guides control and decision making – it’s the “brake.”  While it’s affected by genes it’s not genetically hardwired.  In fact, it’s a muscle yearning to be used! Good decisions come from practice, practice and more practice and from learning from small mistakes.  Our kids are learning a lot but they don’t get to practice much.  Kids may understand the nature of heat or the chemical composition of salt but that doesn’t mean they can actually make an omelette!   Back in the age of apprenticeships, we were carefully guided by adults.  Our decision making was tested early in life and kids often learned real skills before they reached adolescence.  When puberty hit they already had a foundation for good decision making.

Kids are now hitting puberty a full year earlier than previous generations. This may be caused by additives or hormones in our food, chemicals in our environment or a more sedentary lifestyle. In Puberty, the teenage brain changes.  These changes associated with puberty don’t necessarily cause a teenager to underestimate risk; but they do cause one to overestimate rewards.  And research show that if other teens are present, one’s reward centers will light up even more.  So kids are getting their “accelerator” earlier and getting the experiences that build good judgment (their “brake and steering”) later. This may explain why normally great kids, who theoretically should understand consequences, may still sometimes go out and make some really dumb decisions. And this is what keeps us parents up at night.

So where does Adventure Treks fit in. We are hardly an apprenticeship, nor are we going to “supervise” your kid while we let him wander the backwoods of an entire territory solo like young Daniel Boone.  We do however give our kids plenty of fun, hands on activities…and lots of age appropriate responsibility. We want them to help out with the day to day functions that keep a small expedition moving forward.  We will give them responsibilities that have natural consequences.   For example, if your tent is set up poorly, you will sleep wet! If you leave your shoes outside at night, they will be damp the next day.  If you wear a cotton shirt in the rain, you will get cold. If you don’t stir the eggs you are cooking, you will burn them and your friends who were also planning to eat the eggs, won’t be happy – especially when the nearest store is a three day backpack away! We also offer mentors who teach, guide and offer life lessons.  We reinforce good decision making by including the students in our safety reasoning.  Risk = (Probability X Consequences.) We want our students to continue to make good and safe decisions long after they leave us.  Now we make no promises that we can align your child’s “brake and accelerator.” Adolescence is a turbulent time for all involved, but we want to help.  This generation is generally a great bunch of kids and we find that a little hands on experience outdoors always helps!

We are getting excited to see your teenager soon! Our trip leader training near Mt Hood, Oregon begins today.  Our entire staff team orientation begins near Portland on June 12.  We’ll update you from Instructor training next week.

Best, Dock

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What We are Reading: 2012 Edition

Memorial Day weekend conjures up vision of a beach, a lounge chair and  a slew of summer reading opportunities. As the Executive Director of Adventure Treks, one of my many jobs is to stay in touch with trends affecting teenagers, the environment, education and the outdoor industry. Though none of these books would qualify as “Beach Reads,” I’d like to share some of the more interesting books I have read this year, so you can see what is affecting our thinking as we prepare for  instructor orientation. You can see last year’s recommendations here.

In Homesick and Happy, renowned child psychologist Michael Thompson, PhD, shares a strong argument for, and a vital guide on how to raise an independent child.  A great champion of summer camp, Thompson explains how camp ushers children into a thrilling world offering an environment that most of us at home cannot: an electronics-free zone, a multi-generational community, meaningful daily rituals and a place where time simply slows down. Through outdoor adventures, children have emotionally significant and character-building experiences; and often grow in ways that surprise even themselves. I had the chance to spend meet with  Dr. Thompson this winter and it’s gratifying that he is a huge believer in the work we do at Adventure Treks

Every year we buy each of our trip leaders  a book on Leadership to frame our discussion during our four-day trip leader retreat which precedes our staff orientation. True North presents a concrete and comprehensive program for Leadership success. True North offers interviews with 125 of today’s top leaders along with a comprehensive plan to help young leaders follow their internal compass and become authentic leaders. I have read dozens of books on leadership over the years and this is one of the better ones.

 

Generation iY: Our last Chance to Save Their Future. This is a fascinating book and a call to action about some of the general characteristics of the current generation and the potential train wreck they may be headed for.  Generation iY: documents how self-esteem parenting, the digital ghetto, and a sugar coated world view may be harming our children. Unlike many books of this sort, Dr Elmore offers some practical solutions in what is an engaging and practical though sometimes disturbing read. Definitely worth reading if you want to make sure your child doesn’t return from college to make a permanent home in your basement!

 
Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers draws on some of history’s most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, to demonstrate that digital connectedness serves us best when it’s balanced by its opposite, disconnectedness.  Time spent outside in nature is of course the ultimate disconnect! Power’s examines other times in history when we have gone through periods of dramatic changes in communication and translates these lessons from the past into life in our current digital world.

 

We love Wendy Mogel! The Blessing of a B- is a follow up to her wonderful The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and focuses on the challenges of parenting adolescents.  During the teenage years, a child’s sense of entitlement and independence grows, the pressure to compete skyrockets, and communication becomes fraught with obstacles. Mogel emphasizes empathy and guidance over micromanaging teens’ lives and overreacting to missteps.  She reveals that emotional outbursts, rudeness, rule-breaking, staying up late, and other worrisome teen behaviors are in fact normal and necessary steps in psychological growth and character development to be met with thoughtful care, not worry.  She brilliantly translates ancient Jewish teachings into modern parenting techniques. This is a reassuring and thoughtful read for any parent of young teenagers or tween.

 

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  OK – we aren’t using many of the themes from this trilogy in instructor orientation but it would be pretty hard to relate to today’s kids without knowing all about the Hunger Games! The fact that parts of the movie were filmed just 15 minutes from our office makes it easy to be big fans! Are you on Team Peeta or Team Gale?

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Adventure Treks as an Antidote

For the past 19 years, I have enthusiastically endorsed Adventure Treks as a great growth experience for teenagers.   Every year I become more passionate about the benefits.

At times, I wondered if I might be overstating our case.

I am now convinced that I have been understating both the power and the importance of the Adventure Treks experience.  Why?  Because of technology.

This initially may not make sense.  How does attending an outdoor program devoid of technology help a child succeed in a world defined by it?

Our basic theory is the following:
1.    Technology has transformed the world we live in: markets are global, workplaces are constantly evolving and technology itself is perpetually changing.
2.    This new world requires a certain set of skills in order to succeed in it.
3.    Ironically, immersion in technology is impeding the development of the very skills needed for success.

Let’s begin with the skills needed for success.  This 2012 Millennial Branding and Experience Survey of 225 companies shows the skills most in demand by employers:


This data dovetails nicely with data from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills which has surveyed over 2000 organizations and come up with this list  of the top five most important skills for 21st Century success.

1.    Oral communication
2.    Collaboration / teamwork
3.    Work ethic/self-discipline
4.    Written communication
5.    Critical thinking/problem solving

Communication and collaboration are interpersonal skills and top both lists.  Children develop these skills the same way they develop athletic or academic skills – through practice.  Learning to persuade another person or how to organize a group of people happens through experimentation and repetition, just like a good tennis forehand or playing a Mozart piano sonata.

Interpersonal skills are developed face-to-face, not on Facebook, not by playing video games and not by texting.

It is scary because our teens are becoming addicted to technology and social media.  Consider these two facts:
•    Research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, finds that the average American teen spend 53 hours per week interacting with an electronic screen.  Where does this time come from?  Kids are generally studying as much as our generation did and playing the same amount of organized sports.  However, they are interacting with peers less and free playing outside much less.  Simply put, the vast majority of these “technology”  hours are taken from the time kids used to “practice” interpersonal skills, playing with friends outdoors.
•    Pew Research and the Neilson Company discovered that the average teen sends 3,339 text per month and spends 95 minutes a day texting.

If, as our two research studies convincingly argue, interpersonal skills are the key to success in the modern workplace, then these trends are deeply disturbing.    At a time in history when our children should be strengthening their communication, collaboration and leadership skills (another skill in huge deficit), they are instead turning to their phones, I-pads, and computers.

In short, time spent immersed in technology is depriving our kids of the very skills needed to succeed in a technological world.

We believe the Adventure Treks experience is almost the perfect environment to combat this technology-driven communication breakdown.  In his new book “Homesick and Happy”, New York Times bestselling author Michael Thompson notes that campers send no texts, play no video games and watch no TV. “In the space created [by the absence of technology], flows a bunch of old-fashioned human behaviors: eye-to-eye contact, physical affection, spontaneous running and jumping or simple wandering”.  Oddly, these are the activities that cultivate the skills children need in a wired world. Adventure Treks is about connection, community, and communication.  We collaborate and address challenges creatively.

Adventure Treks is the only experience we are aware of where teens will gladly give up their phones for days or even a month at a time and still enjoy themselves.  In fact, we frequently hear from teenagers that they welcome a holiday from the demands of social media. When they return home, they will pick up their phones again, but we see three important differences in our Adventure Treks students compared to other teens.  First, they tend to use electronics less.  They have lived life separated from the electronic umbilical cord and loved it.  Second, they know they can be spectacular without these devices.  They have something big in their life called Adventure Treks that remains a reference point of fun and friends. Finally, they have become more effective communicators, better friends and more skilled leaders than their peers who stayed home.  Every year, we hear a litany of campers saying that “I am not sure what happened, but I found that I was the captain/drum major/leader” of my organization. They go on to attend great colleges. College placement for Adventure Treks students often exceeds that of the most elite college prep schools.

This generation may never be as good as their grandparents at interpersonal interactions. We’ve heard recently  that this has been called the “head down” generation because they are always absorbed in a screen. Of course, they are significantly more skilled in technology than their grandparents.  Yet it is these interpersonal skills that are most important and are most in deficit.  Our children do not necessarily have to be as good as their grandparents, but if we want them to be primed for success in their relationships and careers they need to develop strong interpersonal skills.

We know of no better place than Adventure Treks where children will gladly leave electronics behind and embrace face to face communication! So while your child is rafting, hiking, climbing or just hanging out in the woods with new friends and mentors, know they are also working on the interpersonal skills that are  easier to develop at Adventure Treks than at home!

We can’t wait for Adventure Treks to open and our students to arrive!

John Dockendorf, Executive Director

This blog was written in partnership with Steve Baskin, Director of Camp Champions and National Treasurer of the American Camping Association.  Steve is our friend and partner in our Camp Pinnacle venture. He is a self proclaimed camp – geek and one of the most influential thinkers in the camping community. He is a contributor and writer  for Psychology Today.

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Adventure Treks 2012 – Forming a Community from around the World

We couldn’t be more excited about summer 2012. Last week we posted instructor biographies. This week we thought we would share the 44 states and 15 countries where our students and instructors live.  Students consistently say that one of the highlights of Adventure Treks is making great friends with students and instructors from different places.  It’s wonderful being able to share experiences and world views that may be partially shaped by the communities in which we live. It’s important to realize at an early age that people from different places may see things slightly differently than we do. It’s also nice to discover that when we share a common vision for our trip, it’s easy to all work together towards a common goal and together create a community that fosters a culture of kindness, inclusion and respect.

We are about 85% full at Adventure Treks for the summer so this list will continue to grow.  We are still hoping for a student from North Dakota or West Virginia!  Some Adventure Treks trips have been full since December, but we still have room on most introductory trips in the 12 – 14 year old range. We will work hard to a find space on the right trip for each great kid. Please do tell your friends about Adventure Treks. It’s going to be an incredible summer!

It's Going to be an Incredible Summer at Adventure Treks

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Announcing our 2012 Adventure Treks Instructor Team

We have completed staff hiring for summer 2012. Again this year, we are ecstatic about the quality of our instructor team. For summer 2012, we will have over a 70% instructor return rate. (The 18th year in a row our instructor return rate has exceeded 60%). This summer our average instructor will be 27 years old.  Virtually everyone is a college graduate and many hold masters degrees. Simply put, these folks are not camp counselors, they are professionals and you’ll usually get six of these incredible folks on your trip!   Having personally interviewed every new instructor, I can’t wait until instructor orientation to watch these folks shine.

Read the biographies of our 2012 instructors here. Please do understand that this list of 76 instructors will change slightly. Instructor trip assignments will not be officially finalized until staff orientation as we balance our staff teams to insure that we’ve created the best group of outstanding instructors for each trip!

There is something about the camaraderie of Adventure Treks instructors that makes us friends for life. Being role models, we know that the energy we invest in building close friendships and the kindness and respect with which we treat each other filters down to our students. When we see students treating each other with respect and forming close communities, we know we have done our job!

I’d like to relay a recent incident that exemplifies our instructor camaraderie.  Last Saturday eight of our instructors ran the Nashville marathon together.  They came together from all over the country to have a wonderful reunion (and they just happened to run 26.2 miles in between their socializing!) Several folks who ran were not originally committed runners.  But they set a goal. Agreed to do it together, held each other accountable, supported each other and committed themselves to success.  All eight of  our instructors finished the race (never in doubt)  and all said that though achieving the goal was important, the camaraderie and sharing of the goal was a far bigger highlight.  (And a lot more fun than actually running 26.2 miles) Congratulations to Niki Gaeta, Amanda Cencak, Tracy Roberts, Chrissie Mongahan, Tessa Dawson, Liz Golembeski, Mike P., and Steph Bryant for your wonderful achievement.  Most people don’t think a marathon is fun.  By making it a social event, these folks made it fun! Job Well Done!

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Adventure Treks Students Reflect on Their Experience from College

On the Summit!

“I learned resilience, both of body and mind. If my feet were wet for days, I would live. If I was thigh-deep in mud, I would manage. If I had to hike 17 miles in one day with a 40-pound backpack, I could do it. My experiences endowed me with a sense of self-reliance, and realizing I could survive in harsh conditions gave me confidence in my coping abilities. Each summer, as I stood atop a new peak, I felt increasingly prepared for the difficulties of life – or at least adolescence.”

The quote above is extracted from Simone D’Luna’s College Essay to Dartmouth. Simone is not alone; virtually every A.T. student uses their Adventure Treks experience as the basis for their college essay. It seems to work! It’s another banner year of college acceptances: two Morehead – Cain Scholarships (out of a total of 61), three students off to Dartmouth, and then there is Princeton, Yale, Stanford and the list goes on. Far more important than the “Star Power” of the school, however, is finding the right match. Many of our students look for a college that will enable them to spend time outdoors. We are big fans of that!

Though it’s not our intent, we could make the case that Adventure Treks has a stronger college placement record than virtually any prep school. And we will argue that while academics are extremely important for success in college and beyond, colleges are more impressed with character. In her essay, Simone goes on to share some personal challenges and concludes “when things were at their worst at home, I remembered I was the girl who had climbed Mt. Shasta and found new strength to continue… Over time, the problems in my life resolved themselves, but not before I had the satisfaction of knowing my own mental strength had triumphed over the strain they caused me. Maybe someday I’ll need to climb Mt. Everest. If I do, I’ll be prepared.”

Far more important than getting into college is the ability to thrive in college. Currently, only 46% of US College students actually get a degree. The rest drop out. This puts the US in 18th place below Slovakia.

While we are not advocating that one should choose Adventure Treks as a resume builder for college, we know colleges are alarmed at the dropout rate and are looking to accept students with the character to graduate. We don’t think there is a more fun way to build resilience, develop character or improve your communication skills than an Adventure Treks summer.

Recently, I talked with several of our former A.T. students (currently freshman or sophomores at college) about their college experiences to learn how their time at A.T. prepared them for success during college. Below are some responses:

“A.T. was a huge help in college – many of my college friends had never really been far away from home before. With A.T., I had already traveled on my own. I learned to open up to others, and to trust them, this made it easy to make friends at college.” —Kate, Vassar College

“A.T. did a phenomenal job preparing me for the transition to college. I had the ability to adapt to new and changing situations. I knew how to meet people and how to work with different kinds of people. I have seen many of my friends struggle with the transition, but it’s been easy for me.” —Christopher, University of Richmond

“A.T. made me more comfortable in my skin so when I got to college I didn’t have to try and be anybody but myself – It was refreshing and empowering.” —Max, Stanford University

“At Adventure Treks you learn how to help out and look out for others, how to thrive when things aren’t easy and to see a bigger picture beyond yourself. AT gave me the confidence to lead a school organization my freshman year and it means I am always the one doing more than my share in our apartment and in project groups.” —Jake, Ohio State University

“College was easy because I already had great experience joining groups of people. I knew how to work and live in a community so dorm life was simple. I watch many of my non A.T. friends struggle with this and find myself wishing that others had the consideration and thoughtfulness that AT kids have.” —Rachelle, University of Florida

“Actually A.T. seems a lot more helpful than college. I better learned how to interact with different people at A.T. than college. At Adventure Treks there are real day to day consequences from your actions – the consequences are small but they are real – like not eating dinner or sleeping wet if your tent isn’t put up correctly. It helps you make sure you get things right.”
—Sierra, University of Puget Sound

“A.T. built my confidence and got me out of my shell. I learned that people liked me for who I was so when I went to college, I didn’t try to be anybody other than myself. I learned how to be a strong member of a community and was able to apply that to my college communities. I learned to thrive without electronics and don’t get sucked into the video games and partying that many of my peers play.” —Sam, Iowa State University

It was refreshing to check up on our recent students and affirm that the skills learned through their Adventure Treks experiences help set them up for future success. There is a reason the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Organization emphasizes the skills students learn at Adventure Treks over subjects taught in traditional schools. Our goal is to enhance character and have a lifelong impact. And by the way, Adventure Treks happens to be an incredible amount of fun!

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