The Dockendorf family minivan pulled into McDonald’s for breakfast. When traveling with our four kids, we’ve learned to start early and make stops efficient. A rare visit to McDonald’s created instant enthusiasm for kids being raised by slow food parents. Inside, Neil Diamond played on the Muzak system and Sirius announced that we were listening to the All Neil Diamond Station. All Neil 24/7. While a little bit of Neil Diamond may be a good thing, I was amazed that his following was large enough to justify an entire Sirius channel. (Bruce Springsteen, I can understand!) Thinking of the “Have it your way” slogan of a McDonald’s competitor, I was reminded that we are now firmly in the personalized, “one to one” marketing world my business school professors warned me about.

Though this current generation wants to “change the world” through their volunteerism, and has many wonderful attributes, sociologists say today’s youth comprise the most self- absorbed generation in history. It’s not entirely their fault; marketers have been working them over since they were babies. They are merely representing a shift in societal attitudes. (Where the preference for “making a good living” now significantly eclipses “living a good and meaningful life” in the Beloit College freshman attitudes survey) Parenting styles have also shifted. Free time for kids to roam freely outdoors without adult supervision has almost disappeared as many kids complete hectic and rigorous activity schedules. In the current age of “competitive parenting,” too much focus on our kids may actually have negative repercussions where the unintended message from all this focus can be “it’s all about you.” Add social media and the ability to broadcast minute details of one’s life to the world and I am actually amazed that this generation is as humble as they are! It makes sense that there is now a clear trend showing that “a community mindset” and “concern for a bigger picture” that was so well modeled by the Greatest Generation is now in free-fall! (Read Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam.)

I propose Adventure Treks as an anecdote and a reality check to the “it’s all about you, world.” Here students meet people from across the country and around the world. We all eat the same thing and face the same challenges. Together through our nightly evening meetings, we work through our issues as we strive to become a community. We all listen to the same music and see the same incredible scenery. Through the shared experience, we all become stronger. We learn from each other, we remember the pleasure of face to face communication, the value of compromise and grow together as we learn to see the world from another’s perspective. When a teen realizes that she “matters” to a group of people and that working together for a common goal and shared success is even more rewarding than individual success, community becomes an important value.

In a world where kids are plugged into their own personal electronic and media world, I can’t imagine anything healthier than a summer spent in the woods living with others in a close community. Great role models are the icing on the cake! The interesting thing is how much kids crave this experience –we are innately hardwired to live in a community, and once teenagers experience the Adventure Treks community, they realize that life is much richer when one doesn’t spend quite as much time in a “me” oriented world. Our graduates say they feel a direct correlation between the community mindset sharpened at Adventure Treks and success at college.

Glad to leave 20 minutes of non-stop Neil Diamond music behind, with huge smiles on the kids’ faces, plastic food in their bellies, the family minivan continued to the Florida Panhandle for spring break.

Thursdays are the most important day of my week. It’s the day I interview potential Adventure Treks instructors. On a relaxing day I will have four interviews, on a more rigorous day, six. If a candidate makes it to my interview, they have already been carefully screened and there is a high likelihood they will be hired. I feel the weight of responsibility.

One wrong hire can negatively affect our entire summer, while the right hire can make a lifelong impression on a teenager. When I talk to our alumni in college and beyond, they cannot over emphasize the impact their Adventure Treks instructors contributed to their view of the world and themselves. Adventure Treks instructors were the role models who inspired them to push themselves harder, the role models who reinforced strong parental values, the role models who recognized their strengths, encouraged these strengths and helped them feel good about themselves and their tremendous potential. The lifetime value to a student who has an exceptional (vs. an average) fourth grade teacher is reported to be over $200,000. I would argue the lifetime reward of having great Adventure Treks instructors may even exceed that.

Great role models are especially important, because children have far fewer of them today. It is said that the most significant indicator of whether a child will grow up to be successful is if they have an interested adult in their lives. Children spend on average over 7 hours a day staring at screens. They have embraced a peer culture and technology in a way that effectively edges adults out of their world. Cuts in school budgets have increased class size and decreased the time that teachers can be actively involved with students. Kids are missing out on what they need most; interested and effective role models. While this generation tends to have excellent relationships with their parents, teens need to hear it from someone who isn’t Mom or Dad. Adventure Treks instructors play a unique and powerful role as role models and mentors. It’s one reason we feature such a low instructor to student ratio. (4:1) When someone who a teen admires takes an interest in them, the benefits can last a lifetime.

When I interview, I feel a great sense of responsibility to our parents. As my oldest daughter will be an Adventure Treks student in summer 2013, it’s easy to frame decisions: “Would I be ecstatic for my daughter, Audrey, to spend the summer with this person?” If not, they won’t get the job! Just as I trust my instructors to consistently make good and conservative decisions, you should have the same expectations for me. I don’t take this responsibility lightly.

That’s why I still interview every new instructor. I know of very few of my peers who still take the time to do this. It serves several purposes. I’ve mentioned the first… It’s a responsibility I have to our parents. It’s also a responsibility I have to our trip leaders and returning instructors. These folks are our extended family and I owe them the best possible people for them to lead, inspire and form friendships with. Strategically it also serves a great purpose. No other outdoor company has as high a rate of job acceptances to job offers as we do (Over 95%). When applicants get to spend significant time with the founding director and get to talk philosophy and even interview the director to make sure Adventure Treks is right for them, it’s extremely rare that an exceptional applicant with multiple job offers chooses a different program.

Finally, my interview is a chance to get a jump on staff training. I can make our high expectations clear. I can make sure applicants clearly understand our kid centered focus and the importance of the substance we instill in our programs. I can make sure applicants share our safety mindset and I can begin a relationship of mutual trust that will continue for many years.

I am excited about the summer ahead. We already have over a 50% instructor return rate. (And it’s only January.) We expect to exceed 70% again this year. We are finalizing trip leader selection now and have already hired several impressive new instructors. Each year we are able to raise the bar on qualifications! As our reputation continues to grow, so does our applicant pool. This year, we will receive close to 1,000 resumes for 25 positions. With our high instructor return rate, there simply aren’t many spaces for new instructors. We can afford to be very selective.

It’s a privilege to be able to be of influence on your child. Know we take this responsibility very seriously. We are hard at work to make summer 2012 a very special one. Thank you for your trust.

If you’re interested, here is the video we show prospective instructors:

Best regards,

John Dockendorf

My nine year old daughter squealed with delight as the wind whipped through her hair. We were probably going about 35 miles an hour down a steep downhill. Her eight year old sister, the quieter of the two, looked up with a similar sense of glee. We weren’t on a roller coaster or a mountain bike; my kids were standing up in the back of a pick- up truck! Before you cast aspersions at my irresponsible parenting, know that we were riding on public transportation, or what passes for public transportation in Guatemala. My six person family shared the back of the pick-up with 16 others and my kids were actually in the safer positions. The vehicle was so overcrowded that people were hanging off both the back and sides. This was the only alternative to walking the nine miles to town and at 65 cents per person the price was fair. Cheap compared to the fifty dollars it would cost to ride Harry Potter at Disney! From my kid’s perspective, they now wish the crowded pick-up could replace the family mini-van as their daily transportation to school!

Traveling in Guatemala as a family was the eye opening experience that we had intended for our kids. We called it a field trip, not a vacation. For them to be approached by even younger children selling trinkets in the streets in order to put food on the family table was entry into a world far different from theirs. They were surprised to see seven year olds working, carrying 30 pound bundles of firewood on their backs along the side of the road; or five year olds with their own shoe-shine business.

I certainly came home with the conclusion that my kids were even more overprotected than I had thought. A recent Wall Street Journal article written by Lorene Skenazy, founder of Free Range Kids asks “If age ten in America is now the new two?” Compared to life in a Guatemalan village, it certainly is. To go from a world where simple balloons carry warnings that they should only be used under parent supervision for those under the age of 14 to a world where five year olds roam freely, obliviously ignorant of the US State Department warnings about every possible threat from carjacking to kidnapping to imminent earthquake, was eye opening.

Can our kids live a full life in a bubble wrapped world? Parenting in the 21st century is more challenging than it’s ever been. Consequences from a single misstep can have a lifetime of consequences and the media insures that we hear about every potential misstep every second of every day. But what do our kids miss when we remove all risk from the equation? For all of us parents, who keep the safety of our kids first and foremost, it’s a giant balancing act. How do we as parents give our kids experiences, teach them to assess risk, and to discern between reasonable and unreasonable risk? How do we train them to make good decisions as they navigate an increasingly challenging, difficult and competitive world?

I wish I had all the answers; hopefully a summer at Adventure Treks helps… it gives a teenager independence, challenge, the ability to try some “risky” activities and the opportunity to learn to assess risk, but with a great role model looking over their shoulders and adding both input and veto power.

Letting go in a scary world can be tough; giving our kids the tools to make sound decisions is our only defense. There are consequences to both over parenting and under parenting. Parenting is quite a ride, isn’t it?

Best, Dock