Recent advances in brain science support the concept that “disruption” can make the brain more receptive to learning. What do we mean? We all go through life in some sense of routine in which our brain operates on a type of “autopilot.” When we have a dramatic break from our routine (or a cognitive dissonance), it causes our brain to “wake up” and activate at a higher level until the brain has rationalized the external stimuli and returned to a stasis. It is these times of increased activation when the brain is more receptive to learning, entering a state that can be described as almost sponge-like.

These are the instances when we have opportunities to really make learning stick. We all can probably remember times in life when an unexpected event occurred, and as a result, we gained an insight, made an observation, or learned something that has stayed with us forever. For example, we remember our first day of college but not our 43rd.

Let’s face it: Adventure Treks is a disruptive experience. While it’s a fun and healthy disruption, it is still a giant step out of one’s comfort zone. But the reward for willingly leaving comfort behind is a powerful learning and growing experience. Let’s look at some of the disruptions inherent in the AT experience.

• Leaving home and its associated comfort for three weeks.
• Spending three weeks with new people from all over the world and being away from the comfort and familiarity of friends from home.
• Substituting parents with larger-than-life instructors who are different role models and “authority figures.”
• Removing social media, smart phones, and computers, and replacing digital media with nonstop face-to-face communication.
• Replacing the comforts of home with the “rigors” and excitement of living and cooking outdoors, as well as sleeping in tents instead of beds.
• Replacing the familiarity of a neighborhood with a beautiful and dramatic outdoor environment where the scenery constantly changes.
• Constantly trying new activities in new and different places.
• Living in a large community of folks with emphasis on a culture of kindness and contribution, which may be inherently different than school.
• The power of nature, which research shows improves nerve receptors and make’s one more receptive to stimulus.

Adventure Treks creates a constantly changing environment that stimulates an adolescent brain. Students have the opportunity to absorb life lessons and change one’s narrative. We all have a series of stories (this narrative) running through our heads that affects the way we look at the world; some narratives are healthy and productive, while others are limiting. (Ex: “I am just not naturally athletic,” or “I’m not great at making friends.”)

Research by Carol Dweck of Stanford (growth vs. fixed mindset) shows the powerful effect one’s mindset can have in determining future success. Knowing we have an incredible and unique learning environment at Adventure Treks, it becomes our inherent responsibility to use these moments of disruption and our students’ resulting receptivity to subtly help students craft narratives that will help them lead more successful lives. Here are some of the narratives we hope our students will realize.

• I am capable of more than I ever thought possible.
• When the going gets tough, I can dig deep, work harder, and I will eventually succeed.
• Together as a group, we can accomplish more than I ever could individually.
• It feels really good when I help others, do more than my share, and even anticipate what needs to be done to help the community succeed.
• Success is the result of contribution and hard work.
• I can be a leader.
• More comfort does not necessarily mean more happiness.
• I don’t have to have electronics or social media to have fun. In fact, I can thrive without them.
• I have had glimpses of “my best self.” I like what I see, and I will try to bring that person back home with me.
• People like me for who I am, not for a specific role I may play at home or school.
• I can become great friends with people who are very different from me and that I may not naturally be friends with at school or home.

Most of our students already possess some of these narratives when they arrive at Adventure Treks, but reinforcement can be a powerful ally. Our goal this summer is for our staff to tune into these natural opportunities for learning and growth, and use these times of natural disruption to frame life lessons that will remain with our students long after the Adventure Treks summer experience ends.

Bottom line: We know disruption can be stressful, but it is also the source of powerful growth. We put a strong focus on making the experience as fun as possible while capitalizing on the growth opportunities. We work hard to help students feel a sense of belonging or connection to the group  and make sure our students know that their instructors and directors care about them. We know students are more receptive to learning when they are having fun and feel connected and valued.

A comment that I hear often from people when I tell them I am work at Adventure Treks is, “what could you possibly be doing in the winter?” To put it simply, a lot! The surprising thing about running a summer (and fall) program is, it takes almost 3 times as much work in the off season to run those 6 months of programs. Here are some things that we are doing:

Talking with families; prospective, new and returning. You form the basis of Adventure Treks, and it is because of you that our program is as successful as it is. We feel fortunate that we are small enough, so when you call, we can get to know you as a parent, family and partner in how we operate our programs.

We are also working to get new students to come for their first time! We have several trips that are already full, and several more that are close. There are already 250 students committed to come for the summer of 2015, which is over 60% of capacity!

Josh is in the process of hiring new instructors and inspiring veteran instructors to return (Josh will talk more about this next week). Interviews have begun, and we have already hired several great new instructors. Again, we are anticipating a 70% return rate for our veteran instructors!

We have already begun to plan Instructor Orientation and Trip Leader Retreat. Staff training is 2 weeks long and we want to make every moment count!

Kate is well into logistics, and she is currently reserving campgrounds, talking with outfitters about the summer, and the biggest one of them all; getting all of our permits renewed on federal lands. Each permit takes at least 5 hours of time to complete (and we have 15 permits).

The brochure took a few weeks to create, but we hope it has arrived at your house. If you did not receive a 2015 AT brochure or would like some to pass out to friends, let us know! We will happily send one out to you ASAP!

The new hat and t-shirts have been designed and are getting ready for the final proof. I must say, that I am really excited about how they look (and I promise the hats will fit better this year!) If you really want to know what they look like, you’ll have to wait till your trip starts. I just can’t spoil the surprise.

On top of all of this, Dock and Josh will be doing a little traveling.  Dock was in Durham, NC last weekend at Triangle Day School. Later this winter, he or Josh will be in Nashville, Florida, Boston and New York. If you are interested in having us come to your area, please let us know. We will try to work a trip to your area.

While there is always a lot going on, we are eager and excited to talk with our parents and students. So, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, or just want to say, “Hi” please give us a call. We’d love to hear from you and hear about any adventures you are having this winter!

All the best for a great 2015 and happy Groundhog Day! Since the Groundhog saw it’s shadow today – only 140 days until our first students arrive! We are excited!

DMAC

The boarding announcement interrupted a nice conversation in Sacramento. Our last student, George quickly hopped on his Southwest Jet and just like that… the summer was over… and so was the magic of Adventure Treks.  This summer ended as strongly as I can remember. The students formed close and inclusive communities and we aren’t quite ready for it all to end…

As our staff teams converge at our Portland area base camp from Alaska, California, Colorado and British Columbia, we admit it… We are tired! –But it’s the good kind of tired; exhausted from giving it our all over an extended period. But the hard work has paid off… We are ecstatic about what has been accomplished and what a safe, successful and growth filled summer it’s been. We hope our students now consider Adventure Treks a “second home”, a happy and joyful place where they could be themselves and escape from some of the pressures of being a teenager.   We hope our students have seen their best self and are excited about whom they are becoming!

We would like to compliment you as parents. It takes a lot of courage to send your child across the country into the great unknown and to trust leaders whom you’ve never met.  We greatly appreciate your trust and hope that the benefits your child has received this summer has made choosing Adventure Treks one of your better parenting decisions.

We hope the power of living outdoors, free from technology surrounded by incredible scenery and impressive role models in a shared community has been slightly life altering.  Our students have experienced the give and take of living in a community and have seen that they can accomplish more than they thought possible, especially with the help of their friends. We hope your kids have come home happy, more independent and confident and full of great stories.  They should have laughed a lot! I hope it will take a long, long time for the smiles to wear off their faces and that the new confidence in their voices never fades.

For the first time, I’ve had the joy of being an AT parent. My two older girls each joined us this year.  It’s been fun seeing AT not only through my director’s eyes but also through the eyes of a parent. (I loved getting that first phone call, hearing their voices and knowing that everything was going to be all right!)  It’s also been insightful to hear about AT from my kids’ perspectives.  I’m gratified that their summer has been as impactful as I had hoped and that both are chomping at the bit to return next summer.  I’m excited they are keeping up with their great new friends.

Our instructors have done very strong work and I’m extremely proud of their commitment, rapport with teens, hard work and dedication. This may have been our best team of instructors in our 21 year history! I’d also like to give a shout out to the folks behind the scenes who have made this summer run so smoothly. Our Directors, D-Mac, Josh and Jan have worked tirelessly solving small logistical snafus before they became problems. They’ve driven delayed bags hundreds of miles to campsites, they have filled in for instructors who have taken ill, and they’ve burned thousands of airline miles helping to open and close every trip.  They’ve delivered extra food and special treats, they have set up rock climbing sites at 5 in the morning and have even helped students get home for family emergencies and then rejoin their trip. They have done whatever it takes to help our students have incredible summers.  As both a parent and the executive director, I’m grateful for all they have contributed and indebted for their incredible commitment to Adventure Treks.

It’s been a privilege getting to know your children this summer.  We’ve tried to treat your kids as our own kids and we believe we have had an impact. While there are still things we can improve and we will do that for 2015, I don’t believe we could have tried or worked any harder. Though we are eager for a rest… There is a lot more still to do! We begin instructor orientation on August 19th for our second season, consisting of outdoor education and science programs for schools.  Over the next ten weeks we will work with 15 different schools, giving almost 800 students a small dose of Adventure Treks.

We sure are going to miss our great students. Thank you for being part of Adventure Treks 2014. Soon we will be planning ways to make 2015 even better!

Thank You,

John Dockendorf
Executive Director

Here we go! We’ve been waiting all year and we are ready – we open our first 2014 trips today, June 23.  As one parent recently told me, “My son lives all year for his one month with A.T. each summer!” This is a huge responsibility and we are ready to do all we can to meet these high expectations.

Our Directors are on the move, traversing the country, going over last minute details with our instructor teams as we prepare to greet our students.  D’Mac is in Sacramento, Josh in Denver, Jan in Charlotte and I am in Seattle. We’ll open 11 trips and greet 224 students this week.  We are excited to see many returning friends and finally meet our new students!

We’ve worked hard to get to this point.  We love our 70 person instructor team and we’ve trained them well.  We have a fleet of 25 brand new 2014 Ford Vans and we’ve bought lots and lots of good food. We’ve scouted trail heads, gone over final details with outfitters, learned about our students and plotted flight information.  Now it’s time to execute and do what’s most important –welcome and get to know our students.  We’ll first need to get their “buy in” for our safety mindset and our concept of community. Then it’s time to let the fun, adventure and growth begin.

Though we have planned carefully, much of what happens next is organic –Our instructors and students will set the tone for the unique happenings on each adventure. There will always be some surprises and often it’s the unplanned things that are the most memorable.  This is a real adventure, not a Disneyland ride. When you put 500 creative souls together in some of the most amazing scenery in the world and free them from their electronic tether– there is a lot of magic waiting to happen.

After safety, one of the most important thing Adventure Treks provides is great role modeling. With a six instructor team, we hope that our students take away some of the best attributes from all of us as we work hard to be our best selves and try to be worthy of our students’ high expectations.

As I travel from trip to trip and bounce between our young campers at Camp Pinnacle, NC and our Adventure Treks students scattered across North America, sometimes I look for a role model to help me stay energized for a summer of minimal sleep and maximum engagement.

So when I need a role model to look up to– I listen to Bruce Springsteen and use his example to keep me inspired.  If you’ve seen Bruce, I don’t need to write the next paragraph. You understand.  First off – one has to be impressed with someone who is doing the best work of his career at age 65. He is a different musician now than when he was in his twenties but he knows his purpose, and has stayed true to his roots while constantly improving and innovating.  His most recent record, High Hopes hit #1 in 30 countries.

He knows the powerful effect his music has on his fans and he works hard to live up to their expectations.  Bruce never plays for less than 3 hours and doesn’t take a break. Few bands in their 20’s would be able to match his energy, even though he is at retirement age! Although he has played “Born to Run” in concert 1384 times and “Badlands” 1124 times– he sings these songs with the same energy and passion he did 40 years ago. Every show is different – and he tailors his shows to match his audience. If you attend a concert, he gives you the impression that yours is the only concert he will play this month and that he is doing the entire show just for you.

Bruce doesn’t hog the spotlight – He looks for every opportunity to let his band members shine.  In fact, he has played with the same members of The East Street Band for over 40 years.  The two members who have left did so because they died. This type of loyalty and leadership is inspiring. Bruce lives his values. He takes consistent stands without being trendy, preachy or petty.  You can disagree with him and still respect him. He jumps into the fray only when he can be effective.  And when one leaves a Bruce Springsteen Show, you don’t feel great about Bruce, you feel great about yourself and believe, at least until the spell of the show wears off, that you can accomplish anything you dream! And that is how we want our Adventure Treks students to feel when they leave us!

Emulating Bruce Springsteen is a challenging task – he has set the bar very high – As I lead our organization, surrounded by fabulous people– I’ll look towards Bruce to continue to inspire me to do my best work this summer!

Here’s to a great summer ahead. Thanks for being our partner in creating memorable and indelible experiences for your kids.  I’m thrilled to have two daughters participating this summer!

Best, Dock

The Adventure Treks Leadership retreat is in full swing. Beginning June 4, Our leadership team gathered in a cabin near Mt. Hood, Oregon next to the Salmon River for 5 days of senior staff and leadership training prior to our full staff orientation which begins on June 10th.

Our 14 Trip Leaders and 4 Regional Directors hail from 11 states, average 29.8 years old and have 128 collective years of Adventure Treks experience (Average 7.3 years of AT experience each). Three of these folks were former Adventure Treks students. This is an incredible group of mentors and role models. They will be training and inspiring our new instructors and overseeing the success of our trips. As an Adventure Treks parent myself, I am thrilled to have these fabulous role models interacting and inspiring my own kids!

Besides building our leadership team community, we are applying leadership theory to Adventure Treks. (This year we did a case study on explorer Ernest Shackleton and how his successful leadership style can apply to leading an Adventure Treks trip.) We are also learning and relearning the specific details of each trip itinerary, and use this time together to all get on the same page regarding safety and the policies and procedures that lead to the most successful experiences for our students. Together, we share tips and tricks that make all of our trips better. We go over the many nuts and bolts which enhance our trips beyond the average as we work towards making every single trip exceptional.

As we prepare for our big group orientation which begins on June 10th, I thought we would share what we have been reading this winter. It’s our job to stay on top of the latest youth development trends and literature so we can make sure that the Adventure Treks program remains relevant to parents. Besides being a ridiculous amount of FUN, we want Adventure Treks to be a tool that helps kids develop the skills, mindset, optimism, confidence, character and resilience that will help them become happier and more capable adults.

Topics from these and other books will be featured in our instructor orientation sessions as we try to facilitate the best possible learning and growing experience for your child.  Below are our 2014 suggestions for the best 2014 youth development literature for those who share our obsession for helping teenagers grow:

Harvard Professor, Edward Hallowell gives us a wonderful five step program we can keep in mind as we give our kids a childhood that creates a footprint for them to become happy adults. In the Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Hallowell, promotes childhood as a time to provide opportunities to feel connected to others, to play and be joyful, to practice and attain mastery in numerous activities, to fail and build resilience and to receive recognition. We use Dr Hallowell’s model in our staff training and wrote a BLOG  about how his model applies to Adventure Treks. We love this book!

 

In Mindset, Stanford Researcher, Carol Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success–but whether we approach challenges with a Fixed or a Growth mindset. She makes it clear that praising intelligence and ability isn’t the best way to foster self-efficacy and confidence, and may instead actually jeopardize success. Understanding that the brain is malleable and that we are all works in progress leads to the development of a Growth Mindset. By praising effort and hard work rather than innate talent, we can better motivate our kids to more eagerly approach new challenges with vigor while building resilience in the process. We use Dweck’s book in instructor orientation to make staff aware of ways through our language and leadership, we can encourage our students to develop a mindset focused on continuous growth rather than accepting that our talents and abilities as fixed.

The Author who brought us Mean Girls and Queen Bees and Wanna Bees, Rosalind Wiseman, has now written the definitive book on boys, Masterminds and Wingmen.  Using a panel of over 160 boys, Wiseman exposes us to the world of teenage boys and gives us great insight into the lives our boys are experiencing, the rules of boys world and how male teenage power structures work. She introduces the “Act like a Man Box” and the effects attempting to live up to these expectations have on young male behavior. As school and the economy change, we are concerned that boys are falling behind and we hope the culture we create at Adventure Treks will help give our male students enhanced succeed.

 

One of WSJ’s “most important reads for 2013”, The Big Disconnect: Protecting Child and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, discusses how technology is affecting family relationships and how parents’ involvement with technology at home affects family connections. Renowned clinical psychologist and author, Catherine Steiner-Adair explains that families are now in crisis around this issue. Not only do chronic technology distractions have deep and lasting effects, but children desperately need warm, interactions with the adults in their lives. Drawing on real-life stories from her clinical and consulting work, Steiner-Adair offers insights and advice as to how parents can achieve greater understanding, and confidence as they come up against the tech revolution happening in their living rooms. When our Adventure Treks students have an amazing experience and succeed beyond all expectations outdoors without any technology, they are often given a unique perspective on how technology fits into their lives. Read a recent BLOG we wrote about her book