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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Excitement for Adventure Treks summer 2012 is building and we are so very excited to meet our new students and see our many returning students and instructors. June can’t get here soon enough! New instructor hiring is almost complete. Again this year, over 70% of last summer’s instructors will be returning. We are incredibly excited […]
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 […]
A prevailing theme in American life today is that the more digitally connected we are, the better off we are “supposed” to be. We all generally accept the rush to new and better digital technology and the pace of change is so fast, there is no framework to judge if ultimately our digital world is […]
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 […]
This recent Sunday NY Times editorial, The Joy of Quiet by Pico Iyer struck a note. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&smid=fb-share The basic premise of the article is that the internet age arrived without an instruction manual. Despite the many benefits of technology, people are going to great effort and expense now to turn it off for a while. […]