Every year, Adventure Treks welcomes students from all over the United States and even the world. So far in 2015, our student population comes from a whopping 45 states and 15 countries!

We love having so much diversity on all of our trips, and we know the students truly enjoy getting to know others from different cultures and backgrounds. Through the welcoming community and super-fun activities on the trips, the students easily find common ground and quickly make great, long-lasting friendships.

Check out the graphic below to see where our 2015 students come from.

Our map may expand as we add our last few students. North Carolina and California are neck-and-neck in the race for our most-represented state. Next is Florida, followed closely by New York. Rounding out our top states are Illinois, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, Maryland, and New Jersey. This year, we’re happy to welcome a Hawaiian student and an Alaskan student!

Regardless of your native country, state, or tongue, we are so excited to see you on opening day!

Congratulations to our class of 2015! We are always impressed—but never surprised—at the remarkable colleges Adventure Treks students will soon be attending.

Below is the list of the colleges our students have chosen. We feel privileged and grateful to have been a topic of many of your college essays. We know that navigating through the college “sorting hat” has been difficult, and we want to applaud every one of you for all the hard work you have put into your successful high school careers.

We’re happy that our students have chosen schools that are a good fit for their personalities, abilities, and interests. We’d like to emphasize that what you will take away from your college experience has little to do with the prestige or rank of a given college, and everything to do with the mindset and attitude with which you approach your collegiate career. Success in college is about the effort poured into the experience, your desire to fuel your passions, the relationships formed with new friends and faculty, and your ability to thrive in new and sometimes ambiguous situations.

At a time when only 58 percent of students at four-year colleges graduate within six years, we’re proud that the graduation rate of Adventure Treks students remains consistently at 98 percent! We believe the resilience, social confidence, collaboration, and community mindset skills you’ve strengthened through your Adventure Treks experiences will help you thrive in college and in the world beyond.

Having talked to dozens of our graduates currently in college, here are some examples of how the Adventure Treks experience helped them prepare for college life:

“AT 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 friends 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

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

“At AT, you learn how to help out and look out for others, how to thrive when things aren’t easy, and how 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 project groups.”
— Jake, University of Nevada, Reno

Here are the colleges many of our Adventure Treks students will be attending:

• Renee Hastings: University of Pennsylvania
• Chase Brown: Colorado College
• Matt Shepherd: Reed College, Washington University, or Northeastern University
• Mara Hoplamazian: Yale University or Gap Year
• Lilly Calman: Whitman College
• Bennett Hermann: Washington and Lee University
• Jeffrey Krasnow: University of Pennsylvania
• Sam Bartusek: Princeton University
• Isabel Licata: Scripps College
• Luke McGreivy: University of Vermont
• Kyle McGreivy: St Mary’s College
• Silas Crews: North Carolina State University
• Kendel Craig: Gap Year, than Oregon State University
• Vitaly Zaytseva: University of Toronto or Purdue University
• Lucas Gaylord: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Kristian Gaylord: Columbia University / Sciences PO, French Campus
• Dylan Plunkett: Temple University
• Max Binder: Muhlenberg College
• Hannah Haines: Skidmore College
• Caroline Purkey: Arizona State University – Honors Program
• Jonathan Micay: Ryerson University
• Samantha James:  University of Alabama
• Isabel Licata: Scripps College
• Sidney Anderson:  Appalachian State University
• Elizabeth Duniec: University of Delaware
• Kyle Hennings: University of Arkansas
• Hannah Proudman: University of Denver
• Danny Nelson: Tufts University
• Sara Hakala: California Maritime Academy
• Avery Coombe: Carleton College
• Justin Friedman: Washington University, St Louis
• Kaylin Lattimer: Grand Canyon University
• Peter Baumbacher: University of Michigan, University of California at Los Angeles, or University of California at Berkeley
• Nicholas Moy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Patrick Callahan: University of St. Andrews in Scotland
• Dylan Torpey: St. Thomas Aquinas College
• Jack Hougaard: Boise State
• Nick Hougaard: Boise State
• Michael Bateman: University of Virginia – Jefferson Scholarship
• Adam Schwartz: University of Florida
• Dylan Butts: St  Lawrence University or University of Vermont
• Noah Perron: Queens College
• Jacob Sage: University of Central Florida
• August Howell: University of Oregon
• Eleanor Palmer: Appalachian State University
• Sasha LeTourneau: Queen’s College
• Matt Friedland: University of Indiana
• Cole Pierce: University of Iowa
• Erin Reisman: Providence College
• Sophia Laroche: University of Michigan
• Michael Lowry: Brevard College

Congratulations! We will always be proud of you, and we sincerely thank you for your contributions to our Adventure Treks communities over the years. We hope you will bring the AT culture of kindness and your strong work ethic to college. This next phase will be a time of intellectual exploration, meaningful contribution, and wonderful new friends. We hope that the lessons you have learned at AT will be a source of strength when you encounter the inevitable challenges that are part of the college experience. Please continue to pursue outdoor activities in college; you might consider joining your school’s outdoor club. Time spent engaged in outdoor activities is a great way to meet like-minded folks, and a wonderful way to stay grounded and gain perspective as you navigate the exciting whirlwinds ahead.

Here is some recent research you might find interesting:

• Students who get to know professors are the ones most likely to rate their college experience the highest.
• The sense of connection one feels towards their college community is directly correlated with one’s graduation rate.

We are excited to see many of you on Leadership Summit this summer and gratified that so many of our former AT students currently in college will be working with us this summer as counselors at our Camp Pinnacle campus.

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.

The summit of Black Butte – Mt Shasta, CA

• 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.