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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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Happy Easter / Passover / Spring:

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 about the new members of our instructor team and we expect that this will be our best team ever. Our average age will be over 27 years old. You will learn about your specific instructors in mid – May and your trip mates in mid – June.

Though Adventure Treks is all about the people, lots of new equipment arrives at our office daily. New Deuter adjustable internal frame backpacks, new Big Agnes tents, sleeping bags, climbing gear, canoes, mountain bikes and other cool outdoor equipment will complement your summer. We need a barcode system to keep it all organized.

Niki has been working hard on trip notes finalizing all the details that will make each trip magical. The most important part of the summer is you and we can’t wait for you to finish exams and get here. Our programs are 75% full and we always appreciate it when you tell your friends about us, and like us on Facebook and Google +. We are beginning to plan an Adventure Treks 20th anniversary reunion this September at our new summer camp, Camp Pinnacle. We hope to gather Adventure Treks alumni from each of the last 20 years together for great stories and fun time outdoors.

Speaking of Camp Pinnacle, Director Ben Lea and our team are hard at work reopening Camp Pinnacle for this summer. We are restoring an 85 year old iconic North Carolina mountain camp, and protecting its scenic 126 acres from development, while creating a 21st C camp with an entirely new format. Our goal is to bring the Adventure Treks philosophy to younger children, ages 8 – 13. If we can build a love for nature, outdoor activities, community and leadership at an earlier age, we are setting children up for future success while creating a natural feeder for Adventure Treks. We thank the many A.T. families who are sending younger siblings and we will have campers coming to us from around the world and across the country. Camp Pinnacle will be staffed almost entirely by former Adventure Treks students who have completed our Leadership Summit and / or Alaska programs. They are eager to give back to young folks much of what they learned at A.T. This will be a wonderful training ground in their quest to become AT instructors! Learn more about Camp Pinnacle at CAMP PINNACLE and we would greatly appreciate it if you tell your friends about our new camp!

We hope you had a fantastic holiday weekend filled with friends, family, and time outdoors. See you soon!

Best, regards, Dock

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On the Value of Community

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.

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Nature and Electronics

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 good or bad. In fact, it’s a giant “It depends.”

I was ready to challenge every positive assumption about the digital world as I watched my children on a clear but chilly February, Sunday afternoon. All four children were engrossed with a screen. Charlie, my youngest was playing Angry Birds on his mother’s cell phone. Ava was on the family computer playing games on a Nickelodeon website; Ella was watching Zoe 101 on TiVo; and Audrey, my oldest, had hijacked my iPad and was trying to best a million points on Temple Run. The iPad is far and away the most coveted of our electronic devices and there had already been numerous iPad inspired altercations during the day. In this age of over parenting, I believe that children need opportunities to sort things out for themselves; however, constant squabbling over the iPad had stretched me to the breaking point. I was ready to throw my $500 toy in the trash!

Slipping into autocratic leadership mode, I took control of the lazy Sunday afternoon! “OK, we have 15 minutes to get ready. We are going for a hike. If you make it to the top of Big Glassy, you will get 25 minutes of iPad time when we return. (Always use rewards rather than punishments, child psychologists say.) Please wear the following items… and fill your water bottle. It’s going to be chilly—put on a hat and pack gloves in the backpack.” The groans began. “Dad, why do we always have to hike? We hate hiking. No other parents make their kids hike as much as you do.”

The lure of 25 minutes of private iPad time proved to be a great motivator and we were soon at the trailhead. Nature began her magic immediately. Conversations that had once been rancorous and competitive eased into friendly and convivial ones. My kids started playing. A downed tree on the side of the trail became an angled balance beam. A stump became a jump off spot. A frozen spring on a rock at the summit became a mini luge slide. Mindsets shifted from competition to cooperation as they helped each other over the slippery ice. Everyone enjoyed the scenic view and the sweet treats from their personal snack bag (bribery can work as a wonderful reinforcement of desired behavior.)

Everyone had earned iPad time but no one was rushing to be done with the hike. Nature had worked her magic, again. We had had some great conversations uninterrupted by digital devices. My children’s faces had rosy glows and they were getting along (mostly) with each other. “I love hiking,” my five year old said with a smile as he looked over a 40 mile view. I smiled, knowing the next time I brought it up he would tell me how much he hated hiking!

I had the privilege to meet Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods a few weeks later. Louv is advocating that time in nature should be a fundamental human right. While I think that is going to be a hard battle to fight, I know the power that nature can have on my family and its consistently transformative effect on our relationships. At Adventure Treks, when students are outside for three weeks straight, the effects are phenomenal.

Richard Louv has created the Children in Nature Network http://www.childrenandnature.org/documents/C118/and the data his group has collected about the benefits of being outside, is compelling. That chilly weekend, I didn’t care about the data. I just knew that nature works!

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If its Thursday, I must be interviewing instructors.

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

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On Teens and Quiet

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. I can certainly relate. Like most American workers, I am interrupted every few minutes and have to work hard to find time in a day to actually find myself and focus! A highlight of a recent family trip to Guatemala was the opportunity to get away from my cell phone and internet for 8 whole days. I may have enjoyed this separation even more than Guatemala’s beautiful scenery.

The article points out, that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends on neural processes that are “inherently slow.” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.

This article is well supported well by another NY Times article I read last August about a group of scientists on a rafting trip trying to study how a retreat into nature might reverse the effects of digital technology on our brain. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?pagewanted=all

Both articles subtly make a great case for a summer at Adventure Treks. No time in life is more important for finding oneself than adolescence. Yet as Adolescents spend more and more time in front of screens, handling on average over a hundred texts a day, they may be losing an opportunity to get to know or be themselves. No one knows if this decrease in reflective time may affect the people our children will become on the other end. Adventure Treks offers a valued respite from a busy, digital world. Twenty days without cell phones, TV and internet – replaced by the beauty and calm of nature – creates an opportunity for adolescents to slow down, reflect, and see themselves for the wonderful people they are. Parents frequently remark how calm, rested, assured and serene their children seem when they return from an Adventure Treks summer. (And exhausted with lots of dirty laundry!) Besides the great friends, close community, 21st century skills and role models; taking the time to slow down and find oneself away from a busy digital world is just another great reason to spend the summer at Adventure Treks!

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