I grew up a military brat moving every two years from continent to continent. By the age of eleven my mother had sailed around the world; twice. We were a family comfortable with travel. I grew up reading and re-reading copies of National Geographic Magazine. In my childhood journal were lists of all the far off places I wanted to explore.
I’ve long wanted to share my passion for travel and experience different cultures with my own children. I want to provide them opportunities to break the confines of ethnocentricity and have the experience of differing perspectives.
During our inaugural year at Embark, I had the privilege of mentoring a teen who has a strong desire not to sit in a desk to learn but to learn through travel. She spent a lot of time researching travel programs for teens and routinely hit the obstacle of age restrictions. She struggled to find a program that did not strongly resemble a traditional school model.
Little did my friend and mentee know, I, too, was holding a desire to travel and explore the world. As a busy, working mother of four school age children, I decided that when my youngest was old enough and I was done “working†I would pursue my passion for travel and non-profit aid work. I assumed, erroneously, I’d have to wait to pursue my interests.
One day driving in the car, the thought came into my mind that I didn’t have to wait. I could build a program at Embark Center for Self-Directed Education that would make it possible for both my mentee and myself to live our best lives; to pursue our passion today, right now!
In a very short time and with great zeal and enthusiasm my mentee and I have constructed the Embark Cultural Outreach Program. This is a program designed for adolescents to learn and grow through world travel and immersion in foreign cultures.
Rather joyfully, my friend and I researched like-minded travel abroad programs, developed line budgets, performed market analyses and conducted numerous interviews of area teens. We educated ourselves on travel and liability insurance, passport and visa requirements, documentation needed for an international driver’s license and the best search engines for airfare estimations. Truth be told, market analysis is not my cup of tea, but I was more than willing to spend time outside of my comfort zone to offer a competitive tuition rate to interested families.
This project has brought a rush of excitement and adrenaline into both my personal and professional lives. There is renewed energy behind my words when I speak about our Embark Cultural Outreach Program. I want to put extra time into making this the best adolescent travel abroad program possible. This is self-directed learning in action.
No doubt, Embark Center for Self-Directed Education is a place for adolescents, but it’s done wonders for this forty-six year-old