I spend months at a time traveling the world. I have backpacked Europe, Northern and Southern Africa, across Asia on a trek from Beijing to Cairo, and most recently around South America’s Southern Cone up to Peru.
As a result of my travels, I get speaking engagements on my wanderings, and such venues have included area high schools.
In what has become an annual event at the Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, I lecture the World History students about the real story behind places they have spent the last year studying.
A publications or Web content manager who wants to capture the attention of youthful audiences might be interested in what I’ve learned. First, if you’re a baby boomer, don’t assume that teens are as well traveled as you were in the days when everyone backpacked across Europe on $5 a day. Post-9/11 fears, combined with staggering college debt, mean that many teens and twentysomethings have never experienced the world outside America’s friendly confines.
Your organization may have a golden opportunity to reach this youthful audience by bringing the world to them. Here’s how:
- Give them role models. Teenagers want to have a tangible context for abstract knowledge. I provide that just by being there. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “My life is my message.”
- Connect the abstract to the concrete. Besides the anecdotes from my travels and misadventures, I give them a perspective on historical events that they may have learned about but never truly understood.
- Show them the money. I always provide a handout of “what the world costs,” and they are shocked at what a dollar or two can buy abroad.
- Make it personal. Invariably the students ask me to suggest how they can do what I do. I give them tips and tricks for getting abroad, and how to stay abroad longer and maximize their time and experience. For instance, I say, look into exchange programs sponsored by civic groups, study-abroad fellowships and scholarships, and ways of finding work that will support long-term travel habits. But be prepared to sacrifice a few luxuries that we associate with the American standard of living.
To read about my misadventures along my travels, visit my personal blog.
