I've often tried to recall the moment or series of moments where I became more aware of my positionality and when I gained a sense of agency with regard to my role in larger social issues. My years at a four week overnight summer camp taught me independence, how to live and work with people who think differently than myself, and to never assume I have the correct or complete answer. All this laid the foundation for my more "profound" realizations (I'm only in my mid-twenties and realize I have a long way to go). Despite my fuzzy recollections of specific moments on my way to being more reflexive, I do know that most of them have come through traveling.

From my first trips with family and then graduating to solo travel, I’ve found the development of self-awareness is key to learning about the people and places around me. I've also found that a heuristic approach allowed me to learn from mistakes and sharpen what I've now come to think of as my intuitive judgment. It is particularly important for me to remember this when I am leading immersion leadership travel programs over the past four summers. Along with a co-leader and host partner, we facilitate a group of fifteen fifteen year olds. For those of you who have traveled with teens, or were once a teen and can to be real with yourself, exploring travel and what leadership looks like with this age group has its ups and downs. Many are adept at navigating airports, most greet new experiences with enthusiasm and, in the programs that I lead, they are motivated to improve their leadership skills. While cultivating and improving these skills are key aspects of the program, there's the overarching goal of cultivating social responsibility. The core of participants' understanding and practicing social responsibility comes through developing a heightened sense of awareness and then transferring the skills gained and experiences back to their everyday life.

Social responsibility is a heady concept with varying definitions. I found that boiling it down to: a heightened awareness of yourself, how your actions impact others (both positively and negatively), and your ability to work with others through active listening, asking questions, and taking measured action is palatable to most teenagers. Practicing this, however, takes time. I have to remember that I wasn't a fully formed human at fifteen and despite the intense five week leadership program, developing the key components of social responsibility, if following the heuristic approach, is a process. Giving kids the space to evolve allows them ownership over their skill sets and, often times, I learn from them in the process. Here are a few shots from the recent program I co-lead to Australia. The first set of photos are from the Sydney area - nearby mountains, famous architectural landmarks and relaxing city dwellers – and the last few are from the Broken Hill area – ghost towns left from the mining boom, an introduction to Australian first nation peoples, and red dirt that gets everywhere

*Blue Mountains, Katoomba, NSW, Australia*

Its a hard thing to convey to people and even harder to believe it when they say they understand. I talk about camp a lot (some may say this is a massive understatement) but there's a reason. Tucked away in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Town of Becket plays host to a community that is at once global and local. Many of us have lived and/or traveled with each other to distant places. We stay in one others' homes where they and/or their parents and relatives take us in as surrogate family/children, making us feel at home because they know it will be reciprocated when they visit us. We crave spending time with each other, whether to hear about one anothers day, a good travel story, singing or simply sit quietly in each others presence while doing our own thing. Being together flexes a certain part of my heart reserved for my camp friends. Having worked at a camp like BCCYMCA, we know the value of teamwork, we are (in most cases) aware of our strengths and where we can improve and each adventure is not left for one person to plan and no job is done without the support of another. For many, we feel our second home is in the Berkshires, a physical place for us to get together, but in reality, we are each others' second home, spread around the world and waiting to welcome each other home.

These are a few images from when my Kiwi camp friends and I visited Australian and USA camp friends living in Merimbula, Australia. Most of us met at Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA in Becket, Massachusetts, USA.

Learning from Experience, not AUS-mosis

Becket-Chimney Corners Around the World, Part 2