Today we’d like to introduce you to Donna Reece-Stein.
Donna, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It has been over 25 years since we began The Road Less Traveled. It was a sunny summer afternoon in Chicago, when we purposefully took pen to an illustrious “yellow pad of paper” at our kitchen table and made a choice to follow a dream. We had no idea where it would lead us or what the future would hold. Our hope as new parents and pioneers of an adventure travel program was to create a one-of-a-kind life changing experience for youth that would transform lives around the world. We were young, passionate, and convinced we could make a difference.
My love of the outdoors began while growing up in Detroit, Michigan. At an early age, during the turbulent ‘60’s, I escaped the hot summers of the city and found respite in the north woods of Michigan. It was there that I discovered independence and solace in the outdoors. To this day, I believe it saved my life. In my late teens, I moved to Chicago with the idea (not dissimilar to Mary Tyler Moore in the opening scene of her show) that I “just might make it after all.” I worked days and put myself through school at night. After graduating, I was fortunate to gain extensive business experience in corporations and non-profit organizations. Today I manage all development, operations, programming and marketing, and uphold the rigorous standards that support the mission, training, and policies of The Road Less Traveled.
Jim discovered his lifelong commitment to education and leadership in the wilderness at an early age. When he was 15, he participated on Man and His Land, a nine-week wilderness experience with Nelson Wieters, founder, director, and pioneer of the first wilderness adventure program offered in the western United States. Jim led and directed expeditions for Nelson for nearly a decade. With his extensive experience, Jim is involved in all aspects of expedition safety, management, program design and training.
Our goal was and remains to support young people learning to view the world in a new way. Our programs take young people outside to seek adventure, experience challenge, make new friends, build community and understand the world and its people in a new and different way. We were clear, the most important gift we could give the developing minds and hearts of teens was a deeper sense and understanding of the world — first hand. One that was not conveyed through media, Facebook, or YouTube clips. One formed for themselves – outside themselves.
Our vision was simple, to help them see and believe in themselves and their individual and collective abilities to impact and shape our world and the future of the 21st century. Our contribution was to give them the foundation to discover this for themselves in a safe and healthy environment. Each day we are fortunate to see the value of life on “the road less traveled” with sensitivity and compassion, curious minds and open hearts, our students are entering the world and contributing in powerful, significant, and meaningful ways.
As owners and directors, we have nurtured the growth, development and direction of The Road Less Traveled from the beginning. Our concern for each individual participant and our commitment to the RLT mission are evident as we still today both personally oversee each individual student and program.
Our three children, Ben, Callie and Emma, are ardent explorers. They all have traveled to more countries than either parent. The world has changed. Ben and Callie both live in San Francisco and Emma attends Duke University and practices the art of “mental health days” escaping to the woods as often as she can. Nala and Daisy, provide the comic relief both at home and as our loyal office dogs – Truth be told, despite many adventures around the world, our favorite time of year is still the two weeks spent living with RLT leaders in the backwoods of Michigan during our staff training each summer.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have not been able to find a single road in Chicago that doesn’t have a pothole, and The Road Less Traveled has not always been what I would call a smooth “Road”.
Over the past 25 years with RLT, we have witnessed 9-11, the economic ups and downs of more than one recession, and the development of technology. It even became possible to experience the summit of Mt. Everest without ever leaving the comfort of your living room. The world we brought The Road Less Traveled into looked and behaved much different than it does in 2017: there were no cell phones, no websites, and social media was non-existent. All have had an impact on us personally and professionally.
In addition to shifts in technology, today’s society operates in a new educational format. Students and their parents are more focused on test scores, grades, and college applications than they have been in the past. With such focus on academic achievement, students and parents can miss out on what matters most.
To remain relevant, we’ve had to change with the times. We understand that young people today have many demands on their time: socially, academically and emotionally. Adapting our programs to meet the changing needs of young people while maintaining our core mission is essential. We can still say today, The Road Less Traveled provides more than just a travel experience – it is life-changing.
Please tell us about The Road Less Traveled / Geography of Hope.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” — Mark Twain
We strive to provide opportunities for young people to step away and explore places and people that are different. We believe that facing our fear of the unknown and actively engaging with the world deepens our understanding of others and cultivates open-mindedness.
We are known for operating exceptionally high quality, well supervised, thoughtfully designed programs. We take time to acknowledge the self-confidence and sense of achievement that comes along with doing our program. Our students develop compassion for other cultures, other people, our planet, and the creatures that inhabit it. We fully understand the responsibility of honoring, preserving the natural environment in which we live, fostering environmental stewardship.
We offer summer educational community service and adventure programs for high school and middle school travelers in twenty-six destinations across the globe. Our goal is to provide relevant, collaborative, and responsible travel experiences that inspire, educate, and empower today’s youth. We seek to build self-confidence, forge life-long friendships, and give back to the communities we live and serve in.
The students, leaders, communities and organizations we work with every summer and are proud of the life-changing connections we’ve forged over the past 25 years humble us. From living with the Maasai Tribe in Tanzania to being welcomed into the high Andes Otavalo communities in Ecuador, we feel blessed to do what we do.
We understand that we owe our continued success to our high safety standards and our attention to individual client needs. We operate our business the same way we operate our family: with the belief that the young people who come on our programs are no different than if they were our own.
The physical and emotional well-being of our each of our travelers is the most important aspect of our work. We live and breathe it 24/7, and have an exceptional track record to prove it. We set the industry standard, requiring that all of our instructors to be Wilderness First Responder certified, go through a rigorous interview process, and attend a nine-day emotional, medical, and logistical training prior to going out into the field. We are also distinguished by a Markel’s Safety-First designation and have our personal medical director on call 24/7 throughout the summer.
We are proud of our programs and the difference they make in the world. On the surface, our goal is simple: provide life-changing experiences in off-the-beaten path destinations. But our mission extends much further than that — to an individual level. We strive to educate, inspire, and empower every single student who comes through our programs. Our leaders are trained to identify each student’s strengths, to build their self-confidence, and to inspire a love for the world long after our programs end.
Our ultimate goal is to be able to provide these types of experiences for ALL students. We envision a world where all children grow up with a deep understanding of the natural world and have the opportunity to be part of a program like this regardless of race or economic status or gender or sexual identity. We work alongside our non-profit, Geography of Hope, which provides nearly 20% of our travelers with the opportunity to travel with us each summer to increase diversity in the outdoors and empower today’s youth.
The Road Less Traveled is accredited by the American Camp Association. Accredited since our first year of operation, our accreditation indicates that we have voluntarily allowed our practices to be compared with over 300 standards established by professionals in the camp industry and that we have met or exceeded those standards. Through the process, outside teams of trained camp professionals observe the camp in session to verify compliance with standards in the areas of health, safety, and program quality, including emergency procedures, program practices and design, health care, personnel policies, vehicle safety, goals, and administration. We are honored to have received the American Camp Association Gordie Kaplan Program Excellence Award for 2016 and believe 2017 will be the be the best year yet.
In addition to being an ACA-accredited camp we are also members of the Midwest Association of Independent Camps (MAIC) as well as The Camp Owners & Directors Association (CODA).
On January 2nd, 2013, RLT became the first business in Illinois to be recognized as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corporation). Purpose driven, RLT meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency for the benefit of all. Benefit Corporation legislation creates the legal framework to enable mission-driven companies like ours to stay mission-driven. Making our mission explicit in its legal structure, institutionalizing the values, culture, processes and the high standards we put in place over two decades ago as founding entrepreneurs, means we can ensure our work is done and will continue in the spirit in which it was intended…. to “Do No Harm” – now, and well beyond our lifetime.
We are proud to be an official, registered certifying organization for the President’s Volunteer Service Award. We are approved to review, verify and distribute one of the country’s highest honors – presidential recognition of service. Each student who completes a community service program with RLT will receive a President’s Volunteer Service Award.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
First and foremost, being a family business, working with your spouse counts as double-time when anniversaries are celebrated!
As we look back over the past 25+ years, we realize we could never have anticipated what was being created that summer afternoon. We have grown into an internationally recognized and highly respected company with educational programs in adventure, service learning, language, leadership and global perspectives in over 20+ countries around the world. Thousands of young people have joined us on “The Road.”
We have learned a few of things from our 25+ years working with young people and their families — We know that young people who experience certain formative life “lessons” before they are launched into the world actually do better. And, second, as a parent we’ve experienced the importance of the eighteen fleeting years one has to provide opportunities physically, emotionally and intellectually for children to develop before they are launched into the world.
MASTERS OF THE CRAFT – Jake Berman, Alum ’95, ’96 // Instructor ’03, ’04, ’05
“What may distinguish The Road Less Traveled from virtually all other possible summer experiences is the scope of its personal impact: it goes deep, it goes broad, and it lasts forever. I was a spindly, sometimes fussy 15-year-old when I set out on my first RLT expedition, a wilderness trip that introduced me to the natural wonders of the American west and the self-discovery that such settings draw out. RLT altered my life path, in every respect for the better. As a participant for two summers, I found myself swept up in a process of personal and social transformation. The young man who emerged was both substantially different and all the more me. I was more confident, more able, wiser, more patient, more attuned to my responsibilities as a family member, friend, student, citizen, and human. It unleashed a process that has never stopped.
How does RLT do this? They are masters of their craft, bringing expertise, passion, and singular focus to every facet of their trips: developing personal responsibility, fostering team-building, inspiring an appreciation for the natural world and cultural differences, teaching the mechanics of safe, responsible, illuminating travel, and empowering youth to advance their life skills, the kind that can’t usually be taught.
I am now a doctor and public health professional. Never do I doubt that my summers with RLT were far more significant than organic chemistry in making me the physician I am. Never do I question the impact RLT had in shaping the leader and teacher I am becoming.
What sets RLT apart? Jim and Donna Stein have that rarest type of expertise: helping us excavate the better angels of our nature and set them loose upon the world.”
Contact Info:
- Address: The Road Less Traveled
2331 North Elston Court
Chicago, Illinois 60614 - Website: www.theroadlesstraveled.com
- Phone: 773.342.5200
- Email: info@theroadlesstraveled.com, admissions@theroadlesstraveled.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therlt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theroadlesstraveledadventures/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theRLT
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-road-less-traveled-chicago
- Other: https://www.theroadlesstraveled.com/blog/
Image Credit:
The Road Less Traveled
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