While I was in Times Square, I couldn’t help but notice a large group of high school students from Brazil. I have been a chaperone for trips involving college students and was paralyzed thinking through the liability and logistics of being responsible for a few hundred teenagers in New York!
I talked to some of the participants and learned that they were in New York City for five days then five more days in Orlando. It struck me as to what a distorted picture of our country that they were receiving: America the Beautiful isn’t exactly reflected in Disney World and Times Square.
I am sure the trip organizers did the delicate dance of deciding between what the students wanted to see and what they should see; what is sexy vs. what is educational or what is a man-made iconic venue vs what is a natural wonder.
Think through the exercise of where you would take 200 Brazilian teenagers for ten days of experiencing America. Tough task, isn’t it? Yet as a supervisor, you partake in a similar slicing when you share an overview of your organization in a new employee’s onboarding. There is only so much you can help them experience in a snapshot; the rest has to come over time. Even if you can’t visit the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains, make sure they know they exist.
