Bee Travel
Discover the world with National Geographic
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
When I was perhaps 9 years old, I recall the excitement that surrounded the receipt by my father of an invitation to join the National Geographic Society. It was - at the time, which would have been the early '60s - a weighty and distinguished honor to be nominated, one the recipient would be foolish to turn down, so long as he had the means to pay for the subscription. After all, the National Geographic Society kept some pretty impressive company, names such as Alexander Graham Bell, Louis and Mary Leakey, and Richard Byrd. For the years that followed, we kids waited with anticipation for the next bound and boxed volume to appear each month, whose arrival alone was an event. So filled with pictures and exploration, it was almost a mini-encyclopedia.

The world is a classroom to be sure, and no one has ever done it quite like National Geographic. Who hasn't imagined himself a photographer on the summit of Kilimanjaro or lens to nose with lions on the savannahs of Africa? The size and scope of the magazine's mission would be impossible to dismiss. It has launched and funded explorations to the depths of the oceans and the highest peaks on earth, and everywhere in-between.

With the launch of National Geographic's Student Expeditions, students in the ninth through 12th grades can now experience the world in expeditionary style. Accompanied by an NG photographer, writer, researcher or explorer and a college graduate guide, each innovative trip takes the student "On Assignment." Projects might include a photographic, writing or hands-on research angle. There are opportunities for expedition-eers to give back to the communities visited, through tutoring English, clearing forest trails or maybe building a house.

Adventures such as these demand adventuresome accommodation. Perish the thought of a Hilton or Holiday Inn. When not in family-run inns, hostels, university housing or research stations, students might be in safari camps or bunking onboard a sailboat in the Caribbean. You might even be invited into the home of a rural Chinaman, whose idea of a fence in his yard is the Great Wall. Each expedition comes with preparatory materials - books, magazines or DVDs - to help applicants determine what kind of "On Assignment" project they would like to pursue. There is also a one-year subscription included to the NG magazine of your choice. There are 12 destinations: Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos, Costa Rica, Belize, the Caribbean, Mali, Tanzania, China, India, Ireland, Spain and Iceland. Some of these destinations also include community service hours to satisfy school requirements. Most trips accept 12 to 26 participants, although the Caribbean experience accepts up to 40. There are scholarships, which are funded by an initial endowment. Program participation provides support to NG's mission of increasing global understanding through exploration, geography, educ ation and research. See http://ngstudentexpeditions.com. (Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)