Staff Interview with Madison Hafitz

What inspired you to work for Westcoast Connection?

I was inspired to work for Westcoast Connection because it allowed me to combine three of my passions: travel, community service, and working with kids!  My path to Westcoast Connection was definitely a unique one.

Five years ago, in December of 2013, my family traveled to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands for a vacation over winter break. While preparing to plan the trip, my mom decided she did not want to personally book all of the internal travel, so she signed us up to travel with a company. As it turns out, this company was Westcoast Connection.

2013 was the inaugural trip to Ecuador for Westcoast’s Family Vacations Division, so one of the company’s directors was on the trip with his family. During our time together, I learned that I had previously worked as a camp counselor at the same camp his children went to every summer. As a result, I like to say that my interview to work for Westcoast Connection was on a hike to a beach in the Galapagos.

Describe a typical day at work.

The beauty of a Westcoast Connection trip is that there is no “typical” day, and that is what makes it so much fun! Our community service trips are a combination of adventure, cultural exchange, and service. One day you might be exploring a city on foot admiring the vastness of the buildings and temples, while the next day you might be in a rural village, only accessible by boat, helping a local community build a concrete road. Thus, every day is new and exciting!

What is your favorite part of your role as a Trip Leader in the Volunteer Division?

One of my favorite parts of being a Westcoast Trip Leader is helping our trip members to undergo a transformative travel experience in terms of personal growth. For example, one way we do this on our community service programs is through leading trip members through team building exercises and guiding them through meaningful reflection sessions.

I love watching the metamorphosis of a group of people who do not know each other come together over the course of a program to accomplish a common goal.  Whether it is after painting a mural or organizing a day camp for young kids, some of my favorite moments on trips have been sitting down with trip members after a day of service - in large groups or one-on-one - to debrief the day, hear about their new insights, and discuss the impact of our service.

How do you use your education and international background in your current role?

Throughout my life, I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to five continents, 21 countries, and more than half of the 50 states. I am fascinated by how different people spend their time, how they make a living, what they eat, how they celebrate, what they believe in, and how they live. I believe that this curiosity, my open mindedness, and my love of pragmatic education stems from my schooling as a Montessori kid. I attended a Montessori school for more than ten years - kindergarten through middle school - and that academic environment had a huge influence on the person I am today.

One of Westcoast Connection’s mottos on trips is “Challenge by Choice.” The thought process behind this is to let trip members “set their own goals and expectations while encouraging them to go out of their comfort zones physically, socially, and mentally.” This idea really resonates with me because it reflects a similar philosophy I saw in my own education. I went to school in an environment where I was encouraged to explore by asking questions, urged to work together with my classmates, and emboldened to try new things on my own. I found this to be an incredibly nurturing way to learn, and I try to embody this in the way I support my trip members in my role as a trip leader.

What makes Westcoast Connection special?

I think what makes Westcoast Connection special is the staff. At the beginning of every summer, all of the Westcoast Connection summer staff travel to Montreal for a weekend of staff training with the full-time team. I am always blown away by the incredible people I meet at pre-camp. Everyone is so friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, and they love to travel and work with teens!

Westcoast not only does an exceptional job of recruiting incredible staff, but they also are very intentional about how they create staff teams in order to ensure they are setting their staff up for success when they go off to lead trips for the summer. If I’m being completely honest, I do not know what secret formula they use to balance personalities and working styles for staff teams, but I can say that my staff teams get better and better every summer, and I have made lifelong friends working for this company.

What is Westcoast Connection's mission and how do you continue to work towards it?

Westcoast Connection’s mission is to give every trip member “the summer of a lifetime,” and I believe Westcoast continues to work towards this every summer by recruiting the best staff, creating strong staff teams, and providing staff with exceptional training. As a summer staff member, the Westcoast full-time team is super receptive to feedback from their staff on how they can improve trainings and trips. I believe that this open-mindedness exemplifies how the company is always striving to work toward their mission.

In the same vein, I encourage and take feedback very seriously as a summer staff member, whether it is from my trip members or my direct supervisor. To provide every trip member with “the summer of a lifetime,” I listen to what my trip members need or want to make their trip experience better (within reason of course) and take note of the ways in which I can better support my staff team and program to ensure we achieve Westcoast’s mission.

What do you hope participants take away from Westcoast Connection programs?

For me, I hope that participants gain a greater appreciation for another culture and how the lives of others are similar and/or different from their own. Additionally, I hope that they learn something new about themselves.

If you could participate on one of Westcoast Connection's programs, where would you go and what would you do?

I have traveled to Costa Rica, Peru, and Thailand with Westcoast Connection as a staff member, and if I could participate on one of Westcoast Connection’s programs to a place I haven’t traveled to yet, it would definitely be to South Africa or Vietnam on one of their service programs.

Both of these destinations are on my personal travel bucket list, South Africa for the incredible wildlife and Vietnam for the food and landscape. But overall, I would definitely want to go on a Westcoast Connection service program because I think they allow you to experience a new place on a deeper level by forming relationships with the local people and communities you work with.

Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?

If someone has the means to travel abroad and experience a new culture, I think it is an invaluable opportunity because it allows you to gain new perspective. I believe that travel is one of the most powerful forms of education as every travel experience has allowed me to reflect on my own situation and has provided me with a new and valuable outlook and appreciation for my own lifestyle, my community, the world, and how I fit within it.

Why do you think learning a new language is important?

Language is essential to our daily lives as it is the way we connect with other people.  Whether it is in the form of conversation, written words, or gestures, language is how we express how we feel, what we need, and share knowledge with the world around us.

As a world traveler, it is arrogant to believe or expect that wherever you go that someone else should or will understand your native tongue. Learning a new language is important, not only because it allows you to communicate with others, but even more than that because it opens the door to developing relationships with other people by showing an open-mindedness and a desire to connect with people who may be different from you.

What does meaningful travel mean to you?

I have always been someone who believes that experiences are more meaningful than physical things. To me, meaningful travel involves experiences that enrich your life in some way by offering you a new point of view. This might mean you discover something new about yourself, the people you meet, or the environments you explore.