Keith Bellows, editor-in-chief of National Geographic magazine, visited The University of Tampa last Thursday.
The event was titled, All the World’s a Classroom, the third in a series of related presentations put on by the Office of International Programs.
The event was introduced by John Capouya, UT journalism professor and personal friend of Bellows.
“He has made his passion his life’s work,” said Capouya of Bellows. “And that’s something all of us here can think about.”
Bellows opened the discussion in Reeves Theater by asking how many individuals in the audience owned a passport and how many had traveled outside of the country, making the point that Americans are known abroad as deficient in international skills and experience.
He stressed the importance of travel in unraveling the mysteries of cultures outside of our own.
Bellows made it clear that textbook learning is no substitute for seeing the real thing.
“No matter how much you study or read about a culture, you will never really begin to understand it until you visit,” he said.
Bellows shared the history of his own infatuation with travel, one that began with his birth in the Congo.
He said the role his well-traveled parents played in nurturing his spirit of adventure was key.
It was his parent’s creed, Bellows said, that so heavily influenced his desire to roam the world.
In fact, Bellows is currently working on a book aimed at parents seeking to enrich their children’s lives through travel.
In addition to highlighting the importance of travel in personal growth and enlightenment, Bellows also stressed the forming of life-long friendships through travel and the power of what he termed, the “search for the other.”
He illustrated this point through a variety of colorful anecdotes from his considerable wealth of travel experience.
“True human connection is the thing you just can’t get over the internet,” Bellows said.
Bellows also said that youth are the most able to travel and usually the most enriched by the experience.
He said spontaneity and career uncertainty could actually help to fuel the spirit of adventure implicit in travel.
“A common question you get asked in life is where do you want to be,” Bellows said. “I failed this question every time and still would because I’ve never had a plan.”
Bellows concluded his talk with the presentation of two brief videos that further established the limitless potential of travel.
He also responded to questions from the audience about his upcoming book, his own personal moments of transformation and discovery and the dangers of exploration abroad.
He made clear his hopes that the American youth, as represented by students like those in the audience, would usher in a new age of global understanding and interconnectivity.
“We need to stop looking at travel as a vacation, but as a lasting learning experience,” Bellows said.
“A tourist wants to return home unchanged, a traveler just the opposite.”