ATA at 75 Years
This year marks Academic Travel Abroad’s 75th anniversary. And what a privilege I have had to be a part of this storied company’s history for half of that time! Digging into our archives, we found David Parry’s words on the 50th anniversary. I share them with you now.
“Fritz Kaufmann, ATA’s founder and president for 23 years, designed and operated summer study tours on an ad hoc basis starting with the 1948 European trip called the “Marshall Plan in Action.” By late 1949 he and several of his friends decided it was time to establish a more formal and permanent organization to operate these cultural programs, so on February 2, 1950, the Association for Academic Travel Abroad was incorporated in the state of New York.
In selecting a name for the organization, Fritz was later asked, “why academic?” for he had rejected a number of suggestions emphasizing “study abroad” and “education,” feeling these terms were too narrow a definition. Fritz would later observe the term academic specifically meant anything that “lifts the mind beyond the realm of day-to-day preoccupation, raises problems for which our practical wisdom has no simple and ready-made ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, and concerns not only intellect but soul as well.” In this sense, he observed, “academic travel would be a journey into wonderland.” Through the virtues of humility, respect, and fantasy—prime movers of learning—“academic travel would enable the traveler to arrive at a frame of mind in which knowledge and insight would grow.”
David further mused that Fritz’s name choice proved to be an appropriate one. Starting from the early days of student and continuing education programs for colleges and universities to today’s highly-regarded study abroad division (dba CET Academic Programs) and cultural travel programs for the mature traveler sponsored through some of this country’s most prestigious institutions and corporations.
Over my tenure and that of my business partners, Chase Poffenberger and Mark Lenhart, we saw the expansion of our study abroad division from China to nine other countries; the extension from non-profit educational travel to commercial brand experiential travel and the rise of the chef influencer; the digital revolution in marketing and social media; the technological advancement in learning and information management; the growing alarm to make travel sustainable for our planet’s sake; and the call to arms to amplify voices less heard in all our work. And after weathering untold crises around the world (Chernobyl, two Gulf Wars, 9/11, the Great Recession, Arab Spring, and many more), we withstood our company’s worst crisis ever: the COVID global pandemic.
Now, while uncertainty abounds about how seismic shifts in U.S. policy will play out, we also stand on the cusp of another massive disruptor: artificial intelligence. So many challenges ahead! Yet we stand stronger than ever, more assured in our ability to overcome, to innovate, and to make a positive impact in this world.
Our vision remains to enhance global understanding through travel and education. And there is no better way than to approach all that we do in a carefully considered, scholarly, academic way. Let us journey into “wonderland”, as Fritz, our founder, remarked, to a place where knowledge and insight grow. Long live Academic Travel Abroad!
