I am a motorcoach…

. . . still buzzing from the raucous (yet respectful) behavior of young professionals I transported during their AB InBev Global Management Trainee sessions. These trainees were right out of college, revved up about their situation, and loud. Europeans, Chinese, Mexicans . . . somehow they all knew the English words to the same songs and chants (none of which had I ever been treated to before) and they belted them out in unison with gusto – including on-cue clapping and foot stomping. Did I mention I am a motorcoach? This is a closed environment. Fifty-six fired-up twenty-somethings had this 45’X9′ space feeling more like a stadium hosting the championship game of an international soccer tournament. So, that’s what it’s like to transform college labors into hard-earned career positions? Yikes! What will they do when they receive promotions? Compliments to AB InBev for whatever it is they do in a few days of training to create such comradery.

As irony would have it, orders received adjacent to the AB InBev experience sent me to Washington University Medical School to pick up passengers at the opposite end of those college labors. This freshman initiation program, for which I was tour mobilizer, was a sobering invitation to expand the term “career pursuit” to include a vision for being societal change agents.

Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

Extending the invitation was Associate Professor Bob Hansman. The tours were part of the WU Leadership Through Service program, which, in Hansman’s words, is about “understanding what we see.”

An important part of the program is community engagement connecting the real “then and now” influences (i.e.: infrastructure, architecture, relationships, decisions . . .) – thereby reversing patterns of disengagement.

For this first stage of their journey together, Hansman led his students on observational hikes through portions of the St. Louis inner-city.

Being as I am – a motorcoach – my interests tend toward identification of component parts. But in this case, it was not tour components but what held them together that moved along our travels: STORY . . . stories of color, community, struggle, and hope.

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

NEWS OF DIVIDE AND DISINVESTMENT: The date on which St. Louis City and St. Louis County officially divorced, August 22, 1876, casts perhaps the longest shadow of any day in the history of St. Louis. Concocted by City leaders eager to part ways with the economic burden of County residents, the City-County split was the beginning of widespread disinvestment in the city due to county migration. What was once viewed as an economic burden became a population magnet redirecting economic investment. Beginning in 1926, numerous attempts have been made to undo the misguided parting. All have failed.

NEWS OF BRICK BROKERING: According to Bob Hansman, St. Louis is the second leading exporter of brick in the US, sending used brick from local deconstruction southward to the Sunbelt for use in new home construction.

(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about travel discoveries I think you’d like to know about.)

This week’s Must See: THE WORLD!

I know that is a bit abstract compared to my usual Must Sees, but it comes to you inspired by the AB InBev international trainees and the Washington University freshman of the Leadership Through Service program. I love my garage and my motorcoach friends bearing my same colors and logo. But I was designed for leaving the garage, for seeing the world while helping others go new places, see new things, and have new experiences. It’s eye opening.

Quote Of The Day samples

“Our cultural strength has always been derived from our diversity of experience and understanding.” ―Yo-Yo Ma

“There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” ―Nelson Mandela

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