<p>Can anyone here share their experiences with the People to People Ambassador Program ? My D is a congressional award recepient and was encouraged to apply for a scholarship to attend a program next summer. The trip would be free if she won. </p>
<p>Is it safe? </p>
<p>Is it well supervised?</p>
<p>My impression was that it varied tremendously by program and chaperon. Second S went on a sports one and the chaperon left them alone with no real supervision most of the time they weren’t on a practice field. Others have reported variations form well run academic one to basically an alcohol party. Find someone who has gone on the exact one you are considering.</p>
<p>I agree. My daughter went to France, Italy and Greece when she was 14. Boy, was I misled. She and others were left alone to fend for themselves on many more than one occasion in foreign cities. The cell phones they were told to call in the event of an emergency were not answered when there was an emergency–they stood on a street in Venice not knowing what to do. There was little to no educational value in the trip. My D, showing us her photos: “There are a couple more ruins…I don’t remember what country they were in.” The trip was a badly organized whirlwind of bus/train trips and museums. Example: a 4-hour bus trip to a museum in the mountains of Italy that the kids hated, followed by another long bus trip, ending in 20 minutes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The kids had to literally run, take pictures, and run back to the bus. The promised encounters with officials/kings/the pope/etc never happened. I really don’t think they ever do. I think these are seen as free jaunts by lots of teachers. There are kids who can handle that at 14…mine was kind of frightened by it. Looking back, I would be much much more wary of what was being promised. Please be warned. I would speak to parents of kids who took a trip with the chaperones who will be assigned to your daughter’s trip, if she wins it. It’s all in the chaperones.</p>
<p>Kids seem to have fun on the trips, but the trips are not the education, leadership, saving the world missions that are often advertised. If it will be free, then it’s a good way for a student to travel if your family doesn’t have the means to travel together. I do have the impression that it’s not uncommon for students to not be directly supervised. For girls at least (who are the only people I’ve known in the programs), the trips seem to be mostly about crushes, gossiping, and shopping with a new group of people.</p>
<p>Two kids I know did a People to People trip a couple of years ago.
The girl went to Australia and the boy went to Ireland. When I talked to the parents about what the kids did, it just sounded like an overseas summer camp. They said the kids had a good time but didn’t rave about it. One of the Dad’s was very irate that he was promised his D would get some high school credit for the trip which never happened.</p>
<p>LOL–my son’s invitation for People to People just came in the mail today! As did one for my husband. :eek: Wonder what mailing list they used?</p>
<p>Our kids have a better option at the HS level–there are school-sponsored & chaperoned trips to Europe under the auspices of the various foreign language departments.</p>
<p>Wait a year and do AFS. (But if it’s free, kick the tires a little more about the specific program in question, and ask for list of last year’s alumni families to contact.)</p>
<p>My D went to Australia after sixth grade. The trip was expensive, but she enjoyed it. They started in Sidney and went up to the Great Barrier reef. They also stayed at the farm. I believe there was enough supervision.</p>
<p>This doesn’t have to be a life changing - mega edcuational - or resume building event. Our child has never been to another country and we can not afford it. If the scholarship will pay for it, I’m thinking it’s a good idea but I have concerns about supervision and safety. Anymore insight into the supervision/safety of this program?</p>
<p>(by the way, be careful about class trips too - my sister told me that the “school sponsored band trip to Germany” for her son’s school turned out to be a drunken odyssey with very little supervision. I think these things just depend on who is in charge and who goes…)</p>
<p>I worked in several embassies overseas and for the most part, embassy folks hate the program. “Briefing” the students on world affairs was a job no one wanted which was usually foisted off on the lowest ranked of all personnel in the embassy. Briefers were told to assume the kids knew nothing and that it was merely a travel program for wealthy children. I was not impressed by the participants or the program.</p>
<p>Also, some people have trouble with the organization’s ideological bent – for example, they sent kids to the Soviet Union and China when many other organizations refused to do so until human rights violations, religious freedom issues, separated family issues were addressed by the regimes. Kind of a ‘fellow traveler’ flavor.</p>
<p>What a minute! My daughter has been on five trips. We love the program and all the teachers that have gone with my daughter. At her first college interview, she was so excited to talk about all her experiences. The interviewer went on to talk about his experiences abroad and it was a great interview. She was not looking for high school or college credit and I never recommend paying for credits. I have talked to hundreds of parents at meetings and continue to be one of their biggest cheerleaders. She has made lifelong friends and learned how to get along with very different personalities which will help ready her for college dorm life. There are monthly meetings before the trip that help bond the group and learn about the places that will be visited. I could go on and on, so pm me any specific questions.</p>
<p>im a junior in highschool and i got one of these “invitations”…i dunno if i should consider going because i’ve did some research (a.k.a- googling people to people) and read some pretty bad reviews on this…and im not even sure who referred me to this…some pedafile thats stalking me who is also in the program? who knows…im very sceptical about considering this…though i do want to travel and visit Japan…hehe to be honest, i do like the idea that its …as one post said “basically an alcohol party”, but i would rather take this program for the benifit for my "succesful future(what ever that might be) and the thing that makes me stand out from other college applicants…</p>
<p>so basically what im asking is, with the cost of paying for this trip, would it be worth it to have on a college app or a resource for a college interview or is this program for kids who want to have fun…“supervised”</p>
<p>dsen–I wouldn’t take the trip so you could “stand out from other applicants.”</p>
<p>My impression–great for middle school or jr hi kids, maybe their only way to have a travel experience abroad. Not so much for HS, unless you have money to burn.</p>
<p>For HS level, I would look for a more “academic” experience, perhaps study abroad for a summer, or some sort of service oriented trip, if you are looking to “stand out” from the crowd.</p>
<p>I have always been impressed with the various groups that travel to Israel, whether for a short time or for a summer or semester. They are very well chaperoned. Any infractions and the kid is sent home, paid for by the parents.</p>