<p>Has anyone participated with this program? My daughter received a letter from them today and it sounds like a wonderful experience. I reserved her spot at the local meeting only to discover that is occurs on the same day as a major Marching Band competition. I sent them an email asking for another date but before I get my hopes up or commit to travelling to another meeting location, thought I would check with the knowledgable parents here to make sure it is really worth our time and money.</p>
<p>My sister went to Europe for three weeks before her sophmore year in high school. She had a very good experience, is still friends with many of her trip-mates, and is going back to Europle as a college trip this January. Her only complaint was that she never got to use all that German she practiced, because all the Germans were practicing their English on her!!!</p>
<p>It’s worth your time to go to the info session. Could one parent go and the other take D to band?</p>
<p>I know a couple kids who went. Personally, I thought it was an awful lot of money. I would prefer to send my kids on a school trip with friends, like the foreign language department trips. JMO, though.</p>
<p>My daughters went on it this year and really enjoyed it. However there is a lot of variation in what is offered, and it is expensive.</p>
<p>I’ve posted before on this subject, so will just summarize my opinion (based on my daughter’s three week Europe trip) that it’s a very well-run, expensive travel program which purports to have more educational heft than it actually does and which suggests in its materials that it is highly competitive, which it isn’t. (Others here have had different experiences/opinions.) You won’t have a problem with missing the info session. They won’t turn you away in any case, and the session doesn’t add much to what’s available on the website and in their written materials other than an impassioned sales job by the folks who run the organization, a chance to hear from the particular schoolteachers who will be leading your kid’s trip, and a bunch of personal comments by previous participants–all glowing, of course, or they wouldn’t have shown up.</p>
<p>My daughter went five times! She loved every trip. We never planned on her going that many times but they were all great experiences. Her favorite trip went to New Zealand. She has made lifelong friends. The homestays were a great way to learn about the culture. They were very well supervised by a great group of teachers. Yes, they are pricey but I felt they were worth it. If you have any specific questions, you can pm me.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I am sure there are other ways she could do something like this that would be less expensive, but unfortunately, there isn’t any travel options available through her high school or the local community…funding is so minimal here that even the marching band or cheerleaders don’t travel to the away football games.</p>
<p>Book_work: thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately, both her father and I are already scheduled to be chaperones for the trip and no other parents can take either of our places on the trip :(</p>
<p>my D went to Australia & New Zealand last year after her freshman year with P2P and had a wonderful time. The teacher leaders were great and the planned activities all went well. It is expensive but I felt the planning, leaders, events ect were well worth it and I doubt I could have duplicated such an experience for much less money and it would have been a great deal of work. The 2 hour monthly meetings for the six months leading up to the trip were worth while but this factor can vary depending on the trip leaders and the makeup of the student group. We were fortunate to have such a good experience. The info meeting isn’t that important if you can contact them to have any questions answered to help decide if this is something your child wants to do.</p>