The Season for Giving

Thanksgiving
For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Giving Thanks

I think Emerson had it right, even back then. This time of year is a time of reflection, of stepping back and looking at where we are, what we've accomplished, and where we go next. This year has been particularly tough for many people. So many people have struggled without jobs, resources, health care, and so on.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it gives us a chance to be thankful for all the good things we have in our lives and the energy, skills, and experiences that we have been given to tackle our challenges.

I find myself thinking about one of the best things we do have: each other. Together we can learn from each other, and together we can make a difference.

Habitat for Humanity

I recently had the honor of helping to build a home with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. The build at 1600 E. Boone in north Spokane will produce a five-plex and two duplexes. As many of you know, eligible Habitat families invest 500 hours of their own labor in building their homes and others. Once finished, the homes are sold to partner families at cost, with a 0% mortgage held by Habitat-Spokane.

I'm pleased to say that 70 of our wonderful employees committed their time and energy to help the Habitat families construct the new homes. It was nothing short of impressive. It was the first time I had the opportunity to participate in one of these projects, and I am honored and humbled to have helped! I'm thankful to have met these amazing families and to work side by side with them.

Community Service

Community service is an important component of our programs, and I'm happy to be able to make a difference at home in Spokane as well as elsewhere. In fact, just last month we announced our plans to surpass the 140,000 community service hours programs logged for the 2010 travel year, and we've strengthened the community service portion of our programs to extend opportunities to give back to communities both domestically and internationally. I truly believe that when we gain exposure to other people, places, and life experiences, we begin to understand each other better, as well as ourselves.

We will work with Habitat for Humanity on a large build program in New Orleans for the 2010 summer program "Leadership Summit: Remembering Hurricane Katrina" to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the devastation and to help rebuild the city. This exciting new program features talks from Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and his brother, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning - both New Orleans natives. Additional speakers include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and award-winning film director Spike Lee, who directed the Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

We all want the best for our young people, and with today's competitive, globalized world, the greatest gift we can give our children is the gift of learning and experience. Let's help them see the world and become a more active member of it.

Wishing you happy travels,

Jeff Thomas

CEO, People to People Ambassador Programs

Doing Good: Remembering Hurricane Katrina

What Happens after All the Help Goes Home?
One of the things I often think about after a disaster is what happens when all the help goes home? What happens when most of the volunteer workers go on with their own lives and back to their families? In general, Americans are known for our kindness of spirit and our ability to step in and help each other in times of trouble, and we can all be very proud of that. But sometimes, we need to return to stricken areas after a disaster has passed to see what else needs to be done or where else we can assist. With Hurricane Katrina, for example, volunteers are still helping impact positive changes in the lives of those affected by the disaster and continuing to make a difference in New Orleans. Along with the message of "you have not been forgotten," this can go a long way towards a strong recovery and a sense of accomplishment for the citizens of New Orleans and its affected townships.

A Program of Service to the People of New Orleans
So in the spirit of leadership, of service and assistance, I'm thrilled to tell you about a new program. People to People Ambassador Programs is commemorating the upcoming fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a summer 2010 program called "Leadership Summit: Remembering Hurricane Katrina." The program, which runs June 28 through July 6, 2010, is part of People to People Leadership Programs, which teach students in grades 5 through 12 important leadership and teamwork skills with workshops, community service projects, and discussions with well-respected authorities on service and leadership.

On this program, you will hear from famous folks from the Big Easy, like Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and his brother; New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. They will share their own intensely personal side to the Katrina story. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and award-winning film director Spike Lee, who created the Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, will also talk about their experiences. Other speakers will be there to talk about Hurricane Katrina, highlighting the lessons they learned and providing an update on the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.

Making a Difference Where Hope is Needed Most
The week-long program includes two major, large-scale community service projects, and I'm happy that students will be able to really get into the communities to help. One project is rebuilding a home with Habitat for Humanity. The other project is assisting with a number of school rebuilding and repair projects throughout the city with HandsOn New Orleans, an independent local affiliate of the Points of Light Institute that focuses on serving the needs of the local community. All students will receive 60 service-learning hours for their hard work.

A New Orleans Love Story
But I think that to know, love, and connect with the city, you need to see more of it! This program is designed to help students learn more about Hurricane Katrina through exploring New Orleans and by hearing firsthand accounts by guest speakers like Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, US Army 3-star general who led Task Force Katrina in the aftermath of the devastating hurricane, Tom Piazza, nationally acclaimed author of Why New Orleans Matters, and Jim Reed, world-renowned weather photographer and self proclaimed "storm chaser." There will also be a walking tour of the French Quarter, a bus tour of the city with visits to neighborhood districts, and a firsthand view of the levee that breached, causing the devastating floods. There will also be a swamp tour and a plantation tour. You can see for yourself the unique culture and architecture of a city like no other, and learn why so many people affected by the hurricane have stayed to rebuild and continue to live their lives and to create their stories in this historic city.

I am personally so excited about this program! Come see it all for yourself and help make a difference with a life changing experience. You'll hear more about this program as we get closer, or you can take a look at our "Leadership Summit: Remembering Hurricane Katrina" website. We anticipate a big response with this wonderful program, so join us!

Wishing you successes in fulfilling your own dreams,

Peg Thomas
President, People to People Ambassador Programs

The Path to Lifetime Learning

Watching the leaves start to change and seeing my own children head back into the daily pattern of school and homework makes me think about learning and the importance of education in my life - and in all of our lives. I know we've all heard kids ask, "Why do I have to know this?" or "Where will I ever use this?" But how often do we consider how important it is to engage our brains in new and different activities on a regular basis? Sometimes we all forget the importance of shifting our focus from time to time in order to look at a problem or issue with a new outlook. Have you ever looked at a particular problem with a historic perspective to see if you might learn from the past?

A 2008 study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Del. asked a random sample of 2,508 American adults a series of basic questions related to American heritage. Sadly, 71% of Americans failed the test, with an overall average score of 49%. This should serve as a wakeup call for all of us.

Looking at these scores makes me wonder what is missing in today's schools. However, I think we also ought to look inward and ask ourselves, what happened to our curiosity? What happened to our pride in our country and knowing where we've come from?

Learning is a Journey

Albert Einstein said, "Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death." We all need to be lifetime learners capable of extending ourselves, learning new topics, growing, and improving as we go along. We need to keep our minds open and curious to new things, new possibilities, and new ways of doing things.

This is what we do with People to People Ambassador Programs. We try to aide in learning by experience. This applies to adults, students, athletes, and professionals alike. We firmly believe that seeing and experiencing new cultures, and places, helps us become globalized citizens and gives a greater sense of the world. History seen and experienced brings applied learning, which is much more memorable than reading about it in a book.

We are all a part of a glorious history. Learn it, embrace it, and most importantly, take an active part in your own growth and your own history. History happens each and every day. So does learning, if you choose to be a part of it.

Lily Tomlin once said, "The road to success is always under construction." So true. If we each try to be open to learning something from our everyday experiences, strive to improve our methods, and shake things up a bit, I think we will all live a much more vibrant life.

Wishing you happy travels,

Jeff Thomas
CEO, People to People Ambassador Programs

It's Fall in Spokane

Our summer hot spell here at our Spokane headquarters seems to have come to an abrupt end, and now fall is in the air. As a volleyball enthusiast and coach, fall is my favorite time of year. All of us - parents, teachers and students are getting back into the swing with the back-to-school ritual. No matter where you grew up, there is a familiar cadence and energy around the start of another school year. For me, back-to-school brings back memories of learning new subjects, discovering different ideas, meeting new teachers and embracing old and new friendships.

The Global Text Generation

Experts predict that this generation of young people is positioned to be the most literate, informed and technologically sophisticated, ever. From text messaging to Facebook, their world is smaller and more interconnected than ever before. This interconnectivity adds to the everyday frantic pace of life as it picks up speed like a race to be at the front of the lunch line. Imagine what the world will be like when today's students enter the workforce in the next 10 years!

Gaining knowledge, compassion and a keen understanding of the international landscape is the critical foundation students must have in order to advance in today's globalized world. But this just won't happen in everyday educational settings. Traveling outside the classroom to be immersed in other cultures is the very best way for young people to gain a global perspective, and become prepared to contribute and succeed in a global society.

The need to travel is timeless, and the investment made to travel is priceless. In a recent national survey, parents said they saw improvements in their child's grades when they traveled. Teachers feel international travel opportunities also help inspire students to apply themselves in the classroom. The hands-on learning that takes place through travel helps students fully understand, grasp and remember concepts. Our own research has also found that a higher percentage of high school students who travel internationally are accepted into their college of choice.

Big Ideas = Big Results

Our Leadership Programs attract some of the top students from around the globe to help them prepare for the future. One of the significant changes we've recently made to our Leadership Programs is giving our students access to more prominent speakers, leaders and dreamers of dreams. Why? We want expose today's young people to the paths of leaders and for those same prominent individuals to share their experiences with the leaders of tomorrow. It's one thing to be more connected with technology, but an important piece of the puzzle falls into place when we then show our students how to apply their knowledge, strengths, passions and dreams on a global perspective. Then, we quickly realize that nothing is impossible.

That's why I had the honor of introducing General Colin Powell to our Washington DC World Leadership Forum the other week, and NBC correspondent Luke Russert to speak with students in Chicago over the summer, sharing ideas, and talking about seizing life's opportunities. We talk a lot about empowerment in our programs, being the best you can be, and realizing that we can all make a difference in our own way; accomplishing dreams by working hard and never losing site of the target. Watch for more announcements about other high-powered speakers and exciting new programs for 2010!

Wishing you success in fulfilling your own dreams,

Peg Thomas

President, People to People Ambassador Programs

Greetings from Washington, D.C.

Last week I attended our World Leadership Forum in the nation’s capital. This particular program is part of our Leadership Program series that gives top fifth- through eighth-grade students from around the world the opportunity to gather together and study the country’s most powerful leaders. The students have the chance to see our capital up close and personal, as well as hear from renowned speakers and enjoy access to top government leaders.

This year the program began with an inspiring talk by astronaut Roger Crouch, who took two space shuttle flights into space as a payload specialist after working for years at NASA as a scientist. He couldn’t become a jet pilot because he is colorblind, a condition that also prevented him from becoming an astronaut. But he never gave up his dream of flying into space—and he eventually persevered. Roger Crouch’s message to all of us is to never give up our dreams. What a powerful story he has to tell!

The program continued with a walking tour of Capitol Hill, a visit to the Supreme Court and Library of Congress, and then on to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The tour also included the impactful U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Other stops included seeing national monuments, hearing from former Idaho Rep. Orval Hansen, and laying a wreath at the Arlington National Cemetery.

I also had the distinct pleasure of introducing our keynote speaker, General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.). His inspiring talk focused on the importance of knowing what you stand for, learning and growing, accomplishing your goals, and being the best that you can be. General Powell has broken down barriers all through his life and risen from a humble beginning in the Bronx to accomplish tremendous goals.

We are the lucky ones. We come together in a world that is full of opportunities—should you choose to take them. If you open your minds and hearts and work hard, you, too, can accomplish your dreams.

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to meet young people from all over the world. We may come from many different places, but our stories are very similar, and so are our dreams. Only when we work together can the barriers between people, countries, and nations come down.

In this series of blogs, we plan to share our thoughts with you and provide a window into what we do, the lives we impact, and the change that we can inspire in all of us as we work together. Bookmark this page, and keep checking back for more updates on how People to People is changing our world and achieving our dreams.

Wishing you success in fulfilling your dreams,

Peg Thomas
President, People to People Ambassador Programs

Reflections Post 9/11

This last week as I sat on planes in various airports on my way to and from some international meetings, I thought about what we’ve seen in the last eight years post 9/11. It occurred to me that while many things have changed since we watched in horror as the Twin Towers were hit that terrible day, we also witnessed firsthand some of the things that make us stand apart. We saw how Americans band together in difficult times as we saw strangers helping strangers. People reached out to each other in shared pain and with a shared purpose.

I saw the devastation myself less than a month after the attacks, and even from the plane could see the smoking, smoldering ruins, making everything we saw on TV and in the newspapers and the Internet all that much more real. On that day and the days that followed, in spite of our grief we showed the world what America is all about, and we also showed the world why we are proud to be American.

On that day too – we saw how small the world really is, and saw firsthand our need to better understand each other as people. Countries across the globe reached out to us, sharing our pain, our outrage at the events that transpired, and giving us hope of better days to come. In an age of instant communication, we saw cities, countries; communities across the globe almost instantaneously join together with gatherings, candles, memorials, songs and prayers to those affected by the events of 9/11, and to the American people.

These are some of the very reasons that I am so passionate about what we do at People to People Ambassador Programs as well as our other business units on a daily basis. In our line of work, our passion lies in helping to bridge some of those gaps, and helping people see the world with a more global perspective. Here in our Spokane headquarters, we hear every day about the students whose own worlds got a little bigger through our programs, the friendships gained, or the lives that are changed even in the smallest of ways. And I strongly believe that with a better understanding of each other, comes a better understanding of ourselves.

I consider myself very lucky on so many levels, and one of the things that I am most thankful for is that I have the opportunity to witness some of the outstanding young people coming of age right now. I see barriers broken down between people, countries and nations. It is the small things that add up to make a difference, and I get to see these students begin to make that connection for themselves.

Our programs intentionally include at least one community service component in its itinerary. We do that because community service is key to knowing and understanding community, whether it is domestic or international. This last travel year we contributed a total of 140,000 community service hours across the globe, and our goal is to surpass that mark next year. Giving back helps us all – it helps America to continue to show the world what we are made of, it helps us all become better people, and it helps us to keep the memory and the promise of 9/11 with us each and every day.


Today, Mary Eisenhower of People to People International and I were very honored to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres at his private residence in Jerusalem. This meeting was held after President Peres’ action-packed meeting over the weekend with US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to discuss resuming important peace negotiations with Palestine, and after he was briefly hospitalized after fainting. We were happy to see that he appears to be healthy and well.

During our meeting, President Peres presented Mary Eisenhower with a gift - a copy of a passage from David Ben-Gurion’s diary about his meeting with President Dwight Eisenhower at the end of World War II. The moving passage from the diary talks about President Eisenhower’s recognition of Ben-Gurion as the driving force behind a state for Israel.

Mary Eisenhower presented President Peres a signed copy of her father’s book, and it turned out that President Peres had previously met John Eisenhower, known as a well respected military historian and author. Both were deeply touched by the thoughtful gifts.

We continued to discuss Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister and founding father of Israel. President Dwight Eisenhower admired him greatly, as did President Peres, who worked for him having been involved in key political and government positions in Israel for over 60 years. We spoke of the vast impact of the holocaust camps as a driving force behind the creation of Israel and also the personal impact of the camps on President Eisenhower resulting in the beginning of the People to People programs. After Ben-Gurion’s death, he was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.”

We plan on sharing our thoughts with you on this blog with the hope of providing a window into what we do, the lives we impact, and the change that we can instill in all of us as we work together. This past week for me has indeed been an amazing week full of historical events, remembrances and possibilities.

Wishing you happy travels,

Jeff Thomas
CEO, People to People Ambassador Programs