The summer travel season is here! This time of year is the busiest and most exciting time for us here in our Spokane offices. It’s also one of my very favorite times of the year—because of all of you. It’s the time of year when I get to see so many excited and wonderful young people take off on life-changing educational journeys. I’m honored each and every year to have the opportunity to meet so many interesting people and often see the changes they go through after experiencing other cultures, people, and lifestyles. Most of the year, I’m a mother to six children. However, during the summer months, I see myself as more of a mother to the thousands of students who travel with us.One of the most important aspects of our programs is our tremendous teacher leaders. Our teachers help make our programs come to life, and they help guide our Student Ambassadors through our amazing global travel experiences. That’s why this year we are so proud to be a sponsor of the prestigious National Teacher of the Year Program.
So many of our teachers tell us that our programs help them become even better educators by giving them different cultures to talk about and visualize and by giving them new information, contexts, and connections to share in their classrooms. At People to People Ambassador Programs, we have more than 5,000 teachers to lead our educational travel experiences, including former National Teacher of the Year nominees and recipients. We also plan to reach out to the 2010 National Teacher of the Year winner, finalists, and nominees to see how can get them involved in our programs. Teachers are such an important part of our young people’s success—and our country’s success. I see firsthand the importance of our teachers on our programs, as well as their passion, commitment, and effort to give each of our student travelers a life-changing experience.
We Listen to Our Students
As we kick off the 2010 travel season with programs to more than 47 countries on all seven continents, we’d like to tell you about some exciting new features. We’ve been hearing from our student travelers that they’d like to see a cooler, more fun travel shirt from us, and we’ve responded. So we’re swapping our official People to People Ambassador Programs polo shirt for a cool new maroon (for girls) or blue (for boys) People to People T-shirt with a global design and flavor. We’ve had a great response from our students—they love it, and we hope you will too!
But any change can be hard, and we are aware that some people may have mixed feelings about this. We are listening to our students and their families, and trying to find a solution that works for most everyone. Our goal is to shake things up a bit and give our students a fun shirt they can wear beyond their travels to share their life-changing experiences with the world. We think this is worth exploring—which is what People to People is all about!
Parents, be sure to check out our website for information on cell-phone rental options, complete with GPS tracking. We have always been able to reach our groups if needed, but now we can track each group via GPS if necessary.
One of my favorite Chinese proverbs truly sums up what we do and the impact our educational travel programs have on both students and teachers:
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
Here’s to a wonderful travel season! We wish you success in fulfilling your own dreams.
Peg Thomas
President, People to People Ambassador Programs
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