Mods, if this is supposed to be in MPSIMS or such, please move it.
My daughter (6th grade) has apparently been nominated to particpate in a People to People Student Ambassador program to Europe for 3 weeks in 2004. I would like to allow her to take advantage of this program, but I was wondering if anyone had information as to the legitimacy of this organization/program? I’ve done a Google search, but I can’t find anything that would rate this program as a positive experience except from the studends who have participated. Normally I would consider that to be a valid source of info, but I’ve heard of programs where the participants are treated well, but the cost is actually well beyond what it would cost to book a trip with an alternative organization. I should state that the cost of this endeavor appears to be in the $5k range.
Does anyone here have any experience with this organization or have any additional information besides what PTPI has to say about itself online?
I went to Europe & the Soviet Union with People to People as a senior in HS from LubbocK! It was fantastic! We were chaperoned when with the group, and were paired up with similar aged students in our homestays. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I’d be interested in how they plan to take care of 6th graders.
Our son was nominated awhile back. With a little investigation we learned the entire family could go for the the same period of time as they were charging to take the boy.
There was a thread that started in IMHO that got moved to the Pit back around the beginning of the year. Linky
Makes for some good reading.
As I mentioned in my thread, my daughter was nominated. After checking out the group very closely we choose to participate. The cost for three weeks in Europe was approx 4,600. We don’t have lots of extra money so this level of expense required a large reordering of priorities. Much scrimping was required in Casa de Rick. I also had my daughter earn her spending money for the trip ($300)
Was the trip worth it? Looking back, yes. In my daughter’s case, without a doubt. She came back more self-assured, with a better understanding of group dynamics, and got to see places that I have never been to, and got a real world education. I have seen a change in her attitude, as well as an overall improvement in her grades. Yes it was money very well spent in our case. Now every family’s finances are different and this is a large expense. If you don’t think your family can afford it, or cannot raise the money (some kids earned the entire amount!) then don’t allow your mouth to write a check your wallet can’t cover.
Isn’t the People to People organization the one that was developed by…Eisenhower?
My son was nominated several years ago so I don’t remember the details. We chose not to participate at that time because he was pretty young (middle school).
We did, however, participate in the Youth for Understanding Student Exchange Program. YFU has scholarships that assist in the cost of the exchange. He chose to live with a family in Germany for an entire year and absolutely loved it. He wanted to graduate with his high school senior class so he left after graduation and returned the following July. He attended regular high school in Germany (essentially a second senior year) but he wasn’t attending for any high school or college credits.
It delayed college for a year but he would do it again in a heartbeat. His language skills were so well developed that he was able to test out of the entire 4-year German program at university so it really saved us some bucks in tuition.
I can’t stress enough the value of the exchange programs whether it’s for 3 weeks or 12 months. It’s an experience that your child will cherish for a lifetime.
5K for three weeks in Europe? If I had kids, I’d save the money and give it to them as a graduation present; they should be able to get three months out of it easily, and they’d learn how to budget and plan a trip to boot. Or if they were looking for a program with more structure and hand-holding, that kind of money would pay for a semester abroad at most colleges (and probably high schools as well, though I’m not in a position to know).
I don’t doubt that it’s a legitimate program, and I fully agree that doing a foreign exchange is worthwhile, but it sounds way overpriced. You’d be better off researching other exchange programs with less overhead.
Likewise. Be cautious. A quick web search found these pages at TheBostonChannel and ProTeacher Community, both expressing concerns, pointing out that with PTPI, despite the non-profit front, you’ll ultimately be dealing with a commercial travel company.
Congratulations raygirvan for your superior googling skills. You managed to find the exact same two links that Jeanster posted in the thread I linked from 8 months ago.
Now from that pro teacher link that you and Jeanster liked so much as bashing PTP let me quote a few of the responses.
And this one I liked so much I quoted it in the linked thread
I travel to Europe on business once or twice per year. Traveling in the middle of the summer, airfare is expensive (figure 1400-2500) This leaves between 3200-2100 for three weeks of hotels, meals, busses, and inter-country air fares. I would call that resonable. I find the cost to be very acceptable. But hey that’s me. Every family has different priorties, and different money available. Just because one family cannot afford it, this does not make it a scam.
I went as a People to People Ambassador to Europe in 1977 when I was 17-years-old. I was junior in high school. We traveled for six weeks, had six home stays and had a wonderful group of 32 students, two chaperones, a great guide and an even better bus driver who took us throughout Europe. It was the most wonderful learing experience that I could have ever had. We stayed in Prague for a portion of the trip and got to really talk with people who had been living under/behind the iron curtain. Wow, I’ll never forget going across the border and having the Checkoslovakian officials take our passports for save keeping during our stay.
I went as a People to People Ambassador to Europe in 1977 when I was 17-years-old. I was junior in high school. We traveled for six weeks, had six home stays and had a wonderful group of 32 students, two chaperones, a great guide and an even better bus driver who took us throughout Europe. It was the most wonderful learing experience that I could have ever had. We stayed in Prague for a portion of the trip and got to really talk with people who had been living under/behind the iron curtain. Wow, I’ll never forget going across the border and having the Checkoslovakian officials take our passports for safe keeping during our stay.
I went as a People to People Ambassador to Europe in 1977 when I was 17-years-old. I was junior in high school. We traveled for six weeks, had six home stays and had a wonderful group of 32 students, two chaperones, a great guide and an even better bus driver who took us throughout Europe. It was the most wonderful learing experience that I could have ever had. We stayed in Prague for a portion of the trip and got to really talk with people who had been living under/behind the iron curtain. Wow, I’ll never forget going across the border and having the Checkoslovakian officials take our passports for safe tma keeping during our stay.
I went on a people-to-people trip during the summer before my junior year of high school. It was a 6-week long trip to Germany, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia (Sarajevo, which is Bosnia now), Italy, and Greece. We had week-long homestays in Germany, Austria, and Greece. It was a great experience.
However, I would think 6th grade is far to young for such a trip and $5k for three weeks is ridiculous.
OK, Ive been on a trip of theirs, and my mother is a leader for them (6th grade actually)
My trip was absolutely phenominal. I would say that it is absolutely worth it. Yes, it is steep, but with a little fundraising its not too bad (little tip: I made alot of money by designing T-shirts and selling them to my fellow ambassadors). Yes you could potentially take an entire family for that much, but you miss the point, it’s not a vacation, it’s an educational experience. And kind of an eye opening one at that. People to people is a non-profit, and they do have a large large support network for every country. The homestay alone is worth it, and so are the experiences with people you’ll meet. When I went to Costa Rica with them we got to speak with one of the original Quakers who founded the town of Monte Verde. This was how we spent our evening after white water rafting and spending some time teaching/learning in a school. His view on life was something we never would have been able to hear with another group The school was probably one of the most eye-opening experiences, a two room school house with children bringing their younger, non-schoolage, children with them. Our leaders encouraged us to get away from the touristy spots (I was fairly well the only one who did as most towns there have a maze of curio sops before you hit the more interesting areas.)
I still talk to friends 5 years later that I met on the trip, our group was paired with a delegation for Kentucky, and I still talk to one girl almost daily. Her take on it is probably the best: Its a very very good introduction to travel, its sort of a training ground to teach you how to get the most out of your experiences abroad. To sum up, its not a trip, if you want a vacation then yeah take the family to disney world or something. But its not a scam-“opting out” for cash isnt a good idea, if she wants to go, fundraising isnt hard. Opting out for other reasons may be a good one though.
Alot of it depends on your daugher’s maturity level. honestly there are alot of 6th graders that can’t handle it at all. On the other hand there are alot that can and walk away from it addicted to traveling, rather than just being a tourist.
DrkGntly, my middle schooler was nominated for a National Geographic tour, & my spouse & I felt the same way…we could book the same itinerary for cheaper. I also wonder if younger students would have the same opportunities to access that my P2P group had. That’s a tough call.
But comparing what you could purchase yourself & what P2P has to offer is an apples/oranges thing for the trip I experienced. In London we saw the crown jewels. Later I learned my future spouse toured the tower of london that very same summer and my spouse’s tour group was told the jewels were off limits to all tour groups. We were the second student group to tour the Soviet Union after the declaration of the Nixon/Breshnev ‘Detente’, the first group was the previous year’s P2P. Amoung many other things, we toured Russian Orthodox cathedrals, catacombs and saw Orthodox art icons not available to even Soviet citizens until detente. Soviet citizens were shocked to meet American students. I had never talked to anyone from eastern Europe before. In the Western Europe urban and rural homestays we got a feel for what life was like for our homestay families.
At the time it was expensive. You may want to get details on intinerary, but I doubt any tour you could book would give your child the homestay experience.
5000 for three weeks is ridiculous, even in summer. If you do some airfare shopping, you can easily get airfare for less than a grand. This past summer I got roundtrip Chicago to Rome, in June, for $800. That leaves $4200 for three weeks for trains, lodging, meals and sightseeing. Thats $200 a day to take care of those expenses. Let’s say $500 for a railpass, $25 a day for hostel lodging, $30 a day for meals, and $30 for sightseeing and local transportation. That leaves approximately a $2000 savings. I would save the money now and give them the trip as a high school graduation present. There are homestay programs and other volunteer programs that will give kids the same kind of experiences as the PTP program. I think having the freedom to go as you please instead of following the tour itinerary would be a better cultural experience. On the other hand, I’ve never been on a PTP trip, but I’ve seen them all over the place in Europe. The continent is literally crawling with them, so they must be doing something right.
Rick: I didn’t read that thread. I just tried the Google search [“people to people” “student ambassador” scam]. The OP asked for sources providing viewpoints other than those of P2P itself, and those sites provide it. In my view the main criticism stands: that People to People misleadingly markets itself as some kind of POTUS-endorsed philanthropic award rather than the reality, an organisation selling expensive organised student tours.
My daughter (HS sophomore, already self-assured, thank you, and very curious about the world) actually nominated herself, via the web site, after a couple of friends came back from their P2P trips. Her 19-day trip to England and France next summer comes to $4795, which is a little higher than my guess, but seems about right considering what’s included: Airfare Boston-London and Paris-Boston, all lodging and meals (ever check London hotel prices in summer, gang?), all surface transportation including the Portsmouth-Le Havre ferry, all tours and guides (and the itinerary is packed), a tour of the House of Commons (can’t get that as an ordinary tourist), a 3-day learn-to-sail camp, college credits even. But the educational aspects are what sold us - she’ll learn more and grow more this way than as part of a Griswolds-ytpe family vacation.
Yes, the sell is polished and intense at the information session, the prices aren’t mentioned in the initial literature (normal for long-lead brochures in a business where costs can change rapidly), but anyone who thought it would be free doesn’t get much sympathy from me.
This is getting into IMHO territory, but it does seem a bit too pricy. even if it will be a wonderful trip. I also vote for the “save the money and send her off after high school” idea.
Nothing gives you direction in life like having to book a hostel for that night in Austria when you don’t speak a word of German so that you can take a freaking shower because you’ve been sleeping on a train for the last three nights. Any kind of travel will make a kid more self-assured, but having a crash course on budgeting, getting a roof over your head every night and dealing with a different language, subway system and currency every other day will make moving in to a college dorm (often a traumatic experience) look like a piece of cake. Plus, you must remember that there are many cultural and life experiences that come from being a budget backpacker that you can never find on an organized tour.
