People to People St Louis Delegation Terri Satchell, Mary Beth Leaders Student Ambasador Leadership Trips Spokanne Washington Internet

This is a Student travel group. They had some seriously unorganized meetings before travel. However the day of travel went off smoothly. Arrival to Europe went smoothly other than unavoidable airline delays from severe storms

One teacher chaperone is new and very judgemental, very poor attitude. Not a good thing when she is with students from all

walks of life. She displayed bad attitudes toward several students and talked down to them. There have been a few glitches with this Delegation that are NOT the norm with other Delegations confirmed by students who have been on many trips prior to this Europe. These teachers seem to have a problem that isn't being gotten to the bottom of quite yet, which is sad because it is ivr shadowing a 22 say European trip. Even after they had 3 days off from the students they came back in poor moods. one has to wonder if they perhaps had a bit too much fine Itakian wine on their days off. The students seemed to enjoy their Home stay visits with local families to see how local families live.

There have been several times the students were to have group shopping/exploring time in the cities however the leaders cut this short always in favor if going to sit in the Hotel. I didn't pay $7,000 for my delevate to go Europe to be forced to sit in a Hotel instead of seeing the cities. Other students that have been in this same trips other times said other leaders took them out in the evenings to shop/ explore more. It seems this Delegation got a group of lazy leaders that only wanted to do the least possible. When an itinery says a student gets one hour to shop and literally they get 12 minutes that's insane and what can be accomplished?  They were supposed to see local Markets and Trade , which hasn't yet to happen. It's all been reported to the offices we will see if the offices can fix the last 7.5 days of this trip.

Because there are 49 disillusioned teenagers that all paid an enormous amount of money to see Europe and many times just walked past Museums and didn't even get to go in. On a good note it's given me the true desire to see the birth place of my relatives and I will take my Delegate back. I feel sorry for someone that will never be able to do this. However it will probable take me overtime for two years to make this happen. I think People to People haa a great concept but their program needs a few changes and much more supervision on the leaders. Hopefully the rest of the trip will go more smoothly because as if today it was pretty much chaos with angry teenagers, feeling as if many had spent great amounts of time find raising and they were getting cheated. I feel the dirtiest for those students.

I do believe the opportunity to see a foreign country and how they live is a valuable Expierence for the delegates. The mailing system is a but deceptive. For people that dnot know you are nominated by people that know your family for them to possibly win A $500 scholarship in their city toward their trip. So it's your friends, relatives or people your child goes to svhool that gives up your name, address, email, phine number, children's names and ages to get enteted into the drawing to posdibly win that $500 Scholarship for their trip. It's not a mailing list, it's people you know, in some cases perhaps dedperate people to try to win that $500 scholarship.

This trip has opened my Delegates eyes to a whole new world, one she wants to go back and see in more depth and of course take a Parent along so there is opportunity to set our own schedule. The home stay provided Delegates with the opportunity to meet an Intetnational Family to be friends with for a life time of friendship, communication and visits. That can be priceless 

as long as they bond with their home stay family well. The $7,000 is an investment in the future but there are tbings about these programs that could be made better. I firmly believe President Eisenhower would be all for change and keeping the program relevant  and as fun as well as educational, and yes President Eisenhower set up this program in 1956. Some commentors should have done research before shooting off their mouth.