People to People Ambassador Programs 50th Anniversary epic bus tour

50 years of travel. 500,000 alumni and we're looking for them!

Welcome to the People to People Ambassador Programs' 50th Anniversary Epic Bus Tour - It's a mouthful and a mileful. Almost 5,000 miles, 20 states, dozens of alumni and two People to People Ambassador Programs employees in the confines of a 1964 Volkswagen Van (just the two employees are in the van!).

You might be asking yourself why? In honor of our 50th year of traveling students, we've made a goal for ourselves: Meet an alum from every year we've traveled. Through their stories, we'll show how international travel has impacted the lives of our alumni and their communities.

So, who's ready for a road trip?

THE EPIC DASHBOARD

Click the icons below to learn more about our bus tour goals!

EPIC TOUR SCORECARD
Our alumni go on to do amazing things, including traveling the globe. Our goal is to find out everywhere (with or without People to People) that our alumni have been in the world. 196 counties vs. 50 years of People to People travelers. We're pretty sure that by the end of the tour we'll find out that our alumni have been everywhere on the globe! Check back to see our progress.
Goal #1
50 years of travel, 500,000 alumni and one goal (okay, we have a few more than one) - meet at least one alum from each year we traveled! Do you know someone who traveled in 1965? or 1982? Send them our way and maybe Dan and Taylor can stop by!

Not on the route but want to reconnect with People to People and possibly your fellow Ambassadors? Register for the year you traveled and let's get back in touch!
1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971
1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
GOAL #3 GET A POSTCARD FROM DAN AND TAYLOR

Always wanted a greeting from the Big Easy or a note from the city that never sleeps? The boys of the Epic Bus Tour will be sending one postcard from each state they visit. For those that have been paying attention, that's 20 postcards! We hope Dan and Taylor have stamps. Check your mailbox to find out if you are a lucky one.

Dan and Taylor
In 1987, a delegation of Student Ambassadors left Montgomery, Alabama for the USSR. With this delegation, People to People Ambassador Programs became the first student organization to go to the USSR. (and did we mention it was during the cold war?). This delegation truly embodied the spirit of Eisenhower's people to people mission. The students met with their Eastern European counterparts and, wait for it, Mikhail Gorbachev!

In honor of this delegation and their mission of cultural connection, we petitioned the City of Montgomery to make an official People to People Ambassador Programs day!

p2p key chain

who are we?

Equal parts education, adventure, and cultural exchange—unlocking the best the world has to offer for our travelers.

CHANGING THE WORLD FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS Student Ambassadors

In the summer of 1962, the first People to People Ambassadors Program delegation departed for Germany, a country torn by the Berlin Wall. Now, 50 incredible years later, People to People Ambassador Programs has traveled more than 500,000 students to every major region of the world.

We've run with President Eisenhower's conviction that peace is the inevitable result of firsthand, intercultural connections—People to People moments. For the last five decades, Student Ambassadors have embodied that mission of global citizenship.

This summer, it's time to turn the spotlight on them, and explore how their experiences have changed the face of America. Cue the bus!

Your guides

Taylor Z

TAYLOR ZAJICEK

Photographer. Writer. Long-time P2P cubicle jockey. History enthusiast. Whitworth University grad. Aspiring professor and linguist. Indiana Jones wannabe.

Dan S

DAN SEIBERT

Video guy. Future director. Gonzaga University grad. Zombie film devotee. Improv comedian. Car sickness victim. Script developer. Closet Minnesotan.

Dan
Fast food wrapper

the route

Ah, the all-American road trip! The muse of Kerouac, Steinbeck, and endless B comedy flicks. The open road is as important to our national character as apple pie, the moon walk, and cowboy attire.

TRACK OUR ROUTE
Student Ambassadors

Our quest to explore People to People Ambassador Programs' impact will take us through southern bayous, western plains, northern metropolises, and countless backcountry towns—over 4,500 miles of Americana. If you live nearby or have any recommendations of places to check out (world's largest cutlery, perhaps?), let us know! We'd love to come visit you.

We'll be traveling in a vintage Volkswagen bus, in honor of P2P's first delegation in 1962. This is the P2Pmobile's maiden (and hopefully not the last) journey. Our top speed may be 55 mph, but our fuel is pure groove.

Keep a sharp eye—you may see us in your town.

Pizza
Hanging with you
photos
May 27th, 2012 7:03 AM
Chow, Grub, Victuals, and Eats Part 1

Written by:Taylor Zajicek

As the planet marches dutifully into the 21st century, our society has become increasingly interconnected, intercultural, and inter…esting (my word craft knows no bounds). This change has brought with it a new vocabulary, and inevitably, a string of scaly buzzwords. Chief among them is "culture"—a highfalutin word that can mean basically anything, and gets tossed around more than Dan's stomach on the highway.

Goober Peas

The term "culture" is often relegated to the fine arts, high-brow literature, language fluency, inaccessible music, and most importantly: distant, exotic countries. However, that's a narrow interpretation of the word. Sure, culture is all those things, but it encompasses the small things of life: bed coverings, waistlines, colloquialisms, silly hats, superstitions, handshakes, toilet flushing mechanisms, and so on.

Talk to anyone who has traveled abroad, and you'll find that it's often these small things that stick out the most and give their stories flair, humor, and character. However, I'd argue that there's one cultural fixture that dwarfs its comrades by miles: food. Read more...


Read this and other articles at the GLOBAL CITIZEN DAILY official Bus Tour Blog

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800.669.7882

People to People Ambassador Programs | 1956 Ambassador Way | Spokane, WA 99224-4001 | peopletopeople.com | 800.669.7882