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!

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.

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.

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!

who are we?

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

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 ZAJICEK

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

DAN SEIBERT

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

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.

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.

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.

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

contact us

Are you interested in People to People Ambassador Programs?
Want to learn more about us and stay connected?

If email isn't your fancy, our headquarters has a bustling aviary—we receive thousands of carrier pigeons a day and yours will be well cared for. We are staffed with friendly people who will take your phone call as well.

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