We take pride in our status as the world's most recognized and accomplished educational travel program. However, like most organizations, we have vocal critics. We believe these negative views deserve to be balanced by the facts, and have assembled the following information to help you understand our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of health and safety in the educational travel industry.
For nearly 50 years, People to People Ambassador Programs has provided
unique hands-on educational travel experiences to more than 500,000 individuals. We travel to more than 49 countries on all seven continents and program participants come from over 100 nations. People to People International selected People to People Ambassador Programs to facilitate its educational travel programs. Together the two organizations are united in mission and vision. Throughout our deep history we have developed exclusive partnerships around the globe that provide
students once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to experience the world.
At People to People Ambassador Programs, we do not believe in borders. Our mission is to bridge cultural and political borders through education and exchange, making the world a better place for future generations.
You can learn more about our
partners here.
People to People Ambassador Programs' first priority is the safety and well being of our program participants. In 2008 alone, we invested more than $3 million to support our safety and health practices. We are the only student travel organization with 24-hour coverage in our program office during the summer months and 365 days of on-call services. We are the only student travel organization to employ a full-time Senior Director of Health and Safety.
Mike Bowers has more than 30 years of experience in travel safety and operations management and regularly posts content to our
Safe Travel 24/7 blog.
The preparedness of our incident response team surpasses any other in the student travel industry.
Michael Palmer, former president of the
Student and Youth Travel Association and COO of the Travel and Tourism Research Association , said People to People Ambassador Programs "has extensive written procedures to address safety issues which are as good as or better than others in the industry."
We have more than 50 employees on our immediate response team and can add staff rapidly in the event of a crisis. Our Emergency Command Center is designed specifically to provide the highest level of support during a response. This year, People to People Ambassador Programs is launching the
FindMe solution that allows a mobile phone or BlackBerry device to be tracked using GPS or cell tower triangulation. During the upcoming summer travel season, People to People Ambassador Programs is providing teacher leaders with this solution. The feature is also available to parents renting the FindMe phone through
Cellhire. Parents can hold text conversations with their student traveler through the
FindMe website , staying in touch wherever they might be in the world. Locations are reported up to every 15 minutes and displayed on a secure web portal, to which only the Cellhire customer has access. Locations can be viewed in map and report formats. Teacher leaders and internal support staff can track either an individual or a group and can view a full history of recorded locations. Parents can keep track of where their children are, and enjoy the educational travel experience with them.
In 2008 alone, 3,300 students with medical or special needs traveled on our programs. Every teacher leader is CPR certified and subject to background checks prior to travel. Teacher leaders must submit letters of recommendation and complete personal interviews with a program representative before being accepted into the program. Once accepted, teachers attend in-person and online training sessions that emphasize travel health and safety. Students are also required to complete online training that focuses on travel health and safety.
