page_title: People to People Student Ambassador Program
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: People to People Student Ambassador Program / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Eisenhower receives members of People to People committee in Rose Garden
context_page_description: The People to People Student Ambassador Program was a travel service based in Spokane, Washington, offering domestic and international travel opportunities to middle and high school students. The group was founded in 1956 and reincorporated in 1995.
  People to People Student Ambassador Programs closed in 2015.
  Since its founding, nearly half a million students, adults and athletes have participated in the ambassador programs. Since 2002, the services offered have been operated by Ambassadors Group, a for-profit company. Though open to international primary and secondary school students, programs are primarily for American students aged 10 through 18. The typical length of a program is three weeks for a group of thirty to forty students. The organization currently operates as a for-profit travel company with income of almost 100 Million. Ambassadors Group ceased operations for student travel on July 13, 2015. Ambassadors Group.
context_section_description: In 1956, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sought diplomatic alternatives to the wars he witnessed as a soldier, general and Allied Commander. On September 11, 1956, he called a White House conference of 100 top American leaders, who joined him in creating the People to People initiative, focused on creating cultural exchange programs. The idea for this conference came after a Geneva summit, where Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev expressed enthusiasm for exchange programs as a means to ease Cold War tensions. Participants in this conference included Joyce Hall, comedian Bob Hope, and Walt Disney, who became one of the founding directors of People to People and later drew inspiration from the initiative to create the "It's a Small World" attraction in 1964.
  The program was originally sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency, a branch of the Federal Government. In 1961, Eisenhower decided that it should be preserved by private citizens and asked Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, to facilitate the privatization. That same year, the nonprofit People to People International began a contractual relationship with Ambassador Programs, Inc. to administer People to People travel programs for adults and students. In 1962, the first delegation of university students traveled overseas and stayed with families all over Europe. The first Student Ambassador Program was organized in 1962, with regular programs beginning in 1967. Until expansion in the 1980s, the organization sent only a few hundred students abroad each year. In 2002, People to People International granted a license to operate student programs under the People to People Student Ambassador Program name to Ambassadors Group, which had been formed as a separate company out of the Ambassadors Education Group.
caption: President Dwight D. Eisenhower with the People to People committee in 1960.
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