Ballwin Student Receives Student Ambassadorship

Editor's Note: The following announcement was submitted by representatives of People to People Ambassador Programs.

People to People Ambassador Programs, the world leader in global educational travel experiences, recently announced that Emilie Stagoski, a ninth-grader at from Ballwin, has won a “50 for Fifty” scholarship to travel with a 2012 student delegation.

Emilie received a place on her local Student Ambassador delegation traveling to Europe. Fifty full Student Ambassador Scholarships are to be awarded to one student in each of the 50 states to further the organization’s long-term goal of building cultural awareness and global understanding. 

“I am so excited to have this opportunity,” said Emilie. “I am most looking forward to expanding my knowledge and making new friendships across the globe.”

Emilie is active in her school’s campus ministry and has diverse interests including ice skating, horseback riding and soccer.  These are traits that will make her an exemplary student ambassador. 

“Being a Student Ambassador has so many benefits,” said Emilie’s father, Michael Stagoski. “Emilie will have the opportunity to continue to develop her leadership skills, global perspective and inter-personal skills. I am very grateful that her involvement with People to People continues to develop these areas.”

The scholarship sweepstakes was open to full-time students in grades 5 through 12 who entered themselves via an online submission process. As one of the 50 winners, out of more than 60,000 entrants, she will have the opportunity to visit multiple stops in Europe on the European Destiny program. This is one of the more than 25 unique programs offered on all seven continents. Scholarship recipients were selected through a random drawing.

The nationwide scholarship sweepstakes was awarded in conjunction with People to People Ambassador Programs’ 50^th anniversary of providing world-class international student travel.

“We are excited to commemorate 50 years and the more than 500,000 ambassadors who have traveled abroad with us,” said Peg Thomas, president of People to People Ambassador Programs. “Providing these scholarships to a student in all 50 states gives us a way to celebrate our history while providing students throughout the country with the chance to have this life-changing experience by connecting with different cultures directly.”

"I'm excited that Emilie Stagoski has the opportunity to travel internationally with People to People Ambassador Programs,” said Michelle Shearer, 2011 National Teacher of the Year. “Having traveled to China and Japan as National Teacher of the Year, I know that educational travel is an invaluable opportunity to learn about cultural similarities and differences."

Increasingly, cultural awareness is a necessary component of success in our global economy. Student travel with People to People expands students’ world views, stretches their horizons through education-based travel. Each program explores cultural attractions, offers homestays or other people-to-people moments, incorporates community involvement through service projects, and provides unique People to People moments like meeting with parliament members in the UK, laying wreaths of remembrance at Normandy or staying in sacred Maori sites in New Zealand. Research shows that more than 80 percent of students who travel with People to People Student Ambassador Programs are accepted into the college of their choice.