16-year-old Weston White, soon to be a Blytheville High School Junior, recently returned from a three week trip to Europe as a student ambassador with the People to People organization.
White, who is the son Don and Denita White of Blytheville, said the People to People initiative was started in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Eisenhower believed the direct interaction between citizens around the world would truly bring about world peace and cultural understanding.
"Now they have groups that go all over the world, the United States and Canada as student ambassadors," White said. "How you get selected is one of your teachers at school has to recommend you. If you get the recommendation you get a letter in the mail telling you that you have been recommended and you go to the website and learn some more about it. Then you go to a meeting to learn even more about it. If you still think you want to do it you are set up with an interview. If you make it through the interview then you are notified you made it and you find out where you will be going."
Once White was chosen as a student ambassador he had to attend orientation meetings once a month for about a year to learn about the culture of the countries he would be visiting. He also had take some online courses before leaving on his 20-day trip to see six European countries. White has been recommended for the People to People program several times before but was never able to go on the trip. He knew of the organization not just through being nominated several times but his older sister went on a trip to Washington D.C. with the People to People initiative.
Not only did White have to go through a long interview process to become a student ambassador, once he was chosen he had to spend the year raising the $6,499 for the trip. In addition to doing fund raisers White worked two jobs, while maintaining above a 4.0 grade point average, to be able to go on the trip.
"I'm still working to pay my dad back some of the money he gave me," White said. "We left June 22 and I got back on July 11. We went to Germany, England, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland. We flew into Switzerland and we stayed in a little village in the Alps for a few days. We went up on the Alps, around the village, I got to go white water rafting on the Rhine."
From Switzerland White and his group went to Germany where they toured the Cuckoo Clock factory, toured Heidelberg and got to stay with a German family for three nights.
"It was fun staying with the family," White said. "We got to go to school with them for a few days. We went to the English classes and spoke to the kids learning English so they could practice and they asked us how we liked Germany and how it is different than back home."
After departing Germany it was off to the Netherlands where the group toured Amsterdam to see how the famous Dutch clogs are carved and learned about cheese making. The group also toured Anne Frank's House.
"We went through Belgium where we got to visit a chocolate factory," White said. "That was awesome! We also went to a lace store and I got some stuff for my grandma. Then we went to France."
In France the students got to go to the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
"I got to take a picture of a couple that had just gotten engaged at the top of Eiffel Tower," White said. "We got to go to the beaches of Normandy where D-day happened. That was really neat. We got to be a part of a ceremony where they raised all the flags of the countries that fought during D-day and we got to sing our national anthem. We went that night to Great Britain. The first thing we did when we got to London is eat breakfast and go see the JFK Memorial that the queen donated when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. An acre of land around the memorial is actually American soil that was brought in so we were actually on American soil in London."
The group got to spend three nights in London before returning home to the U.S. White said throughout the trip he enjoyed learning about culture of the European countries he visited and he didn't even mind the food. He said there were a few meals he didn't like but he tried everything and said most of it was pretty good.
"The thing I missed the most about American food was cheeseburgers," White said."
White and the other students get half high school credit for going on the trip and said after high school he would definitely like to study abroad. He went on to say his delegation leader Dr. Cynthia Miller has told him of a scholarship that he will be applying for to be able to go on another People to People initiative trip next summer, but this time a no cost.
"I hope I can get the scholarship because I think going to Antarctica or Australia would be cool," White said.