Christopher Siracusa, a sophomore at Hawthorne High School, is going to Italy and Greece for 19 days in July with the People-to-People Student Ambassador Program.

“I am honored and thrilled to be a part of a program like People to People. It’s the expedition of a lifetime. It has been my dream to go to Italy, and the fact that I’m getting that and more is mindboggling to me. I’m thrilled,” said Siracusa.

This program encourages the student to raise money to pay for your trip. Siracusa plans to have a garage sale, with items his family and friends have contributed and some of his own, and he is also having a jewelry sale at his house in a month or two.

On his trip, Siracusa will visit Rome, Napoli, Palermo, Segesta, Erice, Tarmina, Mount Etna, Bari, Partas, Olympia, Athens and Crete before finally returning home. While in Bari, the People to People Student Ambassadors will be rebuilding sea turtle habitats in the Mediterranean Sea to help the community. Siracusa will also be staying with an Italian family for two or three days while in Italy.

With this program, Siracusa will also visit famous places such as the Colosseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, Pompeii, the stadium where the first Olympic Games was held, the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Palace of Knossos, and the cave where the Greek god Zeus is said to have been born.

The People to People Ambassador Programs is a program that gives adults and students, both in high school and college, the chance to travel to seven different continents. This movement was started in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and has been a huge success ever since.

According to the People to People website, the reason Eisenhower created this program was to organize and promote opportunities for bridging cultural and political borders through interaction and unique experiences.