Youth Ambassadors Program

The Youth Ambassadors Program is a three-week exchange for high school youth (ages 15-18) and adult educators focused on civic education, community service, and leadership. Subthemes through which to explore those overarching themes may be added, such as the environment or business and entrepreneurship. Participants engage in a variety of activities, such as workshops on leadership and service, community site visits related to the program themes, interactive training, presentations, visits to high schools, local cultural activities, civic education programming, and other activities designed to achieve the program's stated goals. Multiple opportunities for participants to interact with peers while they are in the host country must be included. Follow-on activities with the participants are an integral part of the program, as the students apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired by planning service projects in their home communities.

The goals of the program are to:
(1) Promote mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of the Americas;
(2) Prepare youth leaders to become responsible citizens and contributing members of their communities;
(3) Influence the attitudes of the leaders of a new generation; and
(4) Foster relationships among youth from different ethnic, religious, and national groups and create hemispheric networks of youth leaders, both within the participating countries and internationally.