Ramar Kong

* My family is a major part in my life. My family is 100% supportive in anything I do. They give me strength, courage, a positive outlook on life, and most of all love. I couldn’t ask for anything else in the world, but with them, I can achieve the unthinkable. I live in a household, where I have two household incomes. I love my parents both, they teach me something new everyday on life. They want to see me go places in life, and grow up to be a successful young man. I have a little brother thats eleven, he keeps me motivated everyday. I have to be his role model, and a positive influence, as a big brother.
* My favorite food: Jerk Chicken off the GRILL!!!! I love the different spices, and blends of flavor all in one bite!
* I attend Uniondale High School. Uniondale High offers a high standard of education and helping youths to succeed in life.
* My favorite music: I am a professional music “DJ” I like to listen to different genres of music. Every type of music has its own background and culture behind it. I mostly like music that inspires and sets the right mood for any event
* My favorite hobbies consists of playing sports like, football, swimming, bowling, karate, and my favorite baseball. I like to go to live concerts! I am a huge fan of the beautiful and talented, BEYONC’E KNOWLES!!! I also like to be creative, taking things to the next level.
* My travel experiences: Florida, North Carolina, Canada, Bahamas, Disney Cruise- (various Islands), and my family’s hometown Jamaica.
* I am a very respectful and all-around person to be around. I like to discover things everyday, learn about different regions of the world, and their culture. I know that this journey and experience to Italy, Spain, and France will be forever life changing.

Jamie Del Rossi

About Me: I am so excited to be a part of People to People and traveling with all of you this summer! My name is Jamie and I live in East Northport. I was born on January 11, 1995. That makes me a freshman at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington. I live with my mom, my 3 older sisters Brittany, Gabrielle, and Jennifer, and my younger brother Luke. My father passed away in 2001 from kidney cancer and it was definitely the most difficult part of my entire family’s lives. The loss of my father has made my family become much closer and has also pushed me to work that much harder in life. I hope to attend college in a city area and live in NYC when I am older. A lot of my family members have lived there and I love the diversity and freedom that you feel while walking through the streets. I have 27 cousins and I love being with my friends or just a big group of people, so this will be a good experience for me! I may come off shy, but I love to meet new people and love to have a good time!

Interests: I played for my schools JV volleyball team this year and it was a great experience. I also play soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and golf but I decided not to play for my school teams because it was hard with school work. I really enjoy drawing because it is something that you can do at any time and it is so relaxing. I also love listening to music! Some of my favorite artists are Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Vampire Weekend, Franz Ferdinand, and the Black Eyed Peas. I can’t go a week without Gossip Girl or my magazinesJ My favorite subjects are math and science and I really only enjoy reading mystery books by people like James Patterson, Lois Duncan, and Agatha Christie. School isn’t terrible but…I can’t wait for this summer!

Sara Dunbar

Hey, my names Sara Dunbar. I’m a freshman at Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead. I enjoy school very much! During my free time I love to be with my family and friends. I love relaxing at the beach and catching up on the juicy gossip in all my celebrity magazines. Going out on my boat and wakeboarding with my friends keeps me occupied during the summer. I kayak with my mom and take out my Jet Ski in the Great South Bay. I love being outside but when it’s not so nice out I enjoy watching a good movie! Global Studies and Biology interest me the most. I have an older brother James, 17, and a younger sister Emi, she’s 11. I live with both my parents and love them so much. They give me the chance to have all these wonderful experiences. I love to travel and have gone on many trips during my lifetime. I’m extremely excited to go to Europe and look forward to spending time and learning different cultures with everyone.

Marah Jolibois

About Me: My name is Marah Jolibois and I am a freshman at Valley Stream South High school. I was born on July 26th 1995 in Kew Garden Hills New York. At age 5 my parents, Martine and Jude Jolibois, and I moved to Valley Stream, where I currently reside. I am of Haitian descent. At age 6 I was blessed with my little sister Judymae. I am an honor student and hope to advance as a photo journalist in the future.

Hobbies: I have a passion for reading, swimming, writing, photography and dancing. My favorite books are the Harry Potter series, by J.K Rowling and the Princess Diaries series, by Meg Cabot. I started dancing at Leggz Ltd Dance when I was 5 years old and I’ve loved it ever since. I do tap, ballet, jazz, modern, and hip hop. With my dance studio I perform annually in a full length Nutcracker ballet with a live orchestra and dance in Disney World, Florida. I am a member of my high school orchestra playing the violin and the piano and I’m part of my school’s varsity track team.

Travel Experience: My family and I have had the great pleasure of traveling to many different states and countries. We have traveled to the Bahamas, Barbados, St. Martin, Haiti and various states around the United States. I have traveled with People to People previously in 2006 to Washington D.C. This will be my first travel experience by myself out of the country. With this group I hope to experience true life in other countries for this will be a voyage of a lifetime.

Orion Marchese

My name is Orion Marchese and it is my first time traveling with people to people. I am excited to be a part of this organization because I feel that traveling to other countries is the only way to truly learn about this country. Also I feel that traveling with people to people is a much better experience than being a tourist because with this organization you get a behind the scenes look at the country rather than being a tourist who doesn’t know where to look.

About me: I was born in Glen Cove N.Y. and have lived there all my life. I am currently in 9th grade at Glen Cove public high school. Glen cove is a very friendly town because everyone in the town knows each other so all the restaurants are owned and run by friends or friends of friends so it a very quaint town. I can speak Italian pretty well I have been taking it for four years and my grandmother speaks Italian. I have been in Boy Scouts for four years also. It is a very good way to teach people leadership skills as well as survival skills.

Hobbies: I have been playing guitar for about 3 years. I took lessons to learn how to read notes but I mostly taught myself how to play. Also about a year ago I started teaching myself how to play the piano being able to read notes made it easy for my to learn the instrument. I love listing to music to. But I really like older music from the sixties and seventies but I also like classical music to like Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven. Another hobby I have is stargazing I love reading constellation and often map stars.



Travel Experience:I haven’t really traveled much except to Florida and also to Canada when I went to Canada I went to Niagara Falls. The experiences was amazing seeing all of that water crashing down its truly breath taking. I also went to the museum, which tells the history of the falls, and the people who try to go over the falls in boats and also barrels!

Alex Gee

I knew my cultural heritage was Chinese American since my early childhood. I was born on January 25, 1994. Although my parents are Americanized, I discovered my fascinating identity through my parent’s anecdotes, and through my less assimilated grandmother who taught me of her experience growing up in China and of our language dialect of Cantonese. As a Chinese American I became proud of my culture and spread the aspects such as the food with my friends. While I was exploring the world, I began participating in community service activities such as my local Turkey Trot, that helps Jerry Kids and Lymphoma and Leukemia research, which really gave me insight into how people can make a huge difference united in helping a righteous cause.

I involved myself in wrestling which taught me self discipline, mental physical endurance, and how to be an independent hard working individual. Along my journey in life, I learned the philosophies of people such as Nietzsche and Socrates which taught me how to view life from different perspectives. Also I learned some fun little things such as how to solve the Rubix’s cube, how to make sushi, and how to skateboard. I was privileged enough to take a trip with my family throughout China, which really confirmed how truly wonderful my culture is and allowed me to see amazing works such as the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors. I appreciate the opportunities I’ve had in life and I hope to further have more adventures in my life.