Spokane's People to People Ambassador Programs, run by Ambassadors Group, has handed out 50 full travel scholarships as part of its celebration of 50 years in business.

The publicly traded company is a for-profit provider of global student travel, themed to education and cultural exchange.

The scholarships were awarded to one student in all 50 states, and a press release said the idea was meant to “further the organization's long-term goal of building cultural awareness and global understanding.” 

The winning students received a place on their local Student Ambassador delegation traveling to destinations such as Europe, Australia, China and South Africa this summer. 

The sweepstakes were open to full-time students in grades 5 through 12 who entered an online submission form.

Winners were chosen from more than 60,000 entrants and were selected randomly.

BookRags.com, an education and book-reference site that is owned by Ambassadors Group, has signed a marketing arrangement with BrainyQuote, a website that provides quotes for students and the public.

Ambassadors Group, based in Spokane, provides education travel for students and others. It acquired BookRags in 2008.

BookRags has created a web advertising network, BookRags Media, that allows partner companies a way to direct ads to the teen and young adult audience using its site for education and research.

BookRags Media did a similar deal earlier, forming a partnership with eNotes, an online education resource site. 

BrainyQuote does pretty much what it says it does, offer up a vast collection of known quotes and remarks by noted authors or celebrities. Since Patty Duke is in the news around Spokane lately, we looked for her quotes there.

And we found this:

“I tell people to monitor their self-pity. Self-pity is very unattractive.”
Patty Duke

If you own 1,000 shares of Spokane travel company Ambassadors Group, you just made $60. (Not $600 as originally posted.)

The company’s directors Thursday declared a quarterly dividend of $.06 per share, to be paid on June 10, 2010 to shareholders of record on May 27, 2010.

Ambassadors Group is a provider of education and professional travel. The company’s stock, sold on the Nasdaq as EPAX, has had a bumpy 2010. It started at $13.59 and closed Thursday at $12.31.

The stock chart across the past four months is a roller coaster ride. The 12-month high point was $17.39 last August.

For information on Ambassador’s programs, go to www.peopletopeople.com.