The trip of a lifetime

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Andrea Osberghaus, far right, of River Falls, and four of her teammates don traditional Brazilian Carnivale costumes while representing the United States as People to People Sports Ambassadors last month in Rio de Janeiro. Osberghaus was one of 11 youth from the Twin Cities Metropolitan area and 200 from across the country who were chosen to participate in the two-week program in Brazil. Submitted photo

Talk about it

When Andrea Osberghaus returns to school Tuesday and her classmates ask her what she did this summer, she’ll have quite the story to tell them.

Osberghaus, who will turn 16 the day she starts her junior year at River Falls High School next week, spent two weeks in Brazil last month representing the United States in the People to People Sports Ambassadors program. She was one of 11 youth soccer players from the Twin Cities Metropolitan area and 200 from across the country selected to participate in the program.

People to People was founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 with the goal to foster world friendship and understanding through one-to-one communication between citizens of different nations.

In Brazil, the players attended training and skills assessment sessions in Ito and Sao Paulo and competed in the Zico Cup, an international tournament featuring teams from Brazil and Argentina, in Rio de Janeiro.

The ambassadors also took part in a variety of cultural activities, tours and a service project delivering donated clothes, sporting equipment and food supplies to impoverished children.

“It was an awesome experience,” Osberghaus said. “Anyone that does it, it will change them forever.”

Read more and see photos in this week's (Aug. 27) print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: people to people, sports, soccer, brazil