How were you first introduced to EDHEC?

In sixth grade, Académie Lafayette takes a trip to France, and on mine, my parents picked me up after that trip and continued it. We were in Paris and took a bike tour and the tour guide went to college there. He was talking about the college and my mom mentioned it would be cool if I went to college in France.

Last summer, I was researching colleges, and we ended up going to France again. Nice is one of the cities that we visited, and I visited EDHEC and just fell in love with the program. It’s a pretty awesome program — you get to travel and get work experience in beautiful cities. This fall when I was applying to and visiting colleges, I realized nothing really compares to the college in France, so I decided to apply there.

What is the EDHEC International BAA program?

It’s a bachelor’s in business administration, and the track that I’m doing is global business. It is a traveling program that is in a top university in Nice, at UCLA and I’m going to Singapore for my last year. You can choose Singapore, Hong Kong or Argentina and my aunt visited Singapore and said she loved it. I chose Singapore because if I were to have a business, I would want to have the technology there and the country is tiny and cute…With EDHEC, internships within the program are required so when I have jobs outside of college, they will already be drawn to me because I will have the work experience. Also, I will know what it’s like not just going to college but working in big businesses.

Why did you make the decision to consider international schools rather than looking in the U.S.?

Since I went to Académie Lafayette, the school broadened my horizons to be more international-seeking. I know other Académie Lafayette kids in my grade are actually looking at international colleges as well. I think a big part of us learning a different language and visiting France at such a young age is having an interest in international schools rather than only local ones.  

How do you believe your international school experience will differ from the localized college experience that most of your STA peers will have?

The cost is a big thing. It’s not that expensive — almost $15,000 a year. I also have to find my apartment, but it’s way cheaper than other tuitions if I went out of state. Also, the people coming in to the program are basically all international students, so I’ll get to meet a lot of different people…I think I’ll be exposed to more diverse learning styles. Maybe at a college where you stay on one campus, you have the same people and things you see. With this traveling program, I get to see different countries and have different experiences.

When applying to EDHEC, did you ever feel unsure or nervous considering you will be the first STA student to ever participate in the program?

I felt unsure doing the application process because no one knew how to do it from here. I was talking to Mrs. Hudson and asked her some things but she didn’t exactly know so I had to contact the EDHEC people and they were on a different time zone. I’m excited to be the first person from STA to do this program.

What advice would you give to STA students considering applying to a nontraditional college program?

Go for it. It doesn’t really matter what other people are doing and you don’t have to follow everyone else’s decision to go to other types of schools. Just do your own thing.