Looking Outward - Compass 2020

2019/20 ANNUAL REVIEW of the AMERICAN SECTION - LYCÉE INTERNATIONAL de SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

Looking Outward

COMPA SS

Looking Outward

ASALI – American Section of the Lycée International 2 bis rue du Fer à Cheval, C.S. 40118

78105 St. Germain en Laye Cedex, France Phone +33 1 34 51 74 85, Fax +33 1 39 10 94 04 www.americansection.org

Table of Contents 3 – Directors’ Corner 4 – Lower School The Story of Lego Robotics 5 – Middle School Our Newest Award 6 – Upper School A Decade of Working with Refugees 7 – Making their Mark Profiles of Current Students 10 – Faculty Voice Examining Worldwide

11 - The New Lycée International 12 – Where in the World are they Now? 14 – A Life-Changing Experience 17 – Student Voice 2019 Summer Awards 22 – Class of 2019 University Destinations 24 – Development Report 30 – Alumni Focus

The magazine is distributed without charge to current parents, alumni, former faculty and staff, parents of alumni, and other friends of the Section.

Co-Directors – Adrienne W. Covington and Mike Whitacre adrienne.covington@americansection.org mike.whitacre@americansection.org Editor – Margaret Jenkins margaret.jenkins@americansection.org Graphic Design – Judy Loda and Karen Willcox Printer – Imprimerie Jasson Taboureau Contributors – Jon Boafo, Adrienne Covington, Amy Crist, Dorian Echasseriau, Alysson Fisher, Janna Husson, Mathilde Jamart, Charlotte Jarquin, Margaret Jenkins, Andrew McGovern, Orianna Merer, Matthew Morvan, Hélène Papper, Thomas Perkins, Willima Puyo, Sandrina Ramanantsoa, Chloe Tordoir, Claire Weil Photography – Chris Clark, Denis Debadier, Margaret Jenkins, Marjolein Martinot, Madeleine Parnot, Denis Royer Vol. 9, Number 1 Copyright 2020 by ASALI. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, without the permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this magazine. If you have any questions, corrections or comments please contact the editor, Margaret Jenkins, at margaret.jenkins@americansection.org.

“Being truly ‘educated’ in this day and age means a broad knowledge that can only be acquired through a limitless interest in the world around us. Inspired as we are from our eyrie perch, we look forward to bestowing the benefits of ‘looking outward’ on ever more generations of young people.”

Adrienne W. Covington, Co-Director 2 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

The mission of the American Section is to provide an outstanding American educational and cultural experiences within the context of the Lycée International. Fostering intellectual curiosity and selfconfidence, we help students reach their full personal and academic potential. We actively prepare students to play dynamic roles in the world by developing their leadership abilities and nurturing a sense of responsibility towards others.

Please address admissions inquiries to Director of Admissions - Lisa Stephens-Morvan admissions@americansection.org

Cover image - Marjolein Martinot

Directors’ Corner

It is hard to believe that one year ago we were working out of temporary quarters, in anonymous shoebox-like containers, one perched atop the other. Once again, the ancients have proven themselves omniscient regarding time’s ephemeral qualities--for who amongst us could have imagined 12 months ago that we in the American Section would have the good fortune to find ourselves in such a magnificent, grandiose new building? What’s more, the Section offices of old have given way to spectacular new quarters--a tree-house of a space, full of light, with a commanding view of the surrounding area. Whereas before Mike and I gazed out over a construction site, today, from our Section perch, we gaze out over the surrounding area, with its lush greenery and tidy neighborhoods.

Tempus really does fugit.

The issue of Compass you now hold is a tribute to the Section’s embrace of its new offices, Maternelle, and Secondary school buildings. With its generous use of layout and glass, the new Lycée International has been transformed into a teaching tool itself. No longer do teachers need to remind young people to be curious about the outside world. The school’s very structure guarantees that students, of all ages and grades, can take note of their surroundings, and appreciate the world beyond.

It should come as little surprise, then, that this year’s theme is “Looking Outward,” not only to recognize the Section’s brilliant new home, but also to mark our collective intention for each and every one of our students. It’s not enough for us to educate young people to be bilingual and bicultural...it is also important for us to mold young men and women into curious learners for life. However, a human being does not become “educated” solely through inward reflection. Rather, being truly “educated” in this day and age means a broad knowledge that can only be acquired through a limitless interest in the world around us. Inspired as we are from our eyrie perch, we look forward to bestowing the benefits of “looking outward” on ever more generations of young people.

Adrienne W. Covington and Mike Whitacre Co-Directors

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Lower School

The Story of

LEGO ROBOTICS The American Section’s newest co-curricular activity is the Lower School Robotics Club. Led by faculty advisor Caitlin Echasseriau, the Robotics Club is open to students in Third, Fourth and Fifth Grades, and meets every other Wednesday afternoon. It is an extremely popular activity.

Some twenty-five children are learning to code, and to build and program robots to execute basic commands. And while their robotics skills are growing weekly, they probably do not know the story of how the club came into being…

I remember the engine slowing as the plane came to a halt and thinking only one thought, we were actually in Detroit, ready to participate in an international robotics competition! Later, at the Cobo Center, the lights flickered on, the excitement and tension built up, and I heard a loud countdown on the sound system which generated rivaling sounds from the different teams. As the countdown ended, my fingers wobbled on the buttons and I glanced over at Claire Gallet. With one quick breath, it was off….

But how did we get here? Claire’s story begins a couple months before our collective story begins. The summer of 2016 she participated in a STEM camp in New Orleans where she was introduced to Lego robotics. Claire loved it so much that upon returning to France and joining the American Section, she wanted to bring her enthusiasm of Lego robotics with her. Claire and her dad found out there was a First Lego League in France that allows teams of kids between the ages of 9 and 16 to compete in a robotics and research competition. Claire was determined to find a way to participate.

For me, it began at the American Section picnic, when my mom caught sight of the sign that would change my

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life. It read, “Lego Robotics partner needed,” and Claire’s Dad was wearing it around his neck. A week later, we were at Claire’s home, testing the path for a robot. Four months later we were at a regional competition, five months later we were at a national competition, seven months later we were at an international competition, and two years later we’re French champions. We’ve won trophies in Robot Game, Robot Design and Programming, Team Spirit, and Research Project, for which we have contacted major brands and specialists, created prototypes, and have interviewed three astronauts.

For Claire and me, one of the best times associated with this activity is right before our competitions. When we get to rehearse the completed project presentation and watch the robot complete mission after mission. It is really rewarding to see after all the hours, if not days, you’ve put into this. On a larger scale, space vehicle/system designers work tirelessly for years. When the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, scientists were jumping around the JPL control room like kids, with the same feeling of euphoria. Working with Lego robotics has also inspired us to aim for a future in engineering or other STEM-related professions. Maybe someday we will be working on a rover for Mars, or a flight plan for the next shuttle!

But we didn’t stop there. Claire and I have had such a great experience that we want to share it with others. Claire heads the Robotics Club for Middle School at the Roby campus, and I, Dorian, mentor the Lower School Robotics Club. We both use the knowledge, experience, and skill we have gathered from our competitions and have brought them to the clubs.

It’s great to see other students so enthusiastic about coding and robotics. And, it’s fun to share what we have learned with them. As we begin our fourth year of First Lego League competitions, I am amazed to see how far we have come from that day at the picnic. I’m excited to see what this year will bring, and to see more and more kids enjoying robotics in the American Section.

Dorian Echasseriau, Quatrième

Middle School

The Junior Summer Scholar OUR NEWEST AWARD Award Participation in the Junior Summer Scholar Award is open to current Quatrième and Troisième students and awards 1500€ to a deserving applicant who wishes to explore an academic or artistic subject indepth over the summer. A Summer Scholar can study most anything: music, studio art, creative writing, science, history, sports or ecology, as long as s/he is pursuing a passion or exploring a personal interest.

The award also stipulates that the activity must be in English and preferably in an English-speaking country.

The theme of this year’s Compass Magazine--Looking Out--perfectly encapsulates the motivation behind our new Junior Summer Scholar Award.

Created to offer deserving Quatrième or Troisième students the chance to give full voice to a personal or particular passion of theirs, the 1500€ award was designed to enhance our collègiens’ experience during their time in the Section’s Middle School. The award was made possible thanks to the class of 2019, who donated the funds to the Section as their Terminale Class Gift.

The guiding inspiration behind the Award is our current Strategic Plan, affectionately referred to as SP ‘21. In it, we recognize that in addition to an

excellent education, encourage a young person to pursue the world’s best a deeply held passion, as well as the schools are those ability to change lives. It was in this that promote special spirit of looking out to the future that enhancements, such Maya was selected. Her artwork is as traditions, at of such a level that the committee every level. Our hope recognized that her talent neededis that the Junior -and deserved--to be nourished at Summer Scholar this critical moment in her young life.

Award will become What’s more, the work we examined as eagerly anticipated helped us adults acknowledge what an event amongst most of us already know--that art our Quatrièmes and ennobles the human mind. When Troisièmes as similar properly developed and encouraged, Section awards which have now been art provides enlightenment and hope a part of the Upper School students’ to an embittered world. experience since 2008.

For this kick-off year, my colleagues and I eagerly looked forward to the handful of applications we anticipated receiving. Imagine our shock and surprise at receiving close to a dozen submissions! What’s more, not only were we struck by the sheer numerical expression of interest, what astounded us the most was the fact that every single submission was a winner.

The topics ranged from participation in a US space camp to learning more about interior design.

Each application--brimming with a young person’s enthusiasm and hopeIn the spirit of looking out to -merited the full consideration given it by each of the committee members. nurture a young person’s talent, and However, in the end, there was one looking out (in another sense) for our submission that stood out from the collective future, the American Section rest, truly deserving of the winning is proud to have created this awardrecognition it received. In explaining -and prouder still of the immediate why she hoped to attend a Creative place it has found in the hearts of all Arts School in Bournemouth, UK this of us fortunate enough to belong to summer, Maya Vardanyan, Quatrième, this remarkable institution called the became the first recipient of our Junior American Section.

Adrienne W. Covington Summer Scholars Award.

School awards have the ability to Middle School Principal and Co-Director

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Upper School

A Decade of Working with Refugees

American Section student involvement and interest in refugee issues began in 2006 when teacher Michelle Green and student Weli Freedman ‘07 organized an exhibition of 25 drawings by child survivors of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. This event, The Smallest Witnesses, the Conflict in Darfur through Children’s Eyes, was made possible by American Section alumna Camille Joseph ‘99 through her work with Human Rights Watch in Los Angeles. “We were the first in France to host this collection of powerful drawings that documented the crimes against humanity,” recalls Michelle.

The momentum generated by the event led to the solidification of the American Section’s Human Rights Team. Through the team’s close connection with Camille, who is Mrs. Green’s daughter, students were able to meet Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone and author of Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier.

“This encounter totally fired up the team!” Michelle remembers. “There were so many incredible students, like Grace Abuhamed ‘09, who took the lead and inspired others to keep the flame alive.” Nearly 15 years later, the annual Human Rights Team film festival is part of the fabric of the American Section.

Each year the student leaders encourage their peers to look beyond their comfort zone and challenge them not only to educate themselves but to act and to make a difference--in some small way to improve human rights.

The film festivals have raised awareness about prisoner welfare, water rights, and human trafficking among others.

In 2016, student leaders Misia Lerska ‘16, Anne-Sophie Fayet ‘16, and Max Heudebourg ‘16, driven to better understand the flood of refugees entering Europe, invited the inspiring guest speaker, Jasmin O’Hara, founder of The Worldwide Tribe. Jasmin aired a film documentary showing the plight of refugees living in the Calais Jungle.

Her passion and dedication to these refugees living in makeshift camps in Calais and in other parts of Europe inspired a new generation of students to act.

Those upsetting images from the Jungle in Calais prompted Terminale student Edith Coronas ‘17 to take action. With the help of the HRT and Matthew Morvan ‘17 she organized a lentils and rice drive specifically for the refugees in Calais. The students, along with their mothers, drove to Calais to deliver the donations and spent a week volunteering with L’Auberge des Migrants. They sorted

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clothes and prepared food and clothing items, which were delivered to the encampments.

Upon learning of migrants being housed in the Yvelines, Edith launched a toiletry drive to benefit migrants in emergency shelters--one of which is located less than a kilometer from the Lycée. Every year since, American Section students strive to improve the lives of this vulnerable group of people in our community. Students, namely Sophie Lemmerman ‘18 and Billy McGovern ‘18, also sought to help Tibetans living in neighboring communities. The needs of these communities are similar even though their stories or migration are different.

There was such an outpouring of support from the American Section families for these local initiatives that students felt motivated to form a community service group. This student-driven group has consolidated local efforts and focused primarily on working with refugees.

In the past several years, the group has partnered with NGOs like Serve the City Paris, the Red Cross, and Utopia 56 to help those most vulnerable--especially during the winter months.

Our students have collected coats and warm sweaters and delivered them to unaccompanied minors who have fled war and find themselves living in precarious conditions on the streets of Paris. Coats and toiletries have gone to the asylum seekers living in St. Germain-en-Laye. We’ve partnered with the Red Cross and held bake sales to buy warm hats and mittens for the most vulnerable. We’ve also made sandwiches and delivered breakfast packs and toiletries to refugees living in tent cities on the streets of Paris. The students, led by Lorraine Deberon, Terminale, and others, have continued to build a relationship with those in our community through game nights and potluck dinners. The dedication of these students is inspiring. In the midst of their exams, college applications and essays, they make the time to serve those most in need in our community.

Amy Crist Lead Librarian and Technology Specialist

Most American Section students strive for a healthy life balance, participating in a wide variety of extra-curricular activities at school, conservatories, athletic clubs, and associations in addition to their academic pursuits. Unbeknownst to most of their classmates, some have taken these pursuits to the highest level, investing countless practice hours and garnering both awards and accolades.

On the Run: Benjamin & Gabriel Dockins

Current Students

Making their Mark

Running is a family affair in the Dockins family. Both Benjamin, Troisième, and Gabriel, Sixième, compete with a private athletic club in St. Germain and run academic cross country for Marcel Roby. They have made it to the podium many times at competitions in both France and in the USA, including USATF nationals. Over the past three years, both boys have made it to top levels for their age group in France, from departmental races to regionals. In academic competitions, the brothers both regularly make it to regionals. Two years ago, Benjamin even placed in the top 10 in nationals, while Gabe placed first in Saint Germain’s Foulée Royale last year.

Benjamin loves running, especially with his family.

When he’s racing, “he doesn’t feel the pain,” instead he “enjoys feeling the fresh air.” Gabriel focuses not only on being better than the others but also surpassing himself. The walls of medals in their rooms are testament to that! All-around athletes, the boys play also play soccer for the American Section. Their parents find their participation in sports to be a great outlet for academic stress as well as a way to reinforce teamwork and friendships in a positive way.

A Promising Chess Debut: Maximilien Karushkov-Nguyen-Tiet Maximilien Karushkov-NguyenTiet’s began his formal pursuit of chess at the age of five, when he received a chessboard as a gift from his mother.

He began playing with his father as a leisure pastime, eventually enrolling in the Le Vésinet chess club when he was eight. He now plays with the Club’s Youth Team in the N1 (First French Chess Division Team Championship), and joined the club’s “Excellence Team” in September, so that he could explore strategy and tactics at a higher level. Maximilien now trains approximately 10 hours per week.

Currently in Fifth Grade, Maximilien earned the title of Young Chess Vice-Champion of the Yvelines in November 2019. This is a notable accomplishment, as it is his first year in playing competitive chess. At the tournament, he

won 8 out of 9 games and tied with another player. In 2019, he won the ”Open Rapid International Youth Chess Tournament” in Herouville-Saint-Clair and finished tied for third place in the French Youth Chess Championship in Hyères-les-Palmiers. Maximilien competes in the category U12 “Pupil,” for children between the ages of 10 and 12 and is known for his open, creative, and attacking style.

Inés Vitrac-Garcia

Inés Vitrac-Garcia, a Cinquième student at Marcel Roby, swims at the national level, competing for the local club CNO St. Germainen-Laye. She has also been part of the Île de France team since 2018.

Inés has participated in several national competitions, winning the 200m breaststroke contest in 2018 in her age category. She has already qualified for 50m, 100m, and 200m breaststroke for the next national championship in July in Pau, and will be seeking qualification for several other races.

Inés is also a talented open-water competitor, and has won several scratches (all age categories) in Annecy, Charleville, Beauvais, Bordeaux, Creil... all national cup events in fresh and salt water ranging from 1000 to 2500m. In the water, she likes the fact that she’s alone and that nobody can distract her.

She swims 12 hours a week, often with the Marcel Roby swimming section.

Intensive training camps over the holidays help her improve her skills, stamina, and speed. Inés is also an excellent runner, performing in cross country and triathlon competitions. She also does ballet.

Inés admits that it is a challenge to juggle everything, and has created a custom planner which allows her to organize sports and school work!

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Current Students Power on Ice: Sophie and Hannah Sprung The American Section is proud to have among its students two champion skaters, Sophie and Hannah Sprung, in Quatrième and Cinquième respectively. World travelers, they were born in New York, then lived in France and Tokyo before returning recently to St. Germain. Sophie has been Championne de France four times and is currently the youngest skater in the elite Equipe de France. Hannah has also been Championne de France and is in the Equipe de France.

The girls started skating on a lark at the ages of six and seven when they were invited to a birthday party at the ice rink of Chelsea Piers. They now begin each weekday at 6am at

the rink in Courbevoie with two hours of training, and are back in plenty of time for school. Sophie remarks: “Being serious about skating and school means we have to budget our time wisely; every 15 minutes counts.

I allocate time to various tasks from school – reading, test prep, vocabulary, writing – and do my best to follow the plan. You’d be surprised how much you can get done in the car!”

For Hannah, “skating is very aesthetic – all about ‘grace under pressure,’ as my father puts it. Skating teaches balance, timing, and grace. It is difficult to

An International Swordsman: Alexandre Milano Alexandre Milano, Première, was fascinated by swordsmen as a little boy. His idols were the three musketeers and Zorro, and his dream to become a ”knight in shining armor” brought him to the world of fencing when he was six. He now competes for the FIDES of Livorno, Italy and the BLR92 in Bourg-la-Reine. When school is in session, his weeks are highly organized to reconcile academics and his sport, including multiple threehour training sessions and daily physical preparation.

Lots of studying and homework is tackled during his commute! As the level of fencing in Italy is among the most elevated in the world, he travels to Livorno during school breaks, where he trains mornings and evenings. During the summer, he attends camps abroad to experience different types of fencing.

Alexandre is half-Italian and half-Venezuelean, and competes internationally for Italy. His list of achievements is extensive. In 2018 he was named one of the 12 best Italian fencers born in 2004. He has medaled at championships in Paris, London, Germany, Belgium, and Italy, including silver and gold at the Italian national championships in 2017, a silver at the Dulwich Fencing International Challenge in China in 2018, and a gold in the team event at the French championships in 2019. While he sometimes struggles with motivation, Alexandre finds the amazing fencing experiences he lives far outweigh the sacrifices he has had to make over the years.

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smile when you are alone on the ice in front of judges and audiences, but this helps with your score!” Sophie finds that “skating is all about persevering – it’s pretty much the definition of skating that you fall and then pick yourself up and try again. It is also about perfectionism: skating is one of the most unforgiving sports, and you learn to distinguish between fractions of a point in evaluating every element.

You learn a lot when you lose or make mistakes. You learn to be gracious to your fellow skaters, since we all have our good days and not-so-good days, and we need all the encouragement we can get. Overall, I think skating makes me stronger.”

Not Just Another Tall Girl Playing Basketball: Charlotte Guérin Charlotte Guérin, Première, was encouraged by a friend to try basketball when she was in Cinquième. She had always refused to play the sport because she didn’t want to be a stereotype, the tall girl who plays basketball!

Needless to say, she discovered a love for the game, and it came to her relatively quickly. Charlotte now practices three times a week and has games every Sunday. She plays in the Championnat de France U18 right now with the Mont Valérien team, which means those games can be anywhere in the country. To accommodate this busy schedule, she does her school work on Saturdays, on the RER and on the tram, which doesn’t necessarily leave much time for socializing, however she finds that playing with her teammates makes up for it.

Charlotte has not played on the same team, or at the same level, for more than two consecutive years, because her desire to improve has kept her moving around. Two years ago, when she played for Versailles, her team finished second in the national U15 division. They also won the Tournoi de Limoges, in which teams from the entire country competed, and she was nominated for MVP (Most Valuable Player). Last year her N3 senior team finished second in France and this year they are contenders for a title in U18 division.

Making Music: Feodora Douplitzky-Lunati Feodora Douplitzky-Lunati, a Quatième student at Marcel Roby, says that when she heard the sound of violins for the first time, she immediately wanted to learn how to play one. With the encouragement of her parents, she began her musical career on the piano at the tender age of four. She switched to violin when she was in CP, taking her first lessons at the Lycée Français de San Francisco in Marin County, CA, where she was a student. Since her move to France two years ago, Feodora has been studying violin at the Conservatoire de Saint Germain-en-Laye. In addition to her weekly violin and solfège lessons, Feodora plays in the string orchestra. She practices an hour a day during the week, rising early and playing from 7am until 8am, before heading to school, and at least ninety minutes a day on weekends. This regular practice is key to her progress.

Feodora loves hearing the sound of her instrument, and as a person who likes challenges, she is always trying to become a better musician. Every summer she attends a music camp at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. At Interlochen, Feodora practices at least six hours a day, and participates in the symphonic orchestra with 60 other musicians, as well as in several chamber music ensembles. She hopes that her regular participation in this intensive program will allow her to maintain her advanced level until university, as she plans to attend an American college and pursue a double major in music. Given the amount of time students are required to devote to academics in France, this will be a challenge, but with her characteristic d e te r m i n a t i o n and discipline, she has a great chance to reach her goal!

Helping Others on a Daily Basis: Lorraine Deberon Lorraine Deberon, Terminale, first got involved in the Red Cross when she was in Troisième. She and a friend wanted to go to Paris and hand out Christmas gifts to homeless people, but her parents were reticent. They instead sent her to the Red Cross Youth Department, where she has been volunteering ever since. She participates in fundraising, forums, and various projects.

Lorraine recently became a certified First Aid instructor, and now teaches children and adults what to do when faced with someone who has fainted, or is suffering from burns or a heart attack. It is a challenging and fulfilling role that she really enjoys.

Lorraine is extremely proud that she was able to complete the project she dreamed up in Troisième.

Last year, the Section’s Community Service Group raised money to buy hats, gloves, scarves, and socks, and donated them to the Red Cross. Lorraine added Christmas cookies, which she and other Red Cross volunteers wrapped and wrote Christmas cards, then handed care-packages out to the homeless in Saint Germain. She muses, “We often think that to make a difference in the world, we have to travel across the globe, but the truth is that there are people in the center of town who could use a cup a tea and a smile. This isn’t idealistic: helping people get by on a daily basis is no small feat, and one of the most efficient ways to do it is to break their isolation and acknowledge them as people.”

Learning to be a Firefighter: Antoine Charcellay For the past five years, Antoine Charcellay, Terminale, has spent his Saturday afternoons at the fire station.

Enrolled in the four-year-long Jeune Sapeur Pompier (JSP) program, those days are a mix of theoretical lessons, practical training, and several hours of sports. In a lesson about fire, for

example, they learn what fire is, how it is created and propagated, and how it is extinguished. JSPs then take part in drills that simulate different types of procedures and practice using instruments and tools, such as compressed air tanks. In addition to fire-fighting, the weekly lessons also cover topics such as first responder, civil security, environmental and material protection, and rescue.

The Jeune Sapeur Pompier is a four year program and is open to young people between the ages of 11 and 18. It culminates in the Brevet National de Jeune Sapeur-Pompier. Antoine learned about the JSP program from his cousin while he was in middle

school and was immediately hooked.

He values the feelings of camaraderie and team spirit, enjoys the way they apply what they learn, and the fact that they are genuinely helping others.

He also appreciates the militarylike training, which values rigor and respect. Although yet unsure where he will be studying next year (probably an engineering prepa), Antoine is adamant that he will continue to be involved with the pompiers, and will become a volunteer firefighter when he has completed his university studies and settled into a full-time job somewhere.

Thank you to Chloé Tordoir, Troisième, for her help with this feature.

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Faculty Voice

Out in the world By its very nature, the work that goes on in schools tends to center on bringing in knowledge to enhance the education offered to students, rather than the other way around. But opportunities to “look out” do also exist, and we take pride in seizing them. They provide faculty and staff with occasions to share “St. Germain expertise” with schools around the world, as well as the chance to broaden our own knowledge of the way other establishments function.

Examining Worldwide Preparing our Terminales for the American Option of the Literature OIB is a lot of work, but it pays large dividends to students and teachers alike. In June of every year we witness the intense focus of our baccalauréat candidates, and when we see their excellent results it is confirmation of the hard work we’ve all invested. The end of the year is a time of challenge and excitement as we shift out of our classroom roles as OIB teachers and become corrector-examiners, grading the essays of students from around the world. We travel to conduct the oral examinations, sometimes staying in the Paris region, but more often travelling to centers in Bordeaux, Lyon, Rennes, or Antibes-Valbonne. If we are lucky, and have senior examiner status, we can be chosen for some of the more exotic destinations: Dublin, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Johannesburg, and French Guyana. We are the envy of our French colleagues, whose responsibilities keep them within the academic zone of Versailles in June and July.

I’ve had the great fortune to travel abroad with the OIB, first to the Lycée Franco-Allemand in Shanghai, back when it was in its second year of the American option.

American option schools in the Asian region pool financial resources to fly examiners over at great expense and I felt like a foreign dignitary, meeting with the Proviseur to give my impressions of their candidates and being asked what they needed to improve to reach the consistent excellence we foster at St. Germain-en-Laye (to this day considered one of the few schools that sets the gold standard). In an act of total serendipity, Mike Whitacre was selected that same year as the History-Geography examiner, and we were able to explore Shanghai together in the spare moments around long days of examining and being on the jury de baccalauréat. It was my first time in Asia and it was truly mind-broadening.

In subsequent years I have examined at the Lycée Français d’Irlande in Dublin, and this year I have been selected to go to Johannesburg, South Africa. Examining for the OIB is about more than a change in scenery; for the integrity of the American option it is critically important to

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have experienced examiners who have tested in a range of schools and who can give direct feedback to centers which are starting out in the option. Examiner-correctors provide vital ongoing «quality control» through their grading and through meetings with teaching teams, followed up by written reports shared with school administrators and with the OIB leadership. Unsurprisingly, in the first few years most schools require a lot of guidance and need to adapt their approaches. The system of itinerant examiners is therefore essential to assure a consistent delivery of the program and an equitable grading system worldwide.

“Necessity is the mother of invention”, wrote Plato.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic we have transitioned to online classrooms with tools like Zoom.

Such applications may become lasting features of the American Section experience, and the skills we are learning in this context will doubtlessly help us to forge solutions for the future question of the oral worldwide with regard to the bac reforms. We at the Section wish to continue the time-honored tradition of the oral examinations; it is a challenging but deeply valuable rite of passage, giving our students a formidable edge as skilled speakers who can synthesize and present complex concepts in a high-pressure, high stakes examination. Indeed, our pupils embody the concept of “grace under pressure.”

Historically our Literature students tend to perform a few points better on the oral than on the written portion of the OIB, so many of them have been propelled to their welldeserved mentions by dint of the eloquence and analytical verve that come across in person. They routinely score above 16, and there are often grades in the 19-20 range.

From the point of view of this Literature examiner, conducting orals is a valorizing and even moving experience, since these are usually the very last exams students pass in their high school careers. It is a true privilege to have meaningful discussions with students around France and around the world about the stylistic and thematic issues presented in our common body of Literature within the genres of drama, fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

Andrew McGovern, Head of English

The New LycĂŠe International

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i s risus. l n , s n o c i a n e o n , r n i e non ipiscing am. Maec on, mi. Pleifend mr. Duis , ad ltrices di ismod n nim est e is sempe ium a, um uongue, eu olestie, et erat. Duat in, prett libero a gue. e u p q t m e a u s l per cnummy m t n o i ae, co u s v a l s s i u o m s n i c n diam que vit Ut in r ibendu ntuma, sceleris congue. tibulum b massllentesque Cras ves . Pe tempor. etra Where in the world are they now?

Our faculty comes to us from schools around the world, and sometimes their life trajectories take them to new and exciting venues, far from the Lycée. But once a member of the American Section, always a member of the American Section! We caught up with five beloved former faculty members, now working in the US, Estonia, Rome, and China.

Catherine Reed Upper School English Teacher, 2008 - 2017 I am now the Head of English at The Ethel Walker School, an independent boarding school for girls from ages 11 to 18 in Simsbury, Connecticut, with the most diverse student body of any place I have been. I came to Walker’s from the Lycée, where I had been for nearly a decade.

I’d been in France for five years prior to my time in Saint Germain, so returning to America has been a big transition. I am glad to be here at a time of great social change, but the divisions in this country do seem deeper than ever. Literary class discussions spark interesting debates about these matters.

What is similar? Teaching English is still a joy to me, here, as it was for me in Saint Germain. I am still teaching Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and Toni Morrison. I continue to use many of the strategies that I mastered in France in teaching the OIB. I have brought the art of the text commentary to the Connecticut countryside. Poetry Out Loud is now a tradition here at Walker’s, and every girl competes each year before heading to the state competition. What is different? Nearly everything else. The girls live here, so the residential aspects of life permeate every classroom and the way we all get to know each other is pretty profound.

Like my students in the American Section, they are intellectually curious, academically ambitious, driven to achieve, and occasionally anxious about their future lives. Unlike my students in Saint Germain, most have not traveled the world. Their course grades matter a great deal more, more, as there is no Bac. There are no boys, so there are only female leaders-of clubs, groups, classes, teams, etc. There is an expectation that school should be fun, a pleasant, engaging, and exciting way to spend one’s day.

This puts some pressure on teachers to really make it so every day. I’d say, most days are actually pretty fun.

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Ben Ghiglione Lower School Teacher, 2017 - 2018 I am currently a Fifth Grade homeroom teacher at Tsinghua International School in Beijing, China. I teach reading, writing, math, and social studies to a class of twenty-one English-speaking international students. The most important part of primary school, in my opinion, is not the academics -- it’s making sure that kids grow up with a love for learning, and teachers are greatly responsible for that.

A teaching strategy that I brought with me from the American Section is to make lessons as inquiry-based as possible. Kids learn more when they are having fun and when they take ownership over the material.

On multiple occasions, I have used lessons I first taught at the Lycée with my students in China, such as the Explorers unit, where the students pretended to excavate an underwater shipwreck to understand how explorers made it across the oceans.

What I enjoyed the most during my time in the American Section, both as a student and a teacher, was the strong bond between teachers and their students. My teachers truly cared about me and my classmates, and they are a big reason why I decided to become a teacher. As such, I put a lot of focus on building a relationship with every single one of my students.

Becky Cohen Middle School English Teacher 2014 – 2015 Born in Boston, I have been teaching Middle School English/Language Arts in the area for close to twenty years. Five years ago, I decided to take a break from Boston, cross something off my bucket list, and teach in France! I had always loved the language and culture; it felt like my ideal middle-life study abroad experience. My only hesitation was teaching in a purely American environment. I wanted language and cultural immersion; to intentionally feel out of place. I needed to find out how my American-style pedagogical practice would translate (and transform) as a result.

The American Section/Lycée International was the perfect place to find out, and my time at Marcel Roby, albeit brief, confirmed my hunch that certain aspects of teaching transcend cultural and linguistic differences, while others do not. In most ways, 13 year-olds are 13 year-olds, inferential thinking is inferential thinking, and a coherent essay is a coherent essay. Yet, debating the merits and drawbacks of book censorship was not the same.

Unpacking classic American literature through the eyes of children whose only experience with America was second-hand, was not the same. Preparing Troisièmes for a standardized test that would determine the next chapter of their schooling was not the same. And for that, I am grateful. Now, years later, I am back home in New England, still teaching 8th Grade English/ Language Arts at a large, public middle school that I love. Yet, the memories of my colleagues, students, and families from St. Germain are still with me. They remind me that teachers should be forever learners, and stretching ourselves from our most comfortable places can change who we are, and how we educate our students, in profound ways.

Lucas Menella

Ben Heckscher

Upper School History Teacher, 2010 - 2015

Upper School History Teacher, 2013 - 2019

I am now teaching at St. Stephen’s School in Rome. Coincidentally, Mr. Hicks and Mr. Capé also used to teach here. This is my second year at St. Stephen’s after transitioning to the International Baccalaureat (IB) when I moved to Japan. I find the student population of St. Stephen’s quite similar to that of the American Section, but the most important difference is that it is an IB school, and is independent, as opposed to the French government-run OIB. The other big difference is the role of technology.

When I left the Lycée, only students with special permission could take notes on a laptop, whereas both in Japan and in Rome it is assumed that a student will have a computer in every class and do most of their work on it. This, as well as having more class hours each week, has changed the way I teach. A lot of what I work on now is collaborative Google Docs and Slides that students put together in class, but the style of my lessons and interactions has taken a huge amount from what I learned during my time at the Lycée, particularly under the wing of Mr. Whitacre. I am also doing college counseling here in Rome, and utilizing a lot of what I learned from the maternity leave cover I did (with a lot of preparation the year before) for and with Ms. Boalch, and one advantage of doing that is that I’ve gotten to meet up with her at conferences to catch up. My travels have also led me to meet up with some of my former students, the source of my fondest memories at the Lycée.

Currently in my first year at the International School of Estonia, an International Baccalaureat (IB) school, I am teaching Individuals and Societies (social studies) to Troisième and Seconde students, history to Premières and Terminales, and also have a Première Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class. What is similar with the Lycée International? The kids! They’re nice people dragging themselves more-or-less good-naturedly through a somewhat boring formality of growth, more than happy to goof around, and—usually--ready to work if they really have to. And what is different? Space: I have a classroom, with bookshelves and a big history library, a projector that can connect to the kids’ devices, couches, whiteboards and a coffee machine! Class sizes: my biggest class has nine kids... my smallest has two! As far as grading goes, it makes for a light load. As far as class dynamics and conversation, it can be a bit rough. Contact hours: I see the kids 4.5 hours a week, which means there’s lots of time for projects, and, with the small classes, lots of one-on-one time. The diploma: the IB is a huge, unwieldy thing. Coming from the OIB, where 35 of us decided everything and there were very few administrative formalities, it’s very frustrating. There are massively time-consuming online forms to fill out, complicated lingo to learn and to use, and a very opaque system of higher-ups who determine the program, the exams, and the marking scheme. I love the philosophy; I hate the hoops we are expected to jump through. From the American Section, I’ve brought a lot of good material (projects, lectures etc.), and a lot of self-reliance. Since there were no textbooks for the OIB, I always wrote my own material, which has been a good skill to have, and since we didn’t have much in the way of support, I figured out how to do what was needed. It helped me get up to speed pretty quickly here. Coming from the Section, where we all wear many hats and work in such close proximity, I also had a good sense of how a school works as a whole.

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A Life-Changing

India

EXPERIENCE

Exchange

Since the India trip’s inception in 2006, over 200 American Section students have taken part in our India Exchange. Its life-altering impact on everyone who participates is the single most important reason why we take students to India every year. Working with underprivileged children and living with locals in a radically different culture, the experience invariably sparks immense inner growth and meaningful reflection. In some instances, it can even alter the course of a life, as you will read in the interview with Matthew Morvan ‘17, who was a member of the 2015 India Exchange Team.

Why did you initially want to take part in the India exchange?

It’s hard for me to remember exactly why I wanted to participate in the trip. I had a strong intuition that there would be a before and an after to the exchange. I had attended a few of the returning student’s events which left a lasting impression on me, a sort of spiritual and cultural enchantment for India. Beyond the images, videos, and dances carried out during these events, what I really remember are the stories the students shared. I particularly recall their tone and attitude, the meaning and engagement with which they picked their words, and the growth they’d been subject to from the places and people they’d met.

What were your major take-aways from that first trip?

Part of what made this exchange so unique was the pace and depth in which we were immersed into Indian society.

We met people from radically different layers of Indian culture and knitted meaningful relationships with strangers.

We were continually bathed in small gifts and welcoming embraces while being exposed to contrasted lifestyles and sets of values. Jumping from playing tennis at expensive resorts to sharing and learning with children in slum areas, I was exposed to more communities, classes and beliefs than ever before. The most symbolic testament to this diversity of encounters was in showing the daily activities we’d been carrying out in the Ramapir No Tekra slum community with our exchange partners. The first shock was that they were not aware of the squalid living conditions of others despite there being only a few blocks separating the wealthier communities from extremely marginalized ones. The second shock came when our exchange partners asked us how it was in France. We quickly understood that we had exactly the same socio-cultural ignorance regarding our homecountry. It took traveling to another culture to give sense to what was going on in my own backyard. This realization lead me subsequent years to crowdfunding and collecting donations for refugee camps in Calais and community work with local social workers and asylum seekers in St. Germain.

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Why did you want to return?

The shared feeling among the students coming back from the 2015 exchange was that of frustration from coming back into a set of social constraints that felt superficial and absurd.

Our little bubbles of comfort had been pierced and we could forget neither the warm hospitality we’d received nor the inequalities we had seen. But as a few weeks passed, I could sense those feelings disappearing. I did not want to forget the faces I had met and the values they had taught me, but they were slowly being erased by the daily treadmill of the lycée student. Here I had a choice: letting daily comforts encroach over values, or steering clear from the bubble I had grown up in. Along with curiosity and my admiration for India, going back to Ahmedabad is now a matter of setting my internal compass in the right direction when my lifestyle and values go astray.

What did you do when you went back?

A year and a half after the exchange, out of an intention to learn and serve, three friends and I naively started a small non-profit named Kassiopé. We stayed for over a month at Manav Sadhna, a non-profit situated on Gandhi’s

“The India trip was a jolt to the system - at times chaotic but always eye-opening and mind-altering. My 2014 trip to India helped me grow more open-minded and knowledge-thirsty, and I wish every student at the Lycée International could have the same opportunity.”

Dorian Desblancs ‘16

Ashram, run entirely by the local population and providing social services, such as value-based education and meals and hygiene programs, for five different slum communities.

With the help of the Global Citizen Scholarship awarded by the American Section, we created a mobile eye clinic in partnership with a local eye hospital and carried out nearly 500 eye exams. I have since returned three times to continue and deepen this work, distributing spectacles and carrying out screenings for further eye pathologies with

the communities’ elderly, surgeries… always in a spirit of symbiotic learning with Manav Sadhna. The learning curve for what to do and not do in developing health systems as a outsider has been steep and rich.

Do you have any further plans to go to India or to extend your project?

Over my gap-year after the Lycée, I spent five months working on Kassiopé in Ahmedabad. I remember one afternoon relaxing after a six-hour morning of screenings in the heat with elderly people and being abruptly assaulted by an Indian tourist. She deemed us disrespectful to the sacred monument she had come to visit. I remember our eyes meeting and being utterly lost and paralyzed, as I had never felt anyone have so much hate for me. The incident took its full dimension in remembering the historical importance of where we were sitting – Gandhi’s home for over 15 years, the first Salt March, the birthplace of India’s independence.

In many ways our approach with Kassiopé resonated with a post-colonial approach to development. We were putting band-aids on wounds historically caused by our own culture, and then making them dependent upon our help. Manav Sadhna and locals knew this, yet believed we could work together. From there on, our work was no longer about eyeglasses but about nations reconciling and healing historical wounds. I think this is what the community elders saw - human beings attempting to live together; overcoming common wounds through compassion. I hope it is not too pretentious to say that my role is now one of a relationship catalyst. I have realized that the resources to solve eye care issues already exist within Ahmedabad’s ecosystem and they have no need for our knowledge or technology. Only through various stakeholders learning how to relate to each-other in new ways can Ahmedabad’s systemic health issues be solved.

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India

It took traveling to another culture to give sense to what was going on in my own backyard.

Exchange

Matthew Morvan ‘17

“Being a part of the 2015 India Trip made me grow as a human in ways no other experience has.

I discovered the true meaning of privilege, and how important it is not to waste the chances life had given me. It taught me to communicate cross-culturally with people from radically different backgrounds, using sign language in many instances, to build strong relationships. I am planning on going back to volunteer at Manav Sadhna in the years to come.”

Sacha Gauthey ‘16 Would you like to add anything else?

My piece of advice is for anyone anxiously nearing a lifechanging decision, such as choosing a university, degree, or career path. Throughout Upper School I lived with this anxious feeling of constantly sprinting through life. Running from kindergarten to primary school, from middle school to upper school, then university and a never-ending career before retirement. Taking a year off taught me that life is more interesting when it is not moving in a straight line towards its end. I’m incredibly grateful that I had both the

Providing Educational Opportunities

The Indian artisanal goods stand, which has become a familiar feature at Section picnics and other school functions is yet another example of the American Section “looking out.” Since 2011 the proceeds from the sale have been used to finance the education of un d e r p r i v i l e g e d girls from remote parts of India, Tibet, and Nepal.

This project started when former teacher, Terry Hershey volunteered at the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Dehradun during

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financial and socio-cultural capital to pause my life and meet new people and find out what truly makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. After taking a year off of school and changing degrees three times over a year-and-a-half, I’ve developed a strong intuition for knowing when to make important decisions that will make my life more fluid. I’m now exactly where I want to be, surrounded by the right people and incredibly grateful for all the opportunities I’ve been able to take along the way.

Matthew Morvan ‘17

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

Mother Teresa her sabbatical in 2010. She subsequently established an undertaking with our partner school in Ahmedabad, Mahatma Gandhi International School. MGIS accepted to grant free tuition for the IB program (grades 11 and 12) to two girls per year. The American Section committed to help pay the girls’ room and board, and the money from the sale allows us to contribute several hundred euros annually.

Approximately 25 girls have benefitted from this partnership. Some have been sponsored by MGIS to visit our school as part of the India Exchange program. The majority have received scholarships for university or graduate studies in India, and a few have even been awarded full scholarships to study abroad at institutions such as Sciences Po. Paris.

Without the help of all the stakeholders: Pestalozzi, MGIS, the American Section, and private donations, these girls most certainly would not have the opportunity to higher education enabling them to compete for higher paying jobs, and ultimately bettering their lives and the lives of their families.

SUMMER Student Voice

Awards

S U M M E R S C H O L A R AWA R D

Learning about Climate Change in Alaska From a very young age, I have been passionate about respecting and preserving nature. Although many scientific studies have proven the phenomenon of climate change, the American government still refuses to act on or even acknowledge it, and most people who know about it believe that they cannot make a difference. If no change is made soon, however, the consequences of climate change may become irreversible and life as we know it will change drastically.

This scenario has worried me greatly, and I believe that it is imperative that we make changes to our lifestyles for longterm benefit, even though those changes could be viewed as negative in the short-term. I was therefore very interested in Brown University’s Environmental Leadership Lab programs, as I believed that I would gain more knowledge about how climate change is affecting our planet and about ways that I could contribute to slowing down this phenomenon. I was motivated to participate in the Alaska program as that area is affected by the warming of the climate more than the rest of the world: registering its highest recorded temperature this summer, the ice on glaciers and above the Arctic Circle is melting at frightening rates.

During the first four days, we stayed at the University of Anchorage, and learned about the biodiversity in Alaska and the way of life of a few Native Alaskan Tribes. There were also trips which gave us first-hand learning experiences: we visited a Wildlife Conservation Center, where we were able to see rescued animals such as black bears and caribou, as

well as an Alaskan Native Heritage Center, which allowed us to learn more about their different cultures. We were also taught about how climate change has affected many local tribes: for example, because of warming waters, many marine animals have changed migratory paths, affecting the polar bear population and the tribes that rely on those animals for food and clothing. Finally, we learned about how the warming climate has been contributing to the acceleration of the melting of glaciers, and we went to the Matanuska Glacier to see first-hand how the ice has retracted.

We then traveled south to the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS), at the Peterson Bay Field Station. There we had hands-on experiences, such as tidepooling, where we were able to safely interact with many different types of sea stars, sea slugs, jellyfish, and even a couple of octopuses.

Moreover, we helped the scientists stationed there with some of their fieldwork: for example, we studied a type of sea star called True Stars to make sure that they were not

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SUMMER Awards

infected by Wasting Disease, which has ravaged Alaskan sea star populations. During our stay at CACS, we also did many activities dealing with identity, privilege, and leadership, and completed an art project in relation to something we had seen or learned during our first week in Alaska. Finally, we briefly studied geology and visited an ancient Native settlement site. These few days allowed us to be much more independent than we had been in Anchorage. We were much closer to nature, surrounded by the water from Peterson Bay and the forest and completely disconnected from civilization with no access to running water or electricity.

We then traveled to the Kenai Peninsula College for the last leg of the program. During our stay, we mostly learned about Alaskan salmon migration patterns and the misuse and overexploitation of oil resources. We also went on a few hikes through the forest and to the Kenai beach, visited a fishery, and organized debates about fishing and drilling for oil in ANWAR, a northern region of Alaska, which is a debate that is currently being discussed by the American government.

During the Brown Environmental Leadership Lab, I was able to discover Alaska, a state that I had long wished to visit, and learned a great deal about its wildlife and Native cultures.

I also participated in some scientific research, learning about a job that could be of interest to me later on, and was able to analyze my leadership style and learn many new skills.

Thanks to the other students, I was exposed to many different cultures and made amazing friends from around the world.

This Brown University pre-college program was an amazing social and educational opportunity, and I am truly grateful for my Summer Scholars Award for giving me the chance to participate in the program.

Alysson Fischer, Première

G LO B A L C I T I Z E N S H I P AWA R D

Raising Environmental Awareness through the Research of Pacific Gull Boluses It is night-time and Dr. Jennifer Lavers, a marine scientist, is walking along a coastal littoral looking for birds nesting on the ground. She is conducting research to understand why young seabirds are perishing in unprecedented numbers during their first migratory flight. She catches a young bird and purges its stomach with salt water, forcing it to vomit up all contents. It becomes apparent that the poor bird’s gut is absolutely filled with hard indigestible plastics.

When I watched this scene from the award-winning documentary Blue (https://bluethefilm.org), I felt a heartwrenching sense of hopelessness. We’re all grateful to hear birds chirping happily in the trees when we take out the trash in the morning, but few of us stop to realize that those birds may well go to our local landfill in search of food for their chicks, and that our “recycled” sushi box from last night could end up in their guts.

The destruction by humans of our natural habitat is already affecting our ecosystem in significant ways, and as I watched the documentary, I knew I wanted to contribute in some way, shape, or form, to the conservation of our ecosystem, and more precisely to helping the animals.

I reached out directly to Dr. Lavers, who is based at the Institute for Marine

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and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) in Tasmania, offering to work as a volunteer on one of her projects and enumerating my motivations, skills and experience.

Within days, she had written back, confirming her willingness to have me join the Pacific Gull Boluses project. Her endorsement then formed the basis of my Global Citizen Award application.

A few months later, I flew to Tasmania to start my work at the IMAS laboratories. I was working under the supervision of her Honors student, Lillian Stewart. My role was to collect Pacific Gull boluses (pellets the size of a milk cap which are regurgitated by sea birds) from the Tamar Island Wetlands, dissect them to determine what percentage of their diet is anthropogenic, and to identify the specific types and sources of plastics - classifying and weighing all materials. Each day I analysed 10-12 boluses, sometimes spending an hour counting and weighing 400 pieces of eggshell, or unravelling three whole plastic bags.

By the end of the two weeks, I had dissected and analyzed about 100 boluses, which may seem

like a huge amount, but is in fact just a small dent in the hundreds of boluses still remaining. The project will continue until April 2020, at which point the results will be published in an extensive report on what is happening to the Pacific Gulls. The aim is to raise awareness of a problem about which many people have heard, but have not adequately understood, to invite change into our lives on a daily basis, and to encourage communities to take action on a larger scale (in some areas, for example, local authorities still do not enforce garbage recycling).

I am grateful to the American Section for having provided me with this opportunity. Not only was I able to contribute meaningfully to an important environmental cause, I was also able to deepen my understanding of the scientific research environment. Working in a professional research

lab on animal specimens has no doubt contributed to my own professional development and has further fueled my aspirations to study veterinary medicine.

If I had two actions to recommend to the American Section community after having lived this experience, they would be: firstly, to think twice before reaching for that plastic bag in the supermarket; and secondly, to proactively participate in the transformation of our society - whether through applying to the Global Citizen Award, joining the different initiatives the American Section offers, or even just reading the research and implementing change around your own house. Whatever you do, just take action. It is not necessary to be an adult to have an impact on the world. We must take responsibility for our own future!

Tilly Jamart, Terminale

S U M M E R S C H O L A R AWA R D

Saving the Cuttlefish in the Gulf of Roses Our seas and oceans have always been a fascinating and mysterious place, and I have always been saddened by the way most of the human population has treated them. With the Summer Awards of the American Section, I was able to contribute in a small way to helping reverse some of this mistreatment and destruction.

This summer, from June 19 to July 23, I was in north-east Spain working with “Projecto Sepia.”

Working between four and five days a week, I had a lot of time to grow close to the project leaders, Boris Weitzann, a Marine biologist, and Isaac Moya, a local fisherman. They started this project in 2016 when they noticed that the local commercial fishing of sepias was very quickly bringing down the cuttlefish population in the Gulf of Roses (North of Barcelona). Their project to reverse this trend consisted of taking the cuttlefish and calamari eggs collected by the fishermen as a by-product of their daily catch, and then placing them in incubators, around 8 meters deep in the bay, to let them grow in safety until they were big enough to handle “life outside.” The project, after having first dealt with the young aspect of the cuttlefish life cycle, decided to tackle the adult life. They did this by pushing for laws and creating areas free from fishing, to enable recovery of the cuttlefish population. They educated the local fishermen and have created a certificate for the fishermen who fish the cuttlefish in a responsible manner, to add a different value to their catch,

compared to the fishermen who don’t have this certificate. All these actions are helping the cuttlefish (and calamari) population grow back to grow back to previous levels.

Immediately, taking advantage of my multilingual skills, I was first tasked with translating their new brochure because from this year on, they would no longer have funding from the European Union. They wanted nothing short of perfection to be able to reach out to a broader audience in Europe and beyond.

Many activities and tasks were to follow as my stay progressed. I helped lead two tour groups, one held in English and another in Spanish, with a mix of Catalan. On these tours, we explained to the “eco-tourists” the functioning of the project from A to Z, and then showed them some incubators and breeding grounds that were purposefully left in 2-3 meter deep water so tourists can easily visit them with a simple swim mask and tuba.

Throughout my stay, I was able to participate in many scuba dives, which allowed me to do the routine checks on the Sepieres (the artificial breeding areas the Project invented) found around 8-10 meters beneath the waves. It is these dives that also allowed me to increase my knowledge of scuba diving and complete a higher level of diving proficiency.

I am very thankful to the

American Section’s Summer Award for allowing me to be able to take part in this wonderful life experience.

It enabled me to take scuba diving classes (to safely participate in the dives), which has been a skill I have wanted to learn for a very long time and got to put it to good use. It also has truly opened doors for me when I now look at my future and what I would want to do. I always knew that I wanted a profession in the sciences, and have always been passionate about biology. This trip introduced me to the wonders of marine biology and allowed me to combine research and something hands on. I met back up with the project this Toussaint vacation to help them “hibernate” all the material (cleaning them for storage) and was able to set a meet-up again next summer.

Overall, I would like to thank the people I worked with this summer and the Section for financing this trip and allowing me to have a truly amazing time!

Thomas Perkins, Première

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SUMMER Awards

G LO B A L C I T I Z E N S H I P AWA R D

Working with Migrants in Rabat This summer, with the support of the American Section Global Citizenship Award, I spent a month in Rabat, Morocco, bringing to reality a project dear to my heart. My project worked on several levels: a linguistic one, as I had been learning Classical Arabic for a year, a cultural one, staying with an authentic local family, and a humanitarian one, volunteering at “La Fondation Orient-Occident” (FOO).

My drive for this project comes from my past experience and family connections with Morocco.

My “humanitarian awakening” was confirmed when I went to India with the American Section to teach children. I also had recently started projects with refugees with the community service team at school.

I loved working with people from such different backgrounds from mine and I knew I wanted to better understand the migration situation.

Setting into motion my ambitions was challenging as I essentially seemed like a burden for NGOs: a woman in an Arab county, and a minor who did not speak the local dialect. After having contacted most of the country’s NGOs and after many tireless follow-ups, I finally managed to get a signed agreement for an internship at FOO. Since 1994, FOO defends the human rights of migrants across Morocco and Italy by providing material comfort, education, vocational training, and intercultural activities. The beneficiaries are disadvantaged Moroccans, Sub-Saharan African, Syrian, and Yemeni migrants, and refugees of all ages.

Many have faced true hardships. At FOO, my activities were extremely varied but can be categorized into administrative work and tangible experience. I mostly avoided the former

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but found it allowed me to discover the inner gears of FOO. It included writing reports, editing the website and funding contracts, translating, and, my favorite, interviewing beneficiaries and staff.

As I had planned, I taught a lot, mostly English and French, advanced and beginners, to classes of approximately 20 adults and to smaller groups or individuals for more complex cases. I also took care of a summer school for young children, organizing activities in art, sports, languages, and ethics. My students’ levels and motivation varied, with some adults being illiterate, but I was always touched to see their faces light up as they learned. Finally, I attended workshops about the pervasive issues of racism, women’s empowerment, PTSD, and culture shock.

I decided to use some of the award money to make some personal donations. As a result, a woman named Ange and her baby daughter Merveille from the Côte d’Ivoire now have a baby bed, clothes, and a fan. I also managed to distribute several kilos of nutritious staples like rice and almonds to beneficiaries, and all my students received notebooks and pens. The members of FOO and I are extremely grateful to the American Section.

Beyond FOO, this project was also a discovery trip: I now know much of Rabat and explored, as a tourist, the beauty of Moroccan cities, such as Tangier. I also made great friends and spent a lot of time with locals, allowing me to truly discover the current Zeitgeist.

From living in a monarchy to seeing the social position of women there and the huge gap between rich and poor, my prejudice were sometimes confirmed and other times questioned. I fell further in love with Morocco’s heartwarmingly welcoming culture with strong stable values that we sometimes lack in liberalized countries. Conversing with refugees from Sub-Saharan countries, I realized how much my education tended to generalize Africa to an absurd degree. This learning was humbling and overall my experience helped me further develop a sense of independence, adaptability, and teaching skills.

I hope my testimony reflects how significant an experience this was for me and consequently how grateful I am to the American Section and to everyone I met in Morocco for such a great opportunity. I hope others are as inspired as I was to widen their horizons and build their own projects, specifically if it is to help others get what we take so much for granted, most specifically an education.

Orianna Merer, Terminale

G LO B A L C I T I Z E N S H I P AWA R D

Working with Street Children in Morocco Ever since I can remember, helping others has been an immense part of my life. The Section’s Global Citizen Award allowed me to take part in a new humanitarian adventure. The AMESIP Center (Association Marocaine d’Aide aux Enfants en Situation Précaire), is an organization that provides partial or full support to more than 2000 children. The main center hosts a preschool, a home for unmarried pregnant women, and an orphange. I spent a few days working there with the little ones, followed by a visit of the Culinary and Circus Schools, and finally took a trip to the Rehabilitation Center.

I initially offered to teach French and or English, but it being summer, I thought the children present in the Center deserved to have some fun.

I spent hours playing my guitar and singing and dancing with them; “If you’re happy and you know it…” was a big hit. We laughed, they made fun of my Arabic accent and they learned how to introduce themselves and say “Thank you” in English. I had to understand how these children, aged between 5 and 10 had wound up at the AMESIP. Most of them are illegitimate children and had been abandoned.

Others are from families who can’t afford to care for them due to extreme poverty and health issues. They come to the Center daily for food, clothes, and education. One heartbreaking example was Yasmine, who, as the manager explained, “is five and just lost her mother who died of AIDS.”

During my stay, I noticed that the kids were being served almost the same meals every day. Madame Tazi explained that they were running out of provisions because most of the donors were on vacation, so I decided to stock the kitchen pantry. I also noticed that the Center’s residents suffer from the lack of basic medication and hygiene products, so I purchased essential medical supplies for the little ones and expecting mothers. I couldn’t leave without offering the children a small gift. With the manager’s help, I bought them caps to protect their little heads from the sun and hosted an ice cream party that was a huge hit. These projects were all funded by the Global Citizen Award.

My next stop was the Culinary Art School. This program aims to offer social integration to young adults from poor neighborhoods who had dropped out of school. In this Center, the students learn discipline. I was impressed by their cooking and baking skills and wasn’t surprised to learn that the students are frequently solicited by embassies, consulates, and other important companies to cater for their events. It was the most enriching experience. I taught them a few words of English, but I learned a lot from them. They taught me the meaning of the great passion to succeed and how pride and dignity are earned back.

AMESIP’s Rehabilitation Center was my last stop. The facility welcomes children and young adults with

dangerous addictions to drugs and alcohol, and offers them rehabilitation through horseback-riding therapy.

Once they are drug free, they can go back to school within the Center and continue the equestrian activities.

They are offered jobs in equestrian centers and some students become circus riders, performing in events in Morocco and abroad. The group I met with on the morning of my visit were just beginning their rehabilitation. I couldn’t find a better way to offer them an enjoyable moment other than my guitar and some music. They clapped, smiled, and touched my guitar… It was their way of saying thank you!

Now it is my turn to also deeply and sincerely say thank you to Madame Touria Bouabid, the AMESIP president, and her team who offered me a unique and unforgettable experience. Her commitment and devotion to save those children from the streets are incredibly inspiring.

In my summer award application, I had written that thanks to the American Section Summer Awards program, the students feel much more encouraged to become a part of a project that gives to disadvantaged communities worldwide. It is very gratifying to live the difference and make a difference, however small it might be. After my two weeks in Morocco, the words of this statement more meaningful. So, thank you to the American Section for offering us the opportunity to learn outside our bubble.

Janna Husson, Terminale

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Class of of of2019 2019 2019 Departing faculty member Ben Heckscher was selected to give last year’s faculty address. Here are excerpts from his speech.

“Of course that’s not to say there are no clouds in the sky. Some of you guys have faced very difficult moments in your own lives, even outside of philo class. Without naming names, you guys have gone through life-threatening illnesses, family tragedies, physical assault and violation, serious injury… nobody’s immune to that, at any age. (…)

These things are frightening; they make you feel powerless, insignificant; they chip away at that comfy shell we’re used to where we feel safe and confident. Yet, again, as far as these troubles go, we are often better off than most everyone else in the world, because, again by blind luck, we’re surrounded by supportive people with the resources to make a difference, be they grandparents with some extra time on their hands, teachers who can tweak things just for you, doctors with thorough, modern training… We have that help, and that’s also something to be thankful for. Over time, they help us deal with the traumas we face. And when you’ve processed it, made some kind of peace with it, you can say “I dealt with that,” and you can move forward with your life knowing that people are there for you, and that you’re strong in your own right.

It doesn’t make you better than other people, but it might help you feel better about your life. (…) We’ve all made a major decision, in some case one we made for ourselves, and in other cases where maybe we’re not entirely sure our families didn’t make them for us. We’re pretty sure we’re going to like it, although there’s always that nagging feeling that maybe it won’t work out. There’s that nagging question about whether this is what’s right for you, personally. But I’d like to suggest that maybe that’s not the right question to ask. I’d like to propose that we have to

University Destinations AUSTRALIA (1) University of Melbourne

GAP YEAR (2)

CANADA (9) Concordia University McGill University (8) CONTINENTAL EUROPE (4) University of Leiden Trinity College Dublin - Columbia University dual degree in history ESADE Business School, Barcelona Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne FRANCE (7) Paris Diderot ESCP Europe ESSEC BBA Prépas Ste. Geneviève Sciences Po Paris – Sorbonne dual degree in science & social science MoPA ecole de cinema ENSCI school of industrial design

UNITED KINGDOM (27) University of Bath (3) University of Birmingham University of Bristol (2) University of Cambridge (2) University of Durham University of Essex-Nanterre dual degree in law University of Exeter (3) King’s College London (2) Imperial College London University of Lancaster (2) University of Leeds London School of Economics University of Manchester (2) University of Surrey University of Sussex University College London (3) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (5) Brown University Northeastern University Wellesley College Wake Forest University University of California San Diego

make these decisions in collaboration with others, because we don’t live in a vacuum; people raised you, clothed you, paid for stuff, helped you out. It’s all well and good to think about what you want, but also, it’s not okay to take without giving back...

“It’s a bit constricting, this notion that we’re somehow beholden to the world around us. Maybe you didn’t ask for help. Maybe you don’t agree with everyone’s priorities… at the same time, it’s good to know we’re in this together. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, like it or not; we operate within legal and social structures created by consensus! (…) “I’m getting around to some word of wisdom here: your world provides for you, but that world needs people to work together and to be constructive. You don’t have to make a billion dollars; you don’t have to be a neurosurgeon or the next Scott Fitzgerald...Hang out, and make things run smoothly. Take initiative, solve problems. Harmony isn’t officially anyone’s job, and if you just worry about yourself, there won’t be any.

“Yeah, that was the easy part, and life includes a lot of speed bumps, but you’re going to get past them with the others in your life. Be thankful and pay it forward, and you will be happy.”

Benjamin Heckscher

Evolution of Mention Rates in the American Section 2019

2018

Très bien

53%

59%

Bien

31%

Assez bien No mention

22 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

40%

41%

40%

49%

44%

31%

25%

16%

20%

20%

40%

41%

47%

39%

37%

56%

36%

38%

44%

14%

15%

20%

14%

11%

10%

19%

9%

24%

37%

32%

2%

6%

0%

3%

2%

2%

0%

4%

15%

10%

3%

to bring back memories of the ENH written bac, we were asked how WWII transformed relations between the US and the rest of the world. What we’ve been taught by our history teachers is true, really - America has never been so great as when it has supported, given to other countries, for example through its reaction to WWII and the shedding of its isolationist shell that brought the country to the forefront of the world stage. And likewise, the American Section is never so great as when it supports both its members and the wider school community of the Lycée International with groups such as MUN and HRT, and events such as the prom and Halloween, which are open to all students regardless of their national affiliation.

“We too have internalized this generous spirit during our years in the Section. We’ve learned to look out for and look after each other and other members of the school community.

As does the country and Section we

Joseph Aimard and Juliette Odolant were chosen by their peers to address the class at graduation. Below is an excerpt from their speech.

“So aside from these memories, the meaning of the green shawl symbol in To the Lighthouse and the regional inequalities between Brazil and the USA, what has the Section taught us?

Perhaps some values that we should remind ourselves of.

“First, empathy, generosity of spirit and action. In a period of particular political turmoil, it seems the world as we know it and the values we hold as true have been reversed. We’ve all heard the refrain “Make America Great Again.’ In a speech delivered to commemorate the D-day Landings, a French political figure asked when was America great? Why? Is it lacking in greatness today? Now if you can be bothered (and not too triggered)

Class of 2019 Baccalauréat Results S

ES

L

Total

Très bien

20

5

7

32

Bien

5

5

1

11

Assez bien

4

4

0

8

Admis

2

0

1

3

represent, we students have and will never be so great as when we are helping others. It is now up to us to carry forward this legacy of generosity.” (…) “We leave you with this thought - this graduation is more than just a measurement or division into degrees. It is a celebration of the entire path that has led us to this point. Both the good and the bad, the moments we will be quick to forget and those we

wish we could hold on to for as long as we live. So today, we ask you to pause on the side of this road, to realize that the color of the sky is shifting beyond the windshield; to take a look at the map, and, while knowing full well that you are already projecting yourself towards the next destination, take time to marvel at the distance you have already come, and the sights that you have made your own.”

Joseph Aimard ’18 and Juliette Odolant ‘18

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Development Report 24 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

ANNUAL FUND 2018-2019 KEY STATISTICS 2018-2019 Total Annual Fund Income: 73,204€ (includes Annual Fund, Senior Class Gift, Raise the Paddle) Total Fundraising Income : 109,970€ Average Annual Fund Donation : 342€

It is a widely acknowledged truth that we consider the young people in our charge to be unique individuals, deserving of our care. We also find it exceptionally rewarding to watch our students grow from inquisitive preschoolers into confident young adults, and strive to give them more than a rigorous academic experience - encouraging them to excel both inside and outside the classroom. In an effort to nurture the whole child, the American Section offers a range of classroom-without-walls experiences and co-curricular programs that boost independence, curiosity and independent thinking. To echo the theme of this magazine, we encourage them to look outward, to grow and discover their own special gifts, while providing a solid foundation on which they can build a brilliant future.

American Section fundraising provides the resources for program enhancements such as cutting-edge pedagogical practices, co-curriculars, library and technological resources, guest speakers and visiting authors, as well as health and wellness courses that help us educate the whole child. Our annual development report recognizes those members of our community who have contributed to the fundraising drive that breathes life into our many initiatives. While donations range from ten to several thousand euros, all contributions directly or indirectly touch each American Section student, strengthening each child’s overall educational experience.

Many thanks to the parents, grandparents, members of faculty and staff, and alumni listed here below. Your Annual Fund gifts allow us to give American Section students a competitive 21st century learning experience.

Margaret Jenkins Fabienne Aschenbroich, Assistant Director Board Development Committee Chair for Development, Communications and External Relations

5 YEAR CONSECUTIVE DONORS Jacques and Fabienne ASCHENBROICH Yasmin and Francesco BALLARIN Emmanuelle GRELIER and Samuel BONAMIGO Carol and Pierre CAMBEFORT Richard and Adrienne COVINGTON Karl COX Tara PATEL and Eric DESBLANCS Nicky and Eric DOLADILLE Catherine and Bill FAHBER Michelle and Thomas FISCHER Laurence and Laurent FISCHER Alexia and Shahin GASHTI Kimberly MOCK and Nordine HACHEMI

Nathalie and Serge HEIDRICH Helen and Tom HICKEY Julia HAMMETT-JAMART and Olivier JAMART Stuart and Beccy HAUGEN Margaret JENKINS Cécile and Arnaud LE TIRAN Adeline and John MATHIEU Andrew MCGOVERN Marjolein and Bruce MEE Ana Cristina and Olivier MENARD Katie and Jean-Christophe MIESZALA Véronique and John O’BRIEN Carolyn and Eric PENOT

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE (OVER 2500€) L’Agence International de St. Germain Katie and Jean-Christophe MIESZALA Jennifer DALRYMPLE and Luis ROTH Laurence VIENNOT*

PROGRAM SUPPORTERS (UP TO 249€) Baan SHUBBAR and Ali AL-SAFFAR Emmanuelle and Eric ALLART Marta Saban and Lucas ARANGUENA Elisabetta MATTIONI AUROY and Olivier AUROY Philippe and Marie-Anne AYMERICH* Mui Geh and Olivier BARON Fabienne and Philippe BAUDRIER Stéphane BELON and Kimberly MURPHY Violaine GOMAR and Laurent BENSUSSAN Laure and André BENTZE Catherine and Philip BOALCH Nicole ROETTELE and Dennis BON Agathe and Pascal BONEU Vincent BORDMANN and Delphine MONTAZEAUD Daniela and Peter BOUJEV Karine and Stéphane CALLE Jean-Noel CARTIER Agnès and David CATTON Pierre and Murielle CHAKALOV Lea and Laurent CHAMBAUD-BOUDET Tifany and Nathan CHAMPOUILLON Aude NOBECOURT and Alexandre COSQUER Stéphanie DUBOIS and Dwayne CANNON Paraskevi TSOURIDI and Stefan CHAPMAN Roxana BARBULESCU and Olivier CHATAIN Ann and Christophe CHAUVEL-GOBIN

BOLD - 10-Year Consecutive Donors Douglas and Isabelle PENNERLACOMPTE Annelise and Jean-Paul RIVAL Jennifer DALRYMPLE and Luis ROTH Jean-Jacques SEKOWSKI Laura MONROE SINGER and Jean-Marie SINGER Nathalie and Stéphane SOUCHET Emmanuelle RICARD and Tom VAN DEN BUSSCHE Christophe and Martine VOLARD Christine and Richard WASHINGTON Janice and Mike WHITACRE Lorraine and Paul WHITFIELD

Hélène and Chris CLARK Catherine and Gabriel CORCORAN Julie and Pier CORTIAL Karl COX* Coumba KAMARA-COULIBALY and Sarga Antoine COULIBALY Richard and Adrienne COVINGTON* Amy and Philippe CRIST Bruno and Laurence DASQUE Vanina and Sébastien DE PRENEUF Lisa DEMANGEAT Laure DEMEESTER Sophie DEUTSCH Guotao TIAN and Feng DONG Philippe and Sophie DUFAY Caitlin ECHASSERIAU Samira and Frank FEMIA Madeleine and Mark FLEMING* Muriel ESCOLA-FLOCH and Ronan FLOCH Ben GACHES* Laure and Antoine GENEVOIS Hugues and Caroline GERARD Douglas GRIFFIN and Carla DAVIDOVICH Beccy and Stuart HAUGEN* Christina HAUSER Ben HECKSCHER Matthew JACKSON Julia HAMMETT-JAMART and Olivier JAMART Margaret JENKINS* Stephanie and Yann JONVILLE Alice and Emmanuel JOUSSELLIN Nathalie and Jean-Christophe JUILLARD Emmanuel and Ashlie KASPEREIT Alice LAMY* Catherine and Etienne LAVAUX Cécile and Arnaud LE TIRAN Ilona and Brian LOCKHART Wendra MARSHALL and Axel LARGOT Michelle GREEN and Noé LEVASSEUR* Joanna and Christophe MAINGUY Caroline and Richard MARSHALL Douglas and Isabelle PENNER-LACOMPTE*

Alvaro MARTINEZ and Eva PEREZ Andrew MCGOVERN Marjolein and Bruce MEE Stéphane and Thamaz MELIAVA Ana Cristina and Olivier MENARD Alexandre-Pierre and Fabienne MERY Lennys and Giorgio MILANO Lisa STEPHENS-MORVAN* Ana DURAN and Luis MUNCHARAZ Karine and Jerome NICOLAS Jackie and Patrick NOONAN Véronique and John O’BRIEN Kasumi PAILLAUD-IWABUCHI and Stéphane PAILLAUD Carolyn and Eric PENOT Serina and Gilles PIZIGO Noriko KOBAYASHI and Nicolas POMBOURCQ Julie and Thomas PROUST Fanny RAT-FEREL and Fabien RAT Gabriel RIEDEL and Emmanuelle REIDEL DROUIN Claire and Nicolas REMY Karina and Ziri SANAA Hélène SALAÜN Sabine KENNEDY-SAYAG and Hugo SAYAG Ségolène FINET and Drew SHAGRIN Naida and Stan SIMOTA Jeff SMITH and Alexandra JABBOUR Graham SPEIER Hélène and Rui SOBRAL Constance Mathieu and David VERSTRAETEN Kathrine and Benjamin VIDET Anne-Claire PAILLE and Guillaume VUILLARDOT Mike and Janice WHITACRE* Chrystele and Mark WINDRIDGE 7 anonymous donors

DONATION INCOME 2018 - 2019

Senior Class Gift, 2,040€

Fundraising Gala, 54,777€

Club International Events, 4,383€

Annual Fund, 56,939€

FoASALI Donations, 5,459€

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DEVELOPMENT REPORT SECTION PARTNERS

COMMUNITY BUILDERS

ASALI BENEFACTORS

(250€ TO 499€)

(500€ TO 999€)

(1000€ TO 2499€)

John ANDERSON Joseph AZAR and Stamatia NIKOLAKAKIS AZAR Emmanuelle GRELIER and Samuel BONAMIGO Patrizia and Vincent BILLY Ryma BOUCHAREB and Adnane MEZIANE Benoît CHAMPION and Delphine LALIZOUT Janet HART-DA SILVA and Jean Philippe DA SILVA Samantha MATTHEWS-DENEEF and Laurent DENEEF* Judith ROSARIO and Marc DENISSEL Kathleen and Gaël DOMINIQUE Jean-François and Karine DORIN Valérie and Anthony EAGLETON Romuald and Sophie ELIE Catherine and Bill FAHBER Michelle and Thomas FISCHER Pilar and François FORTIN Alexia and Shahin GASHTI Sylvie PENA-GAUFROY and Aymeric GAUFROY* Anne-Laure and Toni GIUSTINI* Caroline GOGET and Julien ANDRIEUX Matthieu GOULAY and Christine DRISCOLL GOULAY Maki DOZAKI and Evgeny KHRENOV Jessica and Henry LEUNG Jacinthe BRILLET and Antoine LIMAGNE Jérome and Sandrine LOUVEL Karine DOUPLITZKY and Thierry LUNATI Nora and Guy MULLER Véronique ALBANESE and Charles PARNOT Geraldine PAULL Morten and Annie PEDERSEN Nathalie and Patrick POUPON Christophe and Nathalie POUSIN Alexia and Pierre-Yves PROST Denis ROYER Laura MONROE SINGER and Jean-Marie SINGER Thirawan STYLEMANS Marlène PANES VIVEROS and Philippe TORDOIR Christine and Richard WASHINGTON Agnès and Rashid Raphael YOUSRI

Nicolas VARLOT and Guillaume AUBIN Yasmin and Francesco BALLARIN Mandana ZAVOSH and Rodolphe BRUMM Kimberly CONNIFF-TABER and David PENA ALVAREZ Michelle HOFFMAN Marie-Claude MICHAUD and Alain DE SERRES Nicky and Eric DOLADILLE Laurence and Laurent FISCHER Sharon and Marc FISCHLI Cédric and Marisa FONTENIT Marie-Laure GASTELLU Martine and Ron GEROW* Kimberly MOCK and Nordine HACHEMI Kim MURPHY and Brahim HALMAOUI Nathalie and Serge HEIDRICH Marie and Thierry LETRILLIART Christelle and Raphael LLOBREGAT Nelly and Benoit LOMBARDET Maryline and Franck MARILLY Paul and Martina NAVRATIL Kyu and Cindy OH Catherine and Jean-Christophe PANDOLFI Véronique and Stéphane PUBLIE Annelise and Jean-Paul RIVAL Rachel LUPIANI and Xavier SIMLER Nathalie and Stéphane SOUCHET Serge and Stacie STEPANOV Frédérique and Olivier TIREAU Emmanuelle RICARD and Tom VAN DEN BUSSCHE Laurence and Olivier VENENCIE Lorraine and Paul WHITFIELD Pamela and Antoine WOLF Iliana RODRIGUEZ and Santiago VIZCAINO Jonathan WHITNEY*

Jacques and Fabienne ASCHENBROICH* Carol and Pierre CAMBEFORT Camille and Baudouin CORMAN Mildred and Philippe DELORME* Tara PATEL and Eric DESBLANCS Mireille FRANCO and Jose ESTEVE-OTEGUI Emilie and Francois-Xavier FLEURY Isabelle and Thierry HERNU-SFEIR Helen and Tom HICKEY Nora and Stephane HUSSON Meenu and Amit KOHLI Catherine and Rajesh KRISHNAMURTHY Muriel NELSON LEBBAR and Youssef LEBBAR Marie-Hélène and Olivier MARSALY Françoise and Jonathan MARSH Adeline and John MATHIEU Fabiana and Renato PESTANA Beth PAUL-SAUNIER and Maël SAUNIER Christophe and Martine VOLARD

* alumni donors

ANNUAL FUND PARTICIPATIONS RATES

82% 65%

66% 45%

1 anonymous donor Board

26 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

Faculty & Staff

Senior Class

Family

2019 SENIOR CLASS GIFT Thanks to the generosity of the parents and students of the Class of 2019, our Middle School students have been emboldened to look outward to explore a passion or pursue a personal interest. This exceptional gift has allowed us to inaugurate the Junior Summer Scholar Award, which extends the range of our summer awards program and will impact many students over the upcoming years.

Thank you!

SENIOR CLASS GIFT Joseph, Hélène and Nicolas AIMARD Harold, Emmanuelle and Eric ALLART Matthieu, Roula and Jean-Denis ALVES Sawsan, Anne and Mounir BEN HAMIDA Bérénice, Fanny and Christoph BRUGUIER Emma and Ian BURDON, Laurence CAPELLI BURDON Anna, Karine and Stéphane CALLE

Amélie, Hélène and Chris CLARK Marc, Diane and Amaury DE LAPORTALIERE Sean, Kathleen and Gaël DOMINIQUE Henri, Mathilde and Samuel DUPRIEU Andréa, Pilar and François FORTIN Sarah, Isabelle and John GAYNOR Benjamin, Myriam and Michael GOLDFRAD-SIME Anatole GRABLEVSKY and Tatyana BEGUN Julia, Elizabeth and Arnaud GUERIN Raphaël and Nordine HACHEM, Kimberly MOCK Maroussia, Natacha and Jonathan HALL Lydie and Olivier HUA, Dana BOUSQUET Joséphine, Cécile and Richard HULLIN Chloé, Nathalie and Jean-Christophe JUILLARD Rohan, Catherine and Rajesh KRISHNAMURTHY Alex, Joanna and Christophe MAINGUY Léa, Maryline and Franck MARILLY Olivia, Françoise and Jonathan MARSH Sacha DELOUVRIER, Stéphane and Thamaz MELIAVA Mika and Stéphane PAILLAUD, Kasumi PAILLAUD-IWABUCHI Madeleine and Charles PARNOT, Véronique ALBANESE

Fundraising Expenses 9% Financial Aid 20%

Strategic Plan Initiatives 22% Scholarship 6% Summer Awards 4%

Marcel Roby Classroom of the Future 9% Technology Upgrade 24%

Friends of ASALI Board 2018-2019 OFFICERS President: Evelyne Pinard Vice-President: Lorna Colarusso Vice-President Events: Alexi Remnek ‘87 Treasurer: Felix Tabary ‘10 Secretary: Leigh Schlegel

MEMBERS-AT-LARGE Matthew Milgrom David Renard ‘91 Elizabeth Sheehan Anton Zietsman ‘08

We thank Friends of ASALI for their generous support of our Summer Awards program.

WHERE DONATIONS WILL BE SPENT

Library 1%

Jade, Yannick and Christine RAYNAUD Lorena, Claude and Daniel REYES Arlette ROBERT-VASSY, Carine VASSY and Marc ROBERT Jusint SEKOWSKI and Libby ROBINSON William and Denis ROYER Justin and Jean-Jacques SEKOWSKI Elodie, Chrystèle and Nicolas SIMON Félix, Nancy and Alexandre TREMBLOT DE LA CROIX 1 anonymous donation

Math Cub 5%

The Friends of the Association de la Section Américaine du Lycée International (FoASALI) is a non-profit organization composed of former American Section students and parents.

FoASALI’s purpose is twofold.

The first is to act as the American Section’s philanthropic arm in the United States, participating in the Section’s development by funding specific projects, namely program enhancements that advance the mission statement. FoASALI’s second objective is to provide networking-related activities for the American Section’s alumni community. Anyone wishing to get involved or build his or her American Section network, please let us know at foasali1@gmail.com.

Evelyne Pinard President

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ANNUAL FUNDRAISING GALA 2019 A Night at

the Derby TOTAL GALA PROCEEDS:

54,777€ Though technically in the Bois de Boulogne, once inside the clubhouse of the exclusive Polo Club de Paris, guests could very well have been in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday of May. Elegantly dressed Gala-goers sported fabulous hats and fascinators, sipped mint juleps, and enjoyed the excitement of actual Derby races (albeit recordings of past contests). Our 2019 fundraising gala, A Night at the Derby, was an elegant celebration that brought together our entire community, including parents, faculty and staff, and students, for a sophisticated and very successful evening of fundraising.

The Raise the Paddle session was the most profitable ever, garnering over 26,000€. The online auction also broke records, raising over 13,600€ and featuring over 200 items in its catalogue. Beccy Haugen once again outdid herself, creating a “community” masterpiece for the live auction which involved every one of our Lower School students. Teachers Alice Lamy, Skye MacKenzie, and Caitlin Echasseriau also produced beautiful artwork for auction with their students.

Thank you to the Night at the Derby Gala committee: Fabienne Aschenbroich, Katie Buhr, Agnès Catton, Jennifer Dalrymple, Margaret Jenkins, Kyungmee Jeong, Alice Joussellin, Kimberly Mock, Kim Murphy, Annie Pedersen, Sabine Sayag, Hélène Sobral, Pauline Warneck and Mandana Zavosh, for organizing such an extraordinary evening. Thank you as well to the team of twenty student volunteers whose efficient presence was essential to the smooth running of the event. American Section Co-Directors,

28 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

Adrienne Covington and Mike Whitacre, joined forces with parent Jonathan Marsh in the role of auctioneer, adroitly running an exciting (and very profitable) live auction, while Lycée French teacher Eléonore Langelier and her band, Caravan, provided jazzy musical entertainment. Thank you as well to the many members of our community who made or solicited auction donations, as well as to our numerous commercial sponsors.

The funds raised at the Gala and through our Annual Fund allow us to invest in programs and projects that tuition does not cover, including classroom technology, financial aid, global citizenship endeavors, and the classroom renovation project. Every euro raised directly benefits our students.

On their behalf, we thank everyone who took part in this significant fundraising event!

PLATINUM SPONSORS (5000€+)

GOLD SPONSORS (2,500€+)

Jennifer Dalrymple and Luis Roth

SILVER SPONSORS (1000€+) Camp California French Bee Les Pyramides Shiseido Emea

BENEFACTOR (700€+) Raynald Baia GIMini Véronique Pion Jewelry

PARTNER (300€+) American Library in Paris ASF Pilates Isabelle Bardoux La Boutique du Vélo Katie and Frederic Buhr Jeremy Castin Fanxi Delarue Dharma Yoga Golf de Béthemont La Fontana Le Manège Pavillon Henri IV Pilates Ouest Sophie Tallon Christine Washington

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A L U M N I F O C U S Lycée International alumni are citizens of the world. They move with ease from continent to continent, country to country and city to city, taking advantage of educational and professional opportunities worldwide. In this issue of Compass we feature five former students whose postlycée paths have led them to destinations more far-flung than most.

Claire Weil ‘11 When did you attend the Lycée International? How did you end up in the American Section?

I attended the LI from 2001 to 2011. I ended up in the American Section because my parents believed that this would be the best option to ensure that my sister and I keep our English language skills and improve them. In a household where the parents could not speak English, this was a very unique opportunity for us to interact with a new language but also with the associated culture, values, and history.

What have you been up to since you graduated from the Lycée?

After the Lycée International, I studied economics and international relations for four years at the University of Oregon. Looking back, flying across the world to spend those years in a small college town surrounded by some of the world’s most magnificent nature was one of the best decisions I have ever taken. The staff and professors at the Clark Honors College and and my ISCP scholarship family helped me grow on many levels and made me a more well-rounded human being. I still keep in touch with my professors in development economics and conflict/ peace studies.

Having earned a B.Sc., I worked in development and humanitarian aid in Sub-Saharan Africa for a few years. I spent one year in Madagascar, another year between New York City and Namibia, and a year in the Central African Republic. Working for Relief International, Search for Common Ground, Médecins Sans Frontières,

30 C O M PA S S M A G A Z I N E

ARCHIVE Global, and Action Against Hunger involved a lot of grant writing and program development in both French and English, liaising between donors, partners, local communities, and various other stakeholders. My day-to-day reality also involved program support for the monitoring and evaluation of field programs, so I spent a lot of time traveling to remote

areas where hospitals were providing emergency care. Sometimes, I felt completely dejected about the state of the world and human behavior.

At other moments, I felt genuinely hopeful that there could be real “good” in humanity. Those were challenging years, but they provided depth to how I understood geopolitical issues in the region, development aid, and global health.

I then pursued an M.Sc. at the University of Oxford in evidencebased social intervention and policy evaluation. This degree focused on research methodology and technical skills, which, was perfect for me

because I wanted to understand the functional link between macro-level policies and changes at the community level. In a time where so much data and “evidence” is available, we have all the tools to design optimal social programs and policies yet decisionmakers are not always doing so.

The Brexit referendum and Trump’s election these past years definitely made me reflect on that.

If you had the choice, would you do it the same way again?

I would do it all again in the exact same way if I could! The LI fosters kids with a lot of ambition and drive. In that setting, not having a specific direction always felt a bit shameful. If I could go back, I would tell the 18-year-old me that it is quite acceptable to not know or to not want. Exploring and “stumbling” is sometimes perfectly acceptable. I’m grateful to have done what I sometimes felt was “right” rather than what “should” be right.

I’ve followed some weird instincts and grabbed onto strange opportunities that were handed to me. I’ve had a ridiculous and undeserved amount of luck and help on the way which I will be eternally grateful for.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has carried over into your current life or driven your life choices?

The American Section experience taught me to think critically and to be hard-working. I have carried those skills with me and they have grown with each additional experience. In addition to that, I was encouraged to be curious, to seize opportunities, to speak up, to be proactive in learning

in whichever way. These are things that, at least when I was at the lycée, the French education system did not emphasize.

Human Rights Team, Model United Nations (MUN), the India Exchange Trip, and the Global Citizen Scholarship project were four key experiences and opportunities offered by the American Section that played a significant role in shaping my understanding of the world and in getting me to where I am today. HRT made me aware and more conscious of global injustices. I learned about systems of reconciliation but, more importantly, I learned that it was possible to channel feelings of anger and frustration into positive and constructive energy for advocacy of justice and equality. Through MUN, I discovered the dynamics of decisionmaking and strategic policy-making.

I was always quite shy and could not think of anything that was worse than public speaking. Those years

of sending notes on scraps of paper and listening to others impressively arguement for a specific approach or another to world problems taught me the importance of communicating in a clear and concise manner. I understood the power of joining forces to engender effective change but also the power of humor and show in persuading others.

The India Exchange Trip was my very first experience with community service and development work. It was a transformative trip where I gained a better understanding of cross-cultural communication and literacy, but also empathy and compassion. It is through this short trip that I understood that there is infinite beauty and wealth in places that stereotypically are unlikely to harbor such abundance. These activities pushed Alexy Abelanet ‘11 and me to pitch a project for a Global Citizen Scholarship. We traveled to rural China and taught English to girls excluded from the school system. This

Jon Boafo ‘03 When did you attend the Lycée International? How did you end up in the American Section?

Funnily enough, we wanted to get into the British Section.

As a Ghanaian who started school in Kenya before moving to France at the age of 7, my siblings and I were more familiar with the British school system than the American one. We all took the test and other than my older brother Koby, we all failed to gain admission to the British Section. Once it was time to take the test for the American Section, let’s just say that we had something to prove. I started as an externé, attending classes on Wednesdays at Marcel Roby when I was in CM2. I then joined the American Section in Marcel Roby in Sixième before attending the Lycée International in Seconde (2000). In the end, I am glad we got into the American Section as it was a great experience all through collège at Marcel Roby and the Lycée!

What have you been up to since you graduated from the Lycée?

After the Lycée, I studied Risk Management and Insurance at the University of Georgia. I moved back to France in 2007 and started working in the fashion photography industry. My brother is a fashion photographer and I admired the freedom that he had. I also knew that it would give me the opportunity

was a first exposure for us to issues of feminism and access to education. The combination of all these experiences with the American Section helped me grow into the person that I am today.

They made me aware that I was part of a larger community and that I could have a role to play in it if I wanted to.

They made me a more proactive and enthusiastic contributor of society.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession? Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

Read lots. Be curious. Learn marketable and transferable skills. Even in humanitarian aid and development work, we look for programmers/coders, accountants, medics, logisticians, business developers, engineers, fundraisers/event organizers, writers, and psychologists.

to travel and work with some of the most talented people in the world. In a little over five years, I worked with world renowned photographers for magazines such as Vogue, Elle Russia, Harper’s Bazaar etc.

I moved to Ghana in 2012 after reading many articles about the economic boom and with the personal ambition of making it to the 2016 Olympics in Rio as Ghana’s first rowing athlete. Over the next four years, I trained hard and ran a couple of businesses (first a digital marketing agency and then an e-commerce platform). I was unable to make it to Rio, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience as I had the opportunity to become Ghana’s first international rower after participating in a World Cup event in Australia, was featured on BBC Africa, and become part of the sports scene in Ghana.

I also worked for three years as the Director of Operations for Africa’s biggest soccer academy where I worked with some of the largest clubs in the world (Manchester City, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona etc.) and hundreds of student athletes, some of who are playing professionally now, and others who were able to secure scholarships to play in some of best colleges in the States (two are currently at Stanford and UPenn).

My last experience in Ghana was working for Booking.com, the world’s leading online travel agency, where I managed all the partner hotels in five countries in francophone Africa (Congo-Brazzaville, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Togo). This was the perfect opportunity for me to work in one of the world’s biggest organizations and do

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A L U M N I F O C U S something that I am passionate about: traveling the African continent. In the last seven years since I moved back I have been able to travel to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Sao Tomé and Principe, Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire, where I currently live.

I now run the operations of a Pan-African advertising agency that aims to accompany global brands in the way they communicate to consumers in Africa. Our clients include companies like Unilever, Groupe Accor, Lactalis, Pernod Ricard, and Leader Price.

If you had the choice, would you do it the same way again?

If given the choice, I would definitely do it again. The only thing I would change is to not be sick before the qualifications for the 2016 Olympics! I would have preferred to have been able to compete and fail to make the team than not be able to try at all. But as I always say to my friends, some of the best opportunities that I have had (such as analyzing the 2018 World Cup matches on two TV shows in Ghana) stemmed from having a big dream and pursuing it whole-heartedly!

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has carried over into your current life or driven your life choices?

The American Section taught one main thing: the importance of having the right people around you. To this day, some of my closest friends are people I had class with.

They are some of the brightest minds with sound advice. You can only go so far if you do not have the right people in your corner and you need to change corners if you don’t admire those around you.

Another thing that I learned was the importance of continuous education! I remember that after the Bac I thought I would do college and be done with learning, but little did I know that that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The staff at the American Section were also rock stars in their field and they did everything to ensure that we had the best environment in which to grow and develop. Once you leave the Lycée, you are responsible for your own education, be it with books, magazines, podcasts or online courses. Find

Hélène Papper ‘95 When did you attend the Lycée International? How did you end up in the American Section?

I attended the Lyceé from 1988 to 1995, after returning to France with my parents from the United States, where I had lived throughout my primary school years.

What have you been up to since you

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whichever medium works best for you and stick to it as it will be the key to you achieving what you set out to!

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession? Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

Find a way to make it happen and sometimes the nonconventional path is the fastest route to getting to your goal.

I know many students in France who are fighting for the same internships in Paris. Why not use that opportunity to also travel and get to know another culture? Look where the opportunities are in your field: are they in China, Brazil, Ghana, or Namibia? Then that’s where you need to apply.

I have interviewed hundreds of candidates over the length of my career and one thing that I always look out for is a high sense of adaptability. Do you come in with an open or closed mindset? I feel that being in an environment like the Lycée International forces you to become highly adaptable and be open-minded to different cultures and ways of thinking.

One thing that I would highlight: pay attention in language classes! Once you get out of school you will regret not taking full advantage of being able to dedicate so much time to learning a language.

Are you still in touch with people from the Lycée?

To this day, some of my best friends are people that I met at the Lycée. I usually come back to France once a year and without fail, I see them. It is the time for us to catch up on our lives and see the details of the adventures we have been on for the last year. I have been on vacation with some, played with their kids, sang at their weddings and had them come to visit me in Ghana. There is a lifelong bond with many people from the Lycée that has been nurtured as we have similar life paths and these are some of the most inspiring people that I know.

Anything else you would like to add?

One thing that I would say to current students is that most of your career paths will not be linear. You might start out wanting to work in Finance and end up teaching programming in Vietnam. The most important thing is for you to stay true to yourself and keep moving forward in your work and personal lives!

graduated from the Lycée?

After graduating with an ES Bac, I earned my Bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University on a full scholarship. I planned to major in Visual and Performing Arts, as theater was my absolute passion, but ended up volunteering at the local National Public Radio station, and fell in love with radio. By the time I graduated, I was a part-time reporter and host at

the radio station with a double B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science. My first job was Senior Producer and Host for the NPR show, Morning Edition, in Norman, Oklahoma.

I covered my first major international story from there. The news quickly got around that I could report in four languages – French, English, Spanish and German – and I was called from news networks around the world to

file stories. That got me on the track to international reporting. After a quick stint as an associate producer for a show on International Diplomacy, Common Ground, I returned to France to launch my career as an international correspondent. Not sure how at first, I taught English for adults and took on a bunch of odd jobs, while working on a DEA at the Sorbonne in North American post-colonial literature and civilization. One day, a friend called me up from Kosovo, where he was working as a UN volunteer. He invited me out to cover the area, convincing me there were many stories to tell about the difficult reintegration of Serbian and Albanian communities in the post-conflict country. I took him up on his offer and reported on the difficult reconstruction of Kosovo. That’s how it all started.

Since then I have dedicated my life to giving a voice to the most vulnerable communities, particularly women and children. I spent years as an independent journalist covering stories from Eastern Europe to the Middle East to Africa, while also hosting and producing shows for various networks in France and launching a production company at the start of the digital media era.

In 2005 I got a call from the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti to head off as a radio producer and help build the foundations for a radio station which would accompany the electoral process. I then was awarded a peace ambassadorship from Rotary International to pursue research in communication as tool for conflict resolution at the University of Berkeley.

Next, I expanded the peacekeeping station in Sudan and South Sudan during the electoral and referendum process for independence, and then set up peacekeeping stations across Mali, and finally moved to Bogota, where I direct the UN Information Center for Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Our role is to use advocacy and educationbased tools to set up programs that promote UN global values at a regional level, while also analyzing the local political and socio-economic contexts to support decision-making processes at the UN Headquarters in NY and Geneva. My agency also spearheads the largest Model UN in the world,

bringing together children from all different economic realities, from primary to 12th grade.

I took two UN breaks along the way to work on the launch of France 24 in Paris and to get development finance experience at the African Development Bank in Tunisia. Along the way I had an amazing son, Michaël, who is six years old today and who has already lived in five countries.

I continue focusing on programs to empower women and youth, working with indigenous peoples to give them a stronger voice and promote their ancestral knowledge, which is very much needed today as we face the impact of climate change. Finally, I am becoming a strong advocate and public speaker on Gender Based Violence, and lead forums around the world to raise the issue and influence policy.

Until we truly curb violence against women and children, the world will have a very hard time consolidating any type of peaceful processes.

If you had the choice, would you do it the same way again?

Well that’s not an easy question.

Deciding to take this road was definitely far from easy, with ups and downs, failures and successes. I think the one thing we don’t really think about when we embark on an international career and expat life is how disconnected we can get from any type of “home” base.

As exciting as it is to have this kind of life, it also means you see your family a lot less. You make friends along the

way, but you also leave them every few years and have to start all over in the next destination. Re-growing roots is not easy. But I have to say I’ve also been extremely privileged to see and live the world up-front and personal, experiencing it in a way few people do.

I would likely change a few decisions, apply more caution, and perhaps be less trusting. But overall no, I wouldn’t change my choices.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has carried over into your current life or driven your life choices?

The American Section was the foundation for my successful career.

It taught me to be curious, to reason, develop, apply logical thinking, and become a strong decision maker. It introduced me to the UN through its Model UN program with Mr. Tobin.

It gave me strength and assurance, and honestly prepared me more than college ever did in terms of academics.

It remains the single most important part of my scholastic and personal development.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession? Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

Be curious, be brave. Apply rationality but take risks. Understand that every failure is a lesson for the next step. Learn about emotional intelligence. It is the single most important aspect to our evolution in the work world and beyond. Be kind and generous and respect others. Your social interactions are what will guide your way, much more than grades. Try to avoid cynicism as much as possible.

And whatever you choose to do, see how it fits into the global scheme of things applying your skills and value to strengthen the world you live in.

Are you still in touch with Lycée classmates?

I am still in touch with a few friends from the Lycée as well as some of the American Section teachers who impacted me the most and never stopped rooting for me through thick and thin.

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A L U M N I F O C U S William Puyo ‘10 When did you attend the Lycée International? How did you end up in the American Section?

I joined the American Section in 1999, aged 7. Due to my dad’s job, we had previously spent four years in the US and two years in the UK, before returning to France. Since my two older sisters had fond memories of the American education system, they elected to join the American Section, despite us being half-French, half-English. At that age, I hadn’t fully grasped the difference between the two nationalities, so I had to trust in the wisdom of my siblings.

What have you been up to since you graduated from the Lycée?

After the Lycée, I obtained my bachelor’s degree in International Management at Warwick Business School, which included a one-year exchange at McGill University.

During summer breaks, I worked at a bar, then volunteered at a Microfinance Institution in Cambodia and lastly, I interned at General Electric Healthcare in sales research.

After graduation, I traveled a few months in the US and West Africa to visit other Lycée alumni. I then started a year-long internship in 2015 at an investment bank in Japan, working in project management. I went back to Cambodia to work for six months as a Junior Consultant with OBOR Capital, a private equity firm which focuses on sectors with a strong social impact. I finished that job just two weeks before the start of my Master’s in International Development in 2016-17. After some more travels to visit other Lycée alumni, I re-joined OBOR in Cambodia at the start of 2018 and was quickly seconded to Gaea, the company which manages the municipal waste in the tourist city of Siem Reap, where I stood in for the General Manager while she was on maternity leave. When the assignment ended, I returned to the capital and was assigned as the fulltime General Manager of KWSH, one of OBOR’s portfolio companies which operates rural piped water treatment & distribution plants. I have now held the role for a year and a half.

What events let you to where you are and what you are doing now?

The reason I ended up in Cambodia is a mixture of chance and the legacy that the Lycée left with me. I had first joined the American Section’s exchange trip to India in Seconde, and the following year two classmates and I returned in the context of a micro-finance project. This second trip was in fact partly funded by the American Section’s Global Citizen grant.

These experiences developed my interest in socially oriented businesses. The first time I went to Cambodia, it was simply because I was looking for volunteering opportunities in microfinance. One such opportunity happened to be available

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in Phnom Penh and I was keen to discover somewhere new.

Since then, building my career in Cambodia involved a lot of good luck and timing in finding and joining growing projects.

It is a very exciting feeling being a part of efforts to expand access to clean water in rural Cambodia, and infrastructure is a long term business, so I expect to perhaps spend at least a few more years in the country, but not necessarily in the same position the whole time.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has carried over into your current life or driven your life choices?

As mentioned, the American Section, as well as the Lycée in general, played a key role in shaping my interest in where and what I wanted to work on. The schooling system encouraged a broad international view of the world, which made the notion of moving around to live and work in vastly different places seem not only attractive, but fairly normal.

In addition, the upbringing of the school’s environment compelled me to try to develop longer term and deeper relationships with such places.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession (past or present)? Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

My current role focuses a lot on financial and operational/ project management. I struggled a fair amount with many classes, especially finance, in university.

However, when it came to practical applications in the contexts of projects I felt strongly attached to, it became significantly easier and more enjoyable. I would therefore emphasize the importance of gaining practical experience at every opportunity and, especially early on, in a wide variety of fields and roles. A few years out from undergraduate studies, experience and getting results are more important than academic transcripts.

I have noticed that for both myself and other alumni I have stayed in touch with that there is a large share of chance and circumstance in terms of exactly where you end up and what you are doing there, so perhaps it is not necessary to worry too much about having very specific plans for your future.

Are you still in touch with people from the Lycée?

I have stayed extremely close with many former classmates from the Lycée. We ended up with a very strong network across most continents, which has been great for sharing and identifying interesting new opportunities as well as offering many destinations with a free couch to crash on.

And whenever you go back to France for Christmas or other holidays, you are always likely to encounter a few familiar faces at the Bitter End!

Sandrina Ramanantsoa ‘00 When did you attend the Lycée International ? How did you end up in the American Section?

I originally come from Madagascar, where I was studying at the American School of Antananarivo with daily French tutoring classes. Back then, the American School was relatively small in size and classes offered did not go beyond 8th-9th grade. Since I was educated in a bilingual environment, it was best for me to go abroad and continue in an international system. Before attending the Lycée International, I was at the Collège Marcel Roby, and in 1997 there was an opening allowing me to attend the Lycée International in the American Section and to complete my French Baccalauréat OIB. I graduated in 2000 with a Bac ES. What have you been up to since you graduated from the Lycée?

After the OIB, I graduated with a B.A. in International Politics from the American University of Paris and a dual bilingual Master’s degree from the American University of Paris & the Institut Catholique de Paris in International Affairs. During my last year of studies, my father became gravely ill and I decided to go back to Madagascar to be close to my family. While there, I contributed to the family businesses which were involved in the industry, pharmaceutical and hospitality sectors. I was also elected to the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Madagascar, in which I held the position of Vice-President from 2017-2019.

In 2016, and while still working, I decided to pursue further distance studies to become a gemologist. I graduated as a fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (FGA) end 2018, and I am now in the beginnings of my new career in the gem industry.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has carried over into your current life or driven your life choices?

I think it would be the understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of cultural diversity. I really think my years at the Lycée International, in the American Section, have encouraged and planted within me this open-mindedness during my pre-adult years. With regards to the language aspect, I have continued to stay in close proximity with the anglophone or American-speaking communities, even in Madagascar. And switching from one language to the other

from one sentence to the next is definitely something I have carried with me since my Lycée years!

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession? Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

I would recommend staying as much as possible in an international system and/or continue higher education within some form of a bilingual educational system. Even if you go to the United States for college, try to stay within an international framework. Beyond education, careers are also built thanks to relationships and networking. So, I suggest to current students to go out there and meet people in their desired fields: go to trade shows, industry events, meetings or gatherings that are related and relevant to your desired field or future profession. Never stop being curious and learn as much as you can outside of the classroom. If you are lucky you may find a mentor, if not, at least you will gain invaluable insights.

Anything else you would like to add?

Enjoy to the fullest your Lycée International and American Section years and remember what makes it unique. Also remember that adaptability is ingrained within you as you have evolved in a unique international context. Some of you may know exactly what you want to do after high school and some may not, and that is fine too. Life is bound to take you places and wherever you go, know that you have the capability to adapt quite easily.

Are you still in touch from people from the Lycée?

Yes absolutely, even though most of us have our lives, we still are in contact from time to time via social media or through travels.

I also have friends from other class years and from other sections, including the British, Spanish, and Italian sections.

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