Compass 2024 - Empathy

ANNUAL REVIEW of the AMERICAN SECTION LYCEE INTERNATIONAL de SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

Photo: © Marjolein Martinot

COMPASS

Empathy 1

Empathy

Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is more than just a moral virtue; it is a critical life skill that fosters positive personal, societal, and global outcomes. Professor Jamil Zaki of Stanford University’s Social Neuroscience Laboratory emphasizes the role of education in enhancing care for others: “We often think of empathy…as a hard-wired trait, but it’s actually more like a skill. The right experiences, habits and practices can increase our empathic capacity.” In the American Section, we endeavor to instill these habits and practices on a daily basis.

One of the cornerstones of our educational model is respect for differences in culture, background, and perspectives. Enabling students to relate to others’ experiences and build bridges of understanding reduces prejudice and hasty judgments. In a time of heightened social and political divisions, empathy is a fundamental tool for promoting social cohesion.

Director’s Letter On an individual level, by learning to recognize and validate the feelings of others, students become better equipped to navigate their own emotions. Empathetic individuals tend to have stronger support networks, lower levels of stress, and improved self-esteem, all of which are vital to a balanced, happy life.

We are dedicated to fostering a sense of responsibility for the welfare of others, both locally and globally. As students learn to empathize with people facing adversity and hardship around the world, they are more likely to engage in acts of compassion, volunteerism, and advocacy to make a positive impact on society. Together, we can help students make a difference by thinking beyond themselves as members of an interconnected world.

Brian Brazeau Director

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

Director

Brian Brazeau (brian.brazeau@americansection.org) Editor

TABLE OF

CONTENTS 2 4

Archee Moong (archeemoong@gmail.com) Printer

Imprimerie Jasson-Taboureau Contributors

Stéphanie Andrieux, Patricia Blanc, Catherine Boalch, Ella Boubel, Brian Brazeau, Alice Choubry, Margaux Dahan-Hoffman, Raphaëlle Debray, Joseph De Larauze, Mary Diard, Feodora Douplitzky-Lunati, Chloe Ebel, Margita Fabianke, Marco Fayet, Cécile Fruman, Athina Gunnarsson, Beccy Haugen, Charlotte Jarquin, Margaret Jenkins, Alexandra Kardas, Noémie Langlois, Skye MacKenzie, Philippe Postec, Julia Rigal, Mary-Lou Rival, Shlok Verma, David Warren

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Vol. 13, Number 1 Copyright 2024 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.

Middle School

• Window and Mirrors • The Quatrième Culture Fair Upper School

• Connaissances du Monde and Empathy • Learning Empathy Though Extra-Curriculars Focus on Empathy

• Advancing Empathy in Washington, D.C. • Living Empathy in Amsterdam • Learning Empathy at the Lycée • Promoting Empathy

Marjolein Martinot

Brian Brazeau, Mary Diard, Vincent Heurdequint, Margaret Jenkins, George Shantzek

• Empathy in Lower School • Focus on the 5th Grade Identity Unit • Fostering a Culture of Understanding in

10 • The Value of Empathetic Travel

Cover Photography

Photography

Lower School

Early Years Classrooms

Margaret Jenkins (margaret.jenkins@americansection.org) Graphic Design

Director’s Corner

20 • Empathy in University Applications

From the Desk of the Counselor

• Focus on the Class of 2023

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Development Report

Alumni Focus

We provide an outstanding American educational and cultural experiences within the context of the Lycée International. Fostering intellectual curiosity and self-confidence, 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, at admissions@americansection.org.

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Lower School

Empathy in Lower School “Walking a mile in someone’s shoes” has long been an expression used when discussing empathy. Empathy is being able to understand and share the feelings of another. It is asking yourself, how would I feel if that happened to me? It is not feeling sorry for someone; rather it is akin to being sad with someone who is sad.

A concept that does not come naturally to everyone, empathy is touched upon in all Lower School grades. Very young children are still trying to regulate their own emotions; understanding those of their peers is simply too complicated, so we talk a lot about hurting someone else’s feelings by words or actions.

By third grade, most children reach a level of maturity which permits them to understand deeper emotional feelings. They have had ample experience of losing something, getting hurt, being left out, or being afraid, making it a great time to introduce lessons about empathy.

Here are some quotes from Ms. Echasseriau’s students, collected after a recent lesson: • “Empathy means you know how somebody feels. If they lost a pet that they loved, you have to imagine that you lost it. It makes you sad.” Remi Chaine • “Empathy is something you feel. It’s an emotion that makes you feel sad. You want to help them.” Esme Dahan-Hoffman • “You try to understand what other people feel and try to make them feel comfortable.”

Zoe Helleux Dennehy On these pages, we spotlight the way empathy is taught to the youngest and oldest Lower School students.

Beccy Haugen Lower School Principal

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Focus on the

5th Grade Identity Unit Many fifth graders have never considered their own identity. How do I describe myself ? What do people see when they look at me? What is an important part of me that people don’t see? Through our identity unit, students learn about themselves and their peers. They also explore various ways to find out about others and understand them in a positive and supportive way.

First, students define identity. An identity is made up of many pieces. Like an iceberg, there is much more to know about a person than what they look like or how they dress. You cannot see a person’s beliefs, values, or interests. But even if they are not visible, they are important. Once the students feel comfortable with themselves, they are primed to develop their ability to demonstrate empathy.

Students extend their understanding of others through reading. They learn to make text-to-text,

text-to-life, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections.

Students might remember a time they were sad, which allows them to understand what the character is feeling.

Textual understanding is improved as students discover what characters have in common with each other, with themselves, and with the world in general. The study of Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate ties in well with the identity unit as the main character, Kek, originally from Sudan, moves to Minnesota. Thrown into a strange new culture, he learns English, makes friends in school, and explores his own identity.

and Black History Month. They consider the consequences of making judgments and assumptions about people with no proof. Justice vs. injustice based on stereotypes, discrimination, and prejudice are touched upon.

Class discussions take these lessons off the page.

Children learn about the importance of diversity and consider how to talk about differences. In any group, no matter how homogenous it may seem, there is diversity.

Diversity can be anything from ethnicity, nationality, cultural background, language, religion, to strengths and weaknesses. Different does not equal wrong, and identities are neither good nor bad. We are who we are.

By sharing their own identity in a climate of mutual respect, students model for each other how to value differences among people.

So, how did we do? We asked a few of our Sixièmes about their transition to Middle School.

Having discussed identity and having been confronted with difference and finding commonality, students learn about stereotyping in the lead up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

By helping students find words to describe themselves in an atmosphere free from judgment, we hope they come away from the Lower School equipped with confidence to find the right words, stand up for what is right, and navigate the complex world in which we live. These are important skills that do not necessarily come naturally.

• “I learned that being tall is not a disadvantage, in fact, it is an advantage because it has helped me stand up for myself and others.”

• “We are all changing and we are going to make new friends.”

• “People were different than me but were very nice, so I got to know them and be friends with them.”

• “You shouldn’t be a stereotypic person otherwise you will miss out on great people.”

Beccy Haugen Lower School Principal

Thank you to Sixièmes Mika D., Garance F., Eva C., Chiara P., Achille W., Blanche M., and Matthew T. for their insights.

Fostering a Culture of Understanding in Early Years Classrooms The early years play a pivotal role in developing a child’s social-emotional intelligence. One of the primary methods of instilling empathy for our youngest students is storytelling, as stories allow children to step into the shoes of diverse characters and understand their perspectives.

During circle time activities, we focus on building a sense of belonging and respect by introducing activities that emphasize inclusion, kindness, and sharing. Group projects and cooperative games encourage children to communicate, share, and understand each other’s thoughts and feelings, creating a space where empathy is practiced naturally, as children learn to navigate different opinions and work towards common goals.

One concrete way we encourage empathy in the Pre-K classroom is through “red and green choices.” This system encourages children to consider how positive

“green choices” and negative “red choices” affect the classroom environment and their peers. Through roleplaying scenarios related to these choices, students gain a practical understanding of how their behavior influences others. Students hold each other accountable by considering choices that have been made and pointing out how we could have done it differently. This interactive method not only helps in developing self-awareness, but also cultivates a sense of consideration for others’ feelings.

By actively fostering empathy in the early years classroom, we lay foundations for our youngest students as they embark on a long journey of understanding and sympathizing with others.

Skye MacKenzie Lower School Teacher

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Middle School

Windows and Mirrors As a part of our continued quest in the Middle School to diversify our curriculum and to promote empathy, I recently took a course on Culturally Responsive Teaching through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. One discussion about books being windows and mirrors for students especially piqued my interest.

The idea was that books as windows allow kids to peer into other worlds, where they discover new cultures, daily routines, beliefs, or differently-abled characters.

When students read books with characters who are different from them in some way, it fosters empathy. This isn’t a new concept, but it has been a driving force of curriculum changes in the Middle School this past year.

Not only do students experience different perspectives, but they understand and hopefully respect them more.

Without understanding, there is no empathy.

peers than with their teachers - they code-switch when they walk into the classroom. In Cinquième, students explore how the characters in 12 Angry Men work to rise above prejudice and stereotypes to better understand the defendant, and in Troisième, the theme of empathy pervades the teacher’s choice of novels, like in All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir. These are only a few examples of how our students are exposed to difference. Books like these help students gain new perspectives. They see beyond the limits of their world and become more empathetic citizens.

Just as importantly, books should be mirrors, allowing students to see themselves in what they are reading. We expose students to many books that reflect familiar themes and that speak to a part of their identity. Many of our students have lived in multiple countries and have been out of their comfort zone, but are also familiar with privilege. We have students who can’t answer the question of where they are from, and who know what it’s like to be judged, labeled, and put in a box for reasons of race, religion, gender identity, food, etc… When books are used as mirrors, students are motivated to read texts they can relate to, and a sense of pride is created.

For example, in the Sixième summer read I Can Make This Promise, the author, Christine Day, uses her own family’s history to tell the story of a girl who is trying to figure out who she is and embrace her Native American heritage. She shows little tolerance and empathy towards her mother until she uncovers some family secrets which allow her to understand more about herself and her mother. At one point in their To Kill a Mockingbird study, Quatrième students also work on identity, addressing the idea of code-switching. Codeswitching is when a person changes their linguistic code depending on the social context. For example, our students are going to speak differently with their

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The benefits of both window and mirror perspectives are numerous. A diverse offering of literature is essential, but not the only way to encourage empathy. In addition to our texts, our teachers’ awareness of the whole child, our health and wellness and digital citizenship programs, and field trips are also indispensable in helping students understand each other, and exercise and spread empathy.

Mary Diard Middle School Principal

The Quatrième Culture Fair “Quite Frank” was the name of my 8th grade Culture Fair project. It highlighted the connection between myself and my maternal grandmother and great-grandmother, Naomi and Rose Frank. I’ll never forget walking around and looking at other classmates’ boards and listening to their stories.

After working with the American Section for a few years, and getting to know our multicultural community better, it was clear there would be no better place for a similar Culture Fair.

This event not only highlights each student’s individual identity and experiences, but also the role that previous generations have played, and how it all comes together to enhance our community. Students do their projects on some aspect of their family’s background and culture. Topics may include family values and beliefs, traditions, religions, languages, heirlooms, etc. Projects may also highlight family businesses, traditional activities and recipes, family collections and artifacts, famous ancestors, and genealogy.

It is truly a rich, cultural exchange, and a celebration of diversity. This event gives students a unique opportunity to showcase and be proud of their stories. But most of all, as they walk around and see the other projects, a newfound appreciation and understanding of each other is born.

Mary Diard Middle School Principal

Quotes from Cinquième Lit Circles Other Words from Home

by Jasmine Warga “My thinking about the main character has changed since reading this part of the story. At first I thought she was going to be another boring person and now I think that main character is someone I can relate to.”

“My thinking about Sarah’s friends has changed since reading this part of the story. At first I thought that they were going to be mean and ignore Jude, but they actually were pretty nice, and now I think that Sarah’s friends are the opposite of Sarah and they they are kind.”

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Upper School Mia Barthe, Terminale, presents her CdM project to her classmates.

Connaissance du Monde and Empathy The Connaissance du Monde project is a key element of the new Baccalauréat Français International which has replaced the former OIB. The principal aims of this assignment are to develop research and communication skills, and an awareness of the student’s place as a citizen of the world.

Empathy is a foundational piece of Connaissance du Monde, especially through the three paths of reflection that underpin the student’s choice of topic. These paths are “Thinking about society,” “Living in the world,” and “Building a common future.” The corresponding subheadings’ empathetic origins speak for themselves: “protect, conserve, improve;” “sharing spaces;” “cultural and linguistic diversity;” and “understanding how societies structure and evolve.” The two-year process culminates in an oral presentation and Q&A at the end of Terminale year. By the end of the activity, students will have gained an understanding of a crucial issue facing our world and how different cultures approach solutions.

American Section students have chosen subjects ranging from the psychological

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effects of the Opioid Crisis in America, sustainable and affordable architecture, the darker sides of the fashion industry, the importance of early detection in treating cancer, to Title IX and its importance in securing equal rights for women. Seeing these issues through a different cultural lens has allowed our students to walk a mile in the shoes of diverse populations, and to compare these experiences to their own. An example comes in Clementine Djomby’s project on sustainable fashion, which she approaches from an empathetic viewpoint, stating the need to highlight “the perpetuation of the exploitation of workers and violation of human rights, the persistence of the ‘take-make-dispose’ model which aggravates the global waste crisis, on top of health risks both for workers and consumers,” before going on to propose solutions to the problem.

Through Connaissance du Monde, our young people take an important step in their journey to becoming the positive changemakers of tomorrow.

Brian Brazeau Director and Upper School Principal

Learning Empathy Through Extracurriculars Extracurricular activities and service learning are the cornerstones of a holistic education. These endeavors contribute significantly to a student’s personal and academic development, fostering skills that extend beyond the confines of traditional classroom learning. Service activities in particular allow our students to develop empathy for those who do not have the advantages enjoyed by many of our Section students.

Our students in Community Service Club or Human Rights Team spend time working towards a better future, either through direct on-the-ground actions such as our recent coat drive, or more philosophical reflections in group meetings.

However, empathy can be developed in all extracurriculars, when teamwork and collaboration are needed to achieve a common goal. This is the foundation of our Student Council, Model United Nations, India Exchange, VOX, and many other organizations.

Whether rooted in service or a common interest, extra-curricular activities allow our students to work on the skills necessary to understand others and work together.

Brian Brazeau

India Exchange Team When I got out of the airport, I was immediately surprised by the amount of color. The green trees in February, the monkeys and cows, the colorful clothes -- it felt like stepping into another world. If, however, empathy is understanding and experiencing the life of another, our lesson in empathy began long before we stepped off the plane.

I had decided to join the India Exchange Team, like many, out of the simple curiosity to explore a new country. However, throughout the year, we all gained something much deeper: cultural understanding.

While hosting our exchange partners for two weeks, we experienced the differences between Indian and French lifestyles firsthand, from trying to keep a schedule to accommodating different diets.

Although this was challenging at times, it taught us all to be more flexible, more empathetic, and to move beyond the initial awkwardness that often inhibits us from reaching

Alexandra (seated, on right) teaching students at Manav Sadhna, February 2023.

out to others. Thanks to this, many of us remain friends with our exchange partners to this day – people we would have never met without the India Exchange!

To prepare for our time in India, we held weekly meetings, often focusing on preparing lessons for the children we would teach at various NGOs. We envisioned ourselves as young students who spoke no English, trying to imagine what would resonate with them and help them learn effectively: an attempt to step into their shoes.

While in India, we followed along with our exchange partner’s lives.

Immersed in new surroundings, with new routines and delicious new foods, we learned to adapt to a completely new environment.

The countless conversations I had

about Indian culture with Suhani, my exchange partner, broadened my perspective on a large panel of issues, ranging from Bollywood to Narendra Modi. Additionally, we met many different actors working for schools and NGOs. I particularly admired Manav Sadhna, an NGO, which, amongst other missions, serves to promote religious understanding, yet another form of empathy.

By living each other’s lives for two weeks, the India Exchange allowed us all to foster a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives, cultivating empathy and enabling all of us to learn to connect with others, even from across the world, on a more profound level.

Alexandra Kardas, Terminale

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Upper School

Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) When my friends and I created the GSA in 2021, we were only 14 years old and had big plans. We intended for the club to be a safe space for anyone, but particularly for those that had a sexuality or gender identity that would be qualified as ‘different’ by society. We believe that the stigma that surrounds people of the LGBTQ+ community is something that can only be broken with a deeper understanding of each other, erasing the divisions that make us ‘other.’ The GSA is able to create this connection, bringing together people that are queer or straight, from all walks of life. We try to represent these values through the projects that we create each year, celebrating unapologetic queer joy, and showing people that the community has always existed. At the end of this year, for example, we are going to have an exposition in the library celebrating famous LGBTQ+ authors like George Sand, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickenson, and

Theater

Margita (fourth from the left) with other members of the GSA.

Oscar Wilde, recommending their works not only because they happen to be LGBTQ+, but because they are important for the culture of any person. And perhaps the understanding of these authors and their works can make the gap between people even smaller.

Margita Fabianke, Terminale

In my eyes, theater is one of the most valuable extracurricular activities one can participate in. Not only is it fun to perform on stage and learn new plays, but it also teaches us valuable life lessons. Interpreting a role is my favorite challenge. It is not just memorizing lines but understanding the depth of a character and how they feel. By trying to understand and relate to what a character is going through, it allows for a more powerful performance that will move an audience.

In the Greek tragedy the Section is putting on this year, being able to empathize with Clytemnestra’s grief allows me to channel her emotions and convey her pain to an audience. Learning to empathize with characters not only creates a wonderful performance, but allows

Chloe (second from right) at the curtain call of The Humans in March 2023.

Human Rights Team

Empathy is a core theme of Human Rights Team (HRT).

Together, we strive to spread awareness within our communities on different subjects surrounding human rights. Throughout the years, we have worked on racism and sexism within schools, sexual harassment, homelessness, homophobia, drug abuse, and mental health. Through our research, debates, and other activities we strive to share the stories of those different from us and motivate others to do the same. Moreover, our fundraising events, such as our annual Valentine’s Day candygrams, focus on raising money for different organizations of various causes.

Our team focuses on encouraging students from a young age to have empathy in different circumstances, with our end of year event planting the seeds of these ideas for American Section Middle School students.

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Ella (second from left) with other members of the HRT selling beverages at the annual picnic.

We hope that our team’s dedicated efforts to address and raise awareness about various human rights issues will foster empathy within communities, but also inspire the next generation to do the same.

Ella Boubel, Terminale

distributions in which we regularly participate, or through the yearly Christmas party where we brought the children toys and chocolate. In September, we were also able to donate eight large bags of clothes that had been collected from the Lower School’s Lost & Found collection, items that were truly appreciated with La Sève’s dwindling stock of clothes. Our partnership with them is now stronger than ever and will hopefully continue to grow.

Noemi (far left) with other Community Service Club members during the Opération Fôret Propre in October 2023.

Community Service Out of the numerous opportunities to cultivate our empathy that the American Section provides us with, the Community Service Club is very effective in training us to be compassionate citizens. When I first joined, I hoped it would inform me of nearby volunteering opportunities to help out the community. As club President this year, I realize it has done so much more than that.

On one hand, we were able to partner with La Sève, a non-profit organization supporting refugee families in Fourqueux Bel-Air, notably through the weekly food

us as individuals to reflect on certain life experiences that we may not have gone through ourselves. Theater is more than just reading lines from a script. It involves transporting ourselves to the character’s world, in order to properly understand their motives and beliefs, especially if they are different from our own. It requires us to escape our everyday bubble and enter a mindset where we can properly reflect and represent a character, helping us develop certain skills such as empathy in our daily lives.

Chloe Ebel, Terminale

However, our actions go beyond participation in La Sève’s actions: the Community Service club has been launching many of its own initiatives. For instance, we have organized several successful bake sales at the Lycée, as well as diaper drives at the Section’s annual fall picnic.

The funds we raise are used to help support refugees living in the Bel-Air area.

It is truly heartwarming to see each member of the club engage in our multiple events. Their implication fuels the club’s liveliness and ensures our productivity.

Being able to feel useful in a community is infinitely rewarding and provides us with numerous opportunities to learn something. Being in contact with people living in precarious situations is eye-opening and helps us keep our feet on the ground. It reminds us of the world’s instability and teaches us to be more grateful every day for our profound luck. Above all, the Community Service club trains us to be compassionate, empathetic, caring citizens who are conscious of the world in which they live.

Noémie Langlois, Terminale

Model United Nations Model United Nations (MUN) is a club that replicates the procedures of the United Nations in addressing real-world issues. This simulation involves negotiation, discussion, and dynamic debates. I found my way into the MUN club because Mrs. Covington, our former Section Director, suggested I should give it a shot. I was immediately hooked on the geo-political roleplay-based format. Since then, I’ve been a regular, attending numerous conferences. The most recent one was Oxford MUN, where I was fortunate enough to win the Outstanding Delegate award alongside my double delegation partner, Hannah Snyder. It is experiences like these that have deepened my understanding of others’ perspectives. MUN pushes me to dig into global problems and see things from other countries’ vantage points. It’s not just a role-playing thing, it’s like stepping into someone else’s shoes and getting a genuine sense of their struggles.

Over on the French side, I’m involved in Club Regie and the Jazz/Rock Band.

In Club Regie, we dive into the technical side of our school’s productions, learning about how audio and visual technology help create already incredible performances into something that is truly spectacular. In Jazz/ Rock Band, it’s all about the music. The tunes bring us together, forcing us to communicate with the dulcet tones of our instruments. It’s like we’re speaking a language everyone gets, creating bonds beyond words.

These clubs aren’t just activities, they’re personal journeys. In every meeting or rehearsal, I’m not just learning skills, I’m building empathy and meaningful connections with the people around me. It is in these clubs, debating global issues or playing music, that our school’s spirit really shines. It’s a spirit that’s all about getting each other and caring about each other.

Shlok Verma, Première

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Focus on Empathy At the Manav Sahdna community center in Ahmedabad, India.

The Value of

Empathetic Travel Realizations come when you least expect them. I had a major one this fall, when accompanying the Indian exchange students on one of their Parisian outings. We were at the Mémorial du Shoah and I was with a group of boys, scrutinizing a heart-rendering series of photos that had been taken in the death camps. The Indians had only vague notions of the Holocaust, and I soon found myself giving a history lesson. We then got into a deep discussion about WHY the Shoah happened. They had a very hard time understanding how, in a civilized world, millions of people could be sent to their deaths. The students were unable to comprehend the existence of such hate. Trying to find a parallel they could relate to, I mentioned the frequent Hindu/Muslim tensions in their own country.

One boy adamantly argued that it wasn’t at all the same, that they lived together without violence. I countered that this was true most of the time, as it is in Europe, but that every so often things explode. When? When we focus on our differences rather than what binds us. When we stop seeing others as people. When we need someone to blame for things that are out of our control.

It hit me that this is the very reason I take students to India every year: to fully immerse them in the other.

We are not simple tourists in India. For two (too short) weeks, students live in Indian families, socialize

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with Indian peers, and build relationships with the underprivileged children they teach. They experience things from the inside, rather than observing them from the outside. India is a very different world than Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Colors, smells, tastes, and the incessant cacophony are overstimulating. Even the way people manage time and express themselves is different. But in terms of the things that really count, the similarities outweigh the differences. We love, we laugh, we suffer, we argue, we want to connect. This is true regardless of culture or religion. When you assimilate this, it becomes difficult to objectify people.

Travel is a powerful way to practice empathy, if you are intentional.

In addition to helping open teenage minds in India, I’ve had the opportunity to visit many schools all over the world. The American Section went through an external accreditation process in 2015, and soon after our accreditation was granted, I was invited by AdvancED (now Cognia) to join their team of volunteer reviewers.

Since then I have participated in a dozen reviews as an Associate Lead Evaluator, helping conduct systemic pedagogical and administrative audits and evaluating how well schools are meeting a set of fixed standards.

India Day at the Lycée - October 2023.

We are all continuous learners, especially in education, and I feel fortunate to share our great practice with others while gaining insight that I can bring back to the Section.

The appeal of these missions is discovery. Not only are the schools incredible, the visits provide exposure to a wealth of amazing people and cultures: my team members, fellow educators from around the world, as well as the administrators, faculty, and students of the schools we are visiting. When I think back on the reviews, I recall people and shared experiences. Sipping on a coffee on the playground during recess in Mansoura, chatting with the director/daughter of the school’s owner about male/ female relationships. Returning to a school in Pristina for a second accreditation six years later, reconnecting with educators I met the first time around, and experiencing a real sense of pride in their progress. Visiting the lighthouse in Alexandria with effusive, veiled, high school girls. Listening as a formidable teacher guided her class in the close analysis of a Seamus Heaney poem, and staying to participate in the discussion after completing the observation. The common thread between all these experiences is connection: the immense privilege of leaving the role of outside observer and entering deep into the life of the school and the individuals who make it tick.

The American Section provides unparalleled opportunities for students, faculty, staff to develop empathy through this type of immersive travel. The practice of empathy will prove invaluable to our graduates as they venture out into the world, primed to play dynamic roles, couched in the realization that they must always try to understand “the other.”

Margaret Jenkins Assistant Director for Development, Communications, and External Relations 5th Graders with their Bollywood dance teachers.

Accreditation review in Abu Dhabi.

Accreditation review in Pristina, Kosovo.

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Focus on Empathy

Washington,D.C. Advancing Empathy in Washington, D.C. Our very first student trip to the US exceeded our expectations in so many ways!

This past Toussaint break, I had the pleasure of visiting Washington, D.C. (which was my home for many years), with a delegation of 12 American Section Seconde students and and Mary Diard, Middle School Principal. We traveled to the capital city for a 12-day visit. Students were hosted by families from the Sidwell Friends School, a private school in the District of Columbia renowned for its Quaker values of simplicity, service, and common sense and its academic and athletic excellence. Our school group toured the D.C. monuments, museums, and landmarks such as the White House, the Capitol, the African American Museum, and Georgetown University. Students also experienced what a real American high school feels like.

We all enjoyed our visit and, perhaps most of all, the kindness and generosity with which the Sidwell Friends community welcomed us.

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Traveling together for two weeks meant sharing experiences, rejoicing in our wonderful adventure, and learning how to cope with challenges. From our first team meeting back in September to our return in early November, our students engaged in a journey of selfdiscovery, gaining stronger cooperation skills, as well as an increased sense of respectfulness, adaptability, and cultural sensitivity. These skills became evident on several occasions during the journey. On the eve of our departure, our Sidwell colleagues warned us about the social tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Our students were particularly mindful and sensitive to cultural perspectives since these tensions were reflected in the school environment as well.

Sidwell Friends, being a Quaker institution, invited us to participate in their weekly silent worship. We met in shared silence for 30 minutes. On this occasion one of the SF students and later a teacher were moved to share a message with the community. It was a unique

experience for all of our students and upon reflection, they appreciated the value in such a ritual.

From a larger perspective, Sidwell’s student body and educators form a microcosm of Washington, D.C.’s diverse population. It was truly remarkable to watch our students bond with young people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds during the stay. In addition to enhancing their intellectual curiosity, traveling abroad without their families helped students gain autonomy and confidence. Experiencing new people and places fostered feelings of empathy. In this new environment, our students proved to be self-aware and outgoing.

The friendships formed during this trip offered them an opportunity to broaden their horizons and embrace who they really are.

Our students’ willingness to learn, explore new surroundings, and create unexpected friendships was a testament to their exceptional social skills. The Washington, D.C. team bonded in rare and meaningful ways during the journey. Our shared experiences will become life-long memories.

Charlotte Jarquin Director of Middle School Student Development and Services

Amsterdam Living Empathy in Amsterdam The Amsterdam trip has become a rite of passage for American Section Cinquième students. The trip emphasizes themes of sustainability and diversity as well as cultural discovery. It boosts students’ social skills and fosters independence, as they deal with roommates, navigate decisions about what to buy for lunch, and decide when to go to sleep. But perhaps the most important value imparted is that of empathy. The trip’s cornerstone is a visit to the Anne Frank house, the building where Anne and her family hid for over two years in the Nazi-occupied city. As they pass through the bookcase into the Secret Annex, students are asked to pause and put themselves in Anne’s shoes. A longtime trip chaperone, my time in the Annex was spent scrutinizing the faces of our students as they discovered the movie star images on the walls of the tiny room that was her bedroom, peeked out through the thick curtains covering the canal facing-windows, gazed through the attic skylight at Anne’s special tree, or read the index cards that tracked the Frank family transfers to concentration camps. As a real understanding of the family’s plight sinks in, vivacious teenagers turn quietly contemplative. Students leave the house with a firm grasp of what it would have been like to be a Jewish child during that troubled time.

The first Amsterdam trip took place in 2005, when literature teacher Amanda Potts’ students were studying The Journal of Anne Frank. Deciding on a whim that the Anne Frank House was too close to Paris to ignore, she chartered a bus and took her Lycée Cinquièmes to Amsterdam for a quick weekend trip. The following year, literature teachers Terry Hershey and Michelle Green organized a three-day trip to the city for the two Marcel Roby classes.

Given the success of the first two trips, Adrienne Covington, then Middle School Principal, decided that the trip to Amsterdam would be the perfect occasion to

“Even after five years, I still remember how I first felt walking into the Anne Frank House. I was completely amazed by museum and all the original items displayed in her house, which created such an authentic atmosphere.

Their house made me realize how they were just a normal family, yet they had to live through so much indescribable suffering. This just truly opened my eyes about how horrors can happen to anyone at any time.”

Vanisha Mishra, Terminale federate Section students from our two Middle School campuses. So, in the spring of 2007, Cinquièmes from both campuses traveled together. Interactions that first year were reminiscent of a complicated West Side Story choreography of the Jets and the Sharks, with Roby and Lycée students patently ignoring each other.

With perseverance, however, the sense of inter-campus unity that has since permeated the ensemble of Middle School trips and activities was established. Today, special events like dances, field trips, graduation, and the Culture Fair bring our students and their families together while promoting empathy and understanding.

Amsterdam, a trip that is itself centered on empathy, has been instrumental in that process.

Nearly 1,000 American Section students have participated in the Amsterdam trip over the past 19 years.

Margaret Jenkins

15

Focus on Empathy Among them, the Lycée International Sixième hold 20 different nationalities.

Learning Empathy at the Lycée International schools can be fabulous places for children to learn empathy. The members that comprise these communities come from all over the world, and the mindset is one of global awareness and cultural understanding. However, the vast majority of these schools operate with a single educational system, be it American, French, British or even the generic “international.” Not so at the Lycée International de Saint-Germain-enLaye. Director Brian Brazeau observes that “empathy is precisely what makes us different. Many international schools present cultural diversity in their mission statements; students from the fourteen international sections of the Lycée International live it on a daily basis.

While the notion of cultural difference can be abstract in many schools, the skills of having to work collaboratively with peers from different backgrounds are put into practice from a young age in our classrooms. Students from the Lycée are not learning cultural understanding as an abstract skill they will use in the future, but as one they practice continually.”

The French system is the backbone of a Lycée International education. However, while the majority of our students’ academic program is French, every child is also enrolled in one of the school’s 14 international sections. This means that the Lycée’s 4,000+ students are living 14 different educational experiences within the school, each combining French plus their national section, many of which have radically different pedagogical methods and values. As they are mixed within their French classrooms, students spend much of their day alongside peers who are learning similar material in different ways. From the school’s largest sections to the smallest, all experiences have equal importance within the whole. Everyone’s culture is represented and valued.

16

Without realizing it, students assimilate that there are differences in the way people think, learn, live, and act.

Students do not need to be taught to be open to other cultures; they are simply part of their daily landscape.

An obvious benefit to this is language assimilation.

Students have formal coursework in at least four languages: French, the language of their section, and two foreign languages. One has only to walk through the corridors between periods, or spend 15 minutes in the cafeteria, to witness the linguistic richness of the school.

There is a constant babble of diverse languages, with students switching mid-sentence from one to another. In such an environment, it is also possible for students to assimilate language understanding without formal classes.

One alumnus noted that he can distinguish between Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish without understanding what is being said. Another mentioned understanding basic conversations in Portuguese because he had several friends from that section. Immersion in multiple languages opens your ear and mind.

On a micro level, there is an enormous amount of diversity within sections. For example, the Portuguese Section has a sizeable Brazilian population and the Spanish Section enrolls many students from South America. The American Section is probably the most diverse section of them all; our students hold 57 distinct nationalities, a fact of which we are very proud!

In our conversations with students and alumni of different skin colors and religions, we were told that the Lycée International is an accepting place. It is a community where people take the time to listen without reacting defensively. Everyone has their own experience of

^ The Swedish Section’s Sainte Lucia choral. ^ Nationalities dress-up day during the Lycée’s 70th anniversary week.

Learning Chinese caligraphy during the Lycée’s 70th anniversary week.

Making a multi-cultural mural at the Lycée en Fête.

Thank you to Aliya Ballarin ‘20, Inès Chahid ‘26, Lise Delenta ‘25, Adrien Esteve-France ‘25, Lucas Ghiglione ’11, Louis Guerandel ’21 Dhruv Kholi ’20, Tanis Lash ’21, Nolhan Lee-Jouanny ‘25, Lois N’Kouka ‘25, Marie O-Malley ’21, Celine Pertuisot ‘20, Chloé Stylemans ’21, Nicolas Gilhodes ’21, and Philippe Verniaut ’21 for their insights

interacting with people who are different on a daily basis.

Inès Chahid, a Seconde student, explained that there is little discrimination in terms of difference because everyone is different, be it in terms of nationality, culture, and/or life experience. A group of Première students remarked that because there are so many cultures, the social norm is acceptance. An example is sexual preference, about which lack of acceptance is judged poorly by peers. Celine Perthuisot ‘20 said that one of the advantages of the Lycée is that you learn from an early age that everyone has their own narrative which is often much more complex than it seems. Students who seem fully American may have never lived in the US; “French” families may have children who hold different nationalities; parents and children may not even speak the same languages!

One could also argue that the French system with its high academic standards, long days with packed schedules, exams, and deadlines can create empathy among students.

“Soldiers in the trenches,” students band together in difficult times. The international dimension of the Lycée adds something that may be absent in other elite French schools, which are mainly focused on academic success and outcomes. Students here comprehend at a very young age that there is more than one way to make sense of the world. A simple illustration of this is geography. In 4th grade, American Section students learn that there are seven continents, while in French class they are taught that there are five. More than numbers, they realize that there can be several equally valid ways to look at things, depending on the context.

Perhaps due to its uniqueness, our alumni are unanimous in praising the Lycée as a place where lifelong friendships are forged. Only when they are released into the world do

they realize that the ubiquitous cultural diversity of the Lycée is not the norm. Many have found one dominant culture, where differences tend to be ignored by the majority. Alumni have found their post-Bac classmates to be less open-minded, somewhat uninformed about different cultures, and less curious than their Lycée peers.

One remarked that Erasmus students are discovering things Lycée International students have totally assimilated, “because we grew up thinking the diversity of the Lycée was normal.”

While the Lycée is a very accepting place, it is not perfect.

Some alumni have expressed a sense that the “bubble” of St. Germain and the school can blind students to the realities of the outside world. Young people can leave here thinking that acceptance and empathy are generalized, which can lead to a rude awakening in other contexts where racism and intolerance are present dangers. In addition, there have been comments from returning alumni that work could be done here in the areas of socio-economic diversity. In short, we could certainly be doing more to expose students to the realities of life beyond the walls of our school.

Within the distinctively understanding environment of the Lycée International, the American Section has defined empathy as one of its strategic goals. Through efforts in curriculum, as well as exceptional programs and travel experiences, we are continually striving to give our students the occasion to practice and build empathy. It’s a start in their journey as impactful citizens of the world.

Margaret Jenkins Assistant Director for Development, Communications and External Relations

17

Focus on Empathy

Promoting Empathy

If you take the time to look around, there are numerous opportunities to get involved with local organizations who endeavor to make the world a better place. Here we feature two associations with far-reaching impact, both created by American Section parents.

Benenova and Imagine for Margo have been operating in France for over a decade and have changed the lives of innumerable individuals.

Benenova:

Connecting Volunteers and Opportunities What is Benenova?

Benenova is a non-profit organization created 10 years ago to make volunteering easier and more accessible to a wider range of citizens.

When and why did you create Benenova?

As a professional in the non-profit sector, I noticed that a growing number of people wanted to volunteer, but could not find engagement opportunities that could accommodate their schedules. They were instead offered traditional, longterm volunteer missions they could not accept… which seemed like a terrible waste of positive energy! While living in the US, I had had a very meaningful experience at HandsOn Bay Area, a non-profit developing flexible volunteering for busy people. I adapted their model.

What are the goals of the association?

Benenova aims to make volunteering easy and flexible.

Benenova develops and manages volunteer projects with local non-profits: each project lasts one to four hours, and gathers two to six volunteers. No prior training is required, as the projects are very much “hands on” (such as packing food boxes, starting school gardens, playing games with refugees, or helping people with disabilities to visit a museum). Over the years, Benenova has tackled other barriers to make volunteering more accessible and inclusive: youth and family programs have been developed, but also specific programs supporting people with disabilities and refugees.

What is your greatest satisfaction with regard to Benenova? Your greatest disappointment?

One satisfaction has been that Benenova has been able to expand from its initial grounds in Paris to four other cities in France: Nantes, Rennes, Lille, and Marseille. In 2022 alone, 8,200 volunteer projects were completed by Benenova

“When I was in Première and Terminale, I volunteered through Benenova with a group of American Section friends. We participated in Friday Game Nights and Wednesday afternoon cooking workshops at a school for special needs kids our own age.

I really looked forward to the bi-monthly sessions and it was very rewarding to see how happy they were to see us.”

Emma Ghiglione ‘16

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volunteers! Another is that our impact studies have shown that the volunteer format we offer can make a real difference: 45% of Benenova volunteers had never volunteered before, and 60% continue on to volunteer after their first experience.

75% of volunteers state that their understanding of social and environmental issues has improved. 90% appreciated that the Benenova format enabled them to interact with people (volunteers and beneficiaries) they would have never met otherwise. These last two results illustrate how volunteering, even infrequently, is a true part of citizenship and community building. Disappointments came when I was impatient to see programs grow faster… but I learned to be patient.

How can the American Section community get involved?

I would encourage everyone to give a look at the calendar of projects on https://www.benenova.fr/actions_idf: there are over 600 projects a month in the Paris area, though not many in the western suburbs (to my regret). There is a good chance you’ll find one that suits you. Some projects are great for families, with options for kids as young as five, and more as kids get older. Teens 16+ can volunteer by themselves on some of the projects.

I also encourage members of the American Section community who want to develop volunteer projects with their work colleagues to reach out to Benenova to discuss tailored corporate volunteering opportunities.

Anything else you would like to add?

Be the change you want to see in the world (and have fun): volunteer!

Stéphanie Andrieux, mother of Zoe Ney, Première and Emilie Ney, Quatrième

Imagine for Margo : Children without Cancer

When and why did you create the association?

My husband and I created Imagine for Margo in December 2011, one year after our daughter, Margo, died of a brain tumor. Margo was 14 years old. We created the organization to continue her fight against cancer.

Margo wanted to help research and created a fundraising page during her treatments, which reached 103,000€ in donations. In 2010, this was the largest amount collected in France by internet for pediatric cancer.

Margo wrote an inspirational message that we found in her journal after she died: “Go, Fight, Win!” That’s the message of hope we convey.

During Margo’s fight against cancer, we discovered that cancer is the leading cause of death by disease for children worldwide. However, cancer research is mainly focused on adults, and as there are no treatments developed specifically for children, doctors must adapt adult dosages.

Children are not miniature adults. They deserve rapid access to innovation, with specifically-developed drugs.

What are the goals of the association?

Imagine for Margo’s mission is multi-faceted: • finance innovative treatments • federate key stakeholders to accelerate access to more efficient treatments • raise awareness about the cause • improve the well-being of children and their families What is your greatest satisfaction with regard to Imagine for Margo?

I have many great satisfactions with regard to Imagine for Margo. Over the past 11 years, we have contributed a staggering 20 million euros to 50 international research programs, financing 30 new treatments which have benefitted 3,000 patients.

Your greatest disappointment?

Even if progress have been made, the pharmaceutical industry is not as involved as it could be nor is there enough public funding for accelerating pediatric cancer research.

Much more has to be done!

How can the American Section community get involved?

The American Section community could help us in many ways. We are looking for corporate partners to develop the association and to organize our events. For example, our annual “Enfant sans Cancer” race needs sponsors, as we allocate 100% of the funds raised (2,7 million euros in 2023) to research. We welcome corporate or individuals events to benefit our nonprofit. We are also looking for volunteers for many tasks and events.

Anything else you would like to add?

Children should not suffer from such a dramatic disease which can be compared to a tsunami for the whole family.

Without the incredible help of our donors and partners, nothing of what we have achieved so far would have been possible. We are so grateful for this. We need help to continue our fight against cancer and to reach our goal: A world of children without cancer.

Patricia Blanc, mother of Floriane Blanc ‘16

We are very proud that several of those new treatments have become the standard protocol for children, as they have proven to be less toxic and to increase some survival rates. In one such research program, eight children are long survivors (up to six years) of a very aggressive brain tumor for which the average survival after diagnostic had been only nine months. This unique-in-the-world result is giving hope to many children and families.

Also, with other parents’ organization in Europe, we successfully lobbied to have pediatric oncology listed as a priority in the first European Cancer plan that was announced in 2021, as well as in the French cancer plan.

I am also actively working with parents and research organizations in Europe, the UK, and in the United States to accelerate pediatric research.

“I’ve run in the Enfants sans Cancer race for seven years now and it is a truly memorable and meaningful experience. Even though cancer is a horrible disease, the event is surprisingly festive with music, stands, food, and just tons of positive energy.”

Melanie Boalch, Seconde

19

From the Desk of the Counselor

Empathy in University Applications One of the challenges that our students face when they apply to universities abroad is that many programs practice holistic admissions, meaning that they evaluate the whole student, beyond their bulletins. US universities seek out students who can get along with different types of people, and who have demonstrated kindness in their daily lives. In personal essays, students are therefore asked to discuss their values and their interactions with others.

As French schooling is heavily focused on academics, students must often rely on experiences outside of the classroom, from family trips to community service, to formulate thoughtful replies to these prompts. Students applying to specific degrees such as medicine or education also rely on their personal experiences to show that they possess the requisite empathy or communication skills for these careers.

Students have often reflected upon their experience on our service-learning trip to India, or other activities undertaken through our Global Citizenship Awards, such as marine conservation in the Mediterranean and providing basic medical assistance in Africa. Our community service club enables them to encounter neighbors less privileged than ourselves. Human Rights Team raises their awareness of global challenges such as child labor and domestic violence, while Model United Nations pushes them to see the world from the perspective of another country. In theater, they literally have to put themselves in the shoes of often challenging characters, such as last year’s elusive Bartleby or the fractious family members of The Humans. This year alone, students have described traveling to Madagascar, growing up amidst the stark inequalities of Hong Kong, volunteering in a rural village library, creating an ice-skating club for underprivileged teens, and launching a gay-straight student alliance.

Read on to learn more about how our enterprising students have explored empathy in and out of the American Section.

Catherine Boalch, College Counselor

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“At age 13 when I listened to Jasmin O’Hara’s talk about why and how she founded the Worldwide Tribe to help the refugees suffering in Calais, something clicked inside me, the AustralianFrench great-grand-daughter of a Greek farmer who migrated to Australia in 1911. It was at a Human Rights Team conference at my school.

I promptly joined the student association, and today am Head of it. Since 2018, my commitment to addressing social disadvantage and disfunction has only grown. I have raised awareness on issues such as “Refugee Integration” and “Gender and Racial Discrimination”. I have also regularly taken concrete action as a soup kitchen volunteer with the “Order of Malta”, and “Missionaries of Charity”, and prepared meals for local hospital staff during Covid. Nonetheless, I have been left wondering how our democratic Western world based on the universal declaration and protection of Human Rights, as well as the fair representation of its people, can be so dysfunctional.”

“Summer 2022. My first music camp at Interlochen after COVID, when suddenly it was so important to reconnect with others. My heart sank when I realized my eleven other cabinmates were all pop singers! Enemies? I was the only classical musician doomed in this bizarre place… Yet, I decided to be proactive and suggested we create a song together. I improvised on the violin and was awed by the result: my music breathed in an unprecedented way. All evening, the cabin hummed: “It’s a kaleidoscope of colors, messing with my brain” – our odd mix had become the cabin’s anthem! Our different backgrounds had made us a stronger team, instead of enemies.

I derive a special joy from being able to cement groups.

Mary-Lou Rival ‘23

Feodora Douplitzky-Lunati, Terminale

When sitting in an orchestra, listening to the cacophony of warm-up, I often think back to our tight-knit cabin that emerged from our divergent personalities. From a solo violin player, that summer, I had become a group player, especially attuned to the orchestral miracle of one musical piece emerging from a range of 96 instruments resonating in unison. Ever since, I have become aware that our strength lies in the many timbres of our instruments and the diversity of our backgrounds.”

Excepts from College Applications “During my last school year in India, in fourth grade, I lived through a massive flooding episode. In the span of a few days, entire slums disappeared, houses were destroyed, people lost their lives. I was luckily not directly impacted, but this event opened my eyes to the importance of compassion and helping those in need.

This has led me to partake in several community service experiences such as clothes, food and book donations, orphanage visits, aiding refugees and single mothers.

I also joined a club at school where we fundraised money to rebuild with eco-friendly materials a school destroyed by a typhoon. This project is dear to me as the school in question is located not far away from where I lived in India. As tragic as this experience was to millions of others, I believe that this experience made me a better world citizen.”

Alice Choubry, Terminale

“Model United Nations has been one of my favorite extracurricular activities since I arrived in high school. Its focus on social sciences and different country’s political beliefs interested me. Since I’ve become one of the leaders of the club, I’ve found that my goal has been to interact with new delegates and younger students who have the same interests as I did when I joined: of joining a fun and supportive debate club that interacted with the presentday events.

I realize how important it is to set an example, to stand in front of the group and present my resolution in order to encourage them to do the same, and be open about their interests and be more authoritative in their presentations.

Overall, this has been a success: I have watched as my delegates go to conferences and return with praises for their contributions. Other times, I pride myself as I watch the students that I have tried to encourage to be more outgoing. I see myself in them, as they learn to grow into themselves and grow more confident in their ideas.”

Margaux Dahan-Hoffman ‘23

“I am now a summer surf instructor at the very camp at Folly Beach, South Carolina, where I learned to surf. I have the privilege of transmitting my love of surfing to children. The environment can be quite intimidating for them.

Waves look bigger when you’re three feet tall. Also, who knows what is lurking below your board? Electrifying jellyfish, stingrays, spinner sharks and strong currents and riptides are the usual suspects at Folly. But I feel that my mission is more than teaching how to stand up on the board: I help children gain self confidence and strength to overcome the short-term disappointments and trust that they will succeed in the end. Because these are the things which have guided me.”

Philippe Postec ‘23

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22

From the Desk of the Counselor

The class of 2023

University Destinations Class of 2023 BELGIUM Vrije Universiteit Brussels CANADA (9) Concordia University (5) McGill University (2) Queen’s University Universtité de Montreal CHINA (1) Ecole Centrale ENGLAND (6) King’s College London University of Bath University of Bristol (2) University College London University of Oxford FRANCE (19) Beaux-Arts de Paris (2) ESMA ESTACA

IESEG La Défense INSA Lycée Blomet-Assas Lycée Buffon Lycée Charlamagne Lycée Lakanal Lycée Montplaisir Université Catholique de Lille (2) Université de Nice Université de Paris Cité Université de Paris Saclay Université de Paris Sorbonne (3)

ITALIE (1) Bocconi University

HOLLAND (7) Erasmus University College (2) Erasmus University Rotterdam Leiden University College (2) Minerva Arts Academy University of Twente

SWITERLAND (2) Ecole Polytéchnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2)

GERMANY (1) Bard College Berlin SCOTLAND (3) University of Edinburgh University of Saint Andrews SPAIN (1) Cardinal Herrera University

UNITED STATES (5) Binghamton University Brown University Ithica College University of Notre Dame University of California Santa Barbara

IRELAND (3) University College Cork University College Dublin (2)

Evolution of mention rates in the American Section 2023

2022

2021 2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

Très Bien

36%

60%

53%

67%

56%

59%

40%

41%

40%

49%

Bien

49%

28%

38%

24%

29%

20%

40%

41%

47%

39%

Assez Bien

13%

12%

5%

9%

14%

15%

20%

15%

11%

10%

No mention

2%

0%

3%

0%

2%

6%

0%

3%

2%

2%

University Destinations of American Section Graduates

Student graduation speakers were Chloe Penot and Gabriel Esteve-Franco.

Mention Rates, Class of 2023

Très Bien, Felicitations du Jury

1

(2%)

Très Bien 21 (34%) Bien 30 (49%) Assez Bien 8

(13%)

No mention

(2%)

1

TOTAL 61

France England USA Canada Netherlands Ireland Switzerland Gap Year Scotland Spain Italy Singapore Belgium China Germany Denmark Malta Australia

10 Year Total

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

158

19

28

25

17

8

15

16

11

11

8

148

6

3

6

12

27

14

19

19

25

17

81

5

7

4

7

5

6

7

15

15

10

64

9

5

10

7

9

4

9

6

3

2

39

7

4

7

3

1

8

1 4

4

12

3 2

1

1

2

1

12

2

2

10 2 7

1

1

1

2

1

3

3 2 2

3 1 1

6 3 4

1 1

1 1 2

1 1

1

2

2 2 1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1 1 1 1 1

23

Development Report

parties for the kids and potluck suppers and cocktail parties for the adults, to enthusiastically participating in the Lycée’s Holiday Sale, our volunteers have been extremely generous with their time. Giving is also something we teach our students from the earliest ages. Whether in the classroom, through community service projects, or even through volunteering at events or fundraisers, American Section students learn to give of themselves for the collective good.

Giving is in the DNA of the American Section. It was remarkable to witness the commitment of our parents during the recent holiday season.

From baking delectable Thanksgiving treats for distribution to our French and section colleagues, organizing festive events such as classroom

Our annual development report recognizes those members of our community who have made monetary gifts to our Section. While donations range from ten to several thousand euros, all contributions touch American Section students, strengthening the overall educational experience.

American Section fundraising provides

financial aid and scholarships. It also supplies the resources for program enhancements such as cutting-edge pedagogical practices, extra-curricular programs, library and technological resources, guest speakers and visiting authors, and the digital safety and wellness courses that help us educate the whole child. These contributions allow us to go beyond what tuition alone provides. In short, they help breathe life into our strategic initiatives.

Many thanks to the parents, grandparents, members of faculty and staff, and alumni listed below. Your annual gifts are tangible proof of the generosity of our dynamic community.

Brian Brazeau, Director and Margaret Jenkins, Assistant Director for Development, Communications and External Relations

KEY STATISTICS

2022-2023

TOTAL ANNUAL FUND INCOME

TOTAL FUNDRAISING INCOME

60,651€

95,208€

Includes Annual Fund, Raise the Paddle & Senior Class Gift

AVERAGE ANNUAL FUND DONATION

205€

Program Supporters (up to 249€) Violetta Donini Alvarez and Dario Alvarez Philippe and Marie-Anne Aymerich* Mridula Palat and Bernard-Olivier Becker Patrizia Ramonda and Vincent Billy Catherine and Philip Boalch Sandra and Alexandre Boeuf Agathe and Pascal Boneu Ashinsa Bopearachchi Ting Wu and Denis Bortzmeyer Sarah DeCamp and Florent Bouillet Fanny and Christoph Bruguier Eleonore Cabot-Morel Ann and Christophe Chauvel-Gobin Meriem Hanayen Chebbi and Nabil Chebbi Dorothee Jeanjean Corvez and Dominique Corvez Coumba Kamaea-Coulibaly and Sarga Antoine Coulibaly Katherine and Mickael Coutin Richard and Adrienne Covington* Amy Crist* Nathalie Sarel and Remy Croisille Janet Hart da Silva and Jean Philippe da Silva Nelly Dalsass Ioana Mera Daniels and Christopher Daniels Marjolaine and Jérôme Decoodt Qin Ran and Luc Descleves Frédérique and Alexandre Deshoux Lemesle Chin Lin Hsu and Daniel Destal Mary and Emmanuel Diard Matthew and Gwenola Dockins Kathleen and Gael Dominique Guotao Tian and Feng Dong Aurelie and Marc Dorion-Cousinat Jenny and Gilles du Crest Vineeta Kumari and Shyam Kant Dubey Caitlin Echasseriau Kate Spencer and Michael Fleming

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Muriel Esscola-Floch and Ronan Floch Mary Friel* Scott and Ilham Frisch Sophie Gallet-Ponthier and John Gallet Sylvie Pena-Gaufroy and Aymeric Gaufroy* Isabelle and John Gaynor Kathy Maladira and Mariano Gene Hugues and Caroline Gerard Martine and Ron Gerow* Anne-Laure and Toni Giustini* Maria Giovanna Gilotta and Jérôme Gouet Stuart and Beccy Haugen* Myriam Dennehy and Julien Helleux Jing Hu and Jian Hou Bertrand Houier and Carole Minivielle-Houlier Laure and Pierre Imberti Charlotte Jarquin* Margaret Jenkins* Naoual Bellafqih and Tarik Jkini Perrine and Sébastien Jouvin Emmanuel and Ashlie Kaspereit Ekta Khanna-Tandan and Ashim Khanna Marie-Helene Rhee and Daniel Kurbiel Lynda Tanio-Calvaire and Pierre Le Roy Anne-Laure and Francois Lefebvre Evelyn Chien and Ken Lin Nabila Merzougui and Frederik Litjens Kazumi and Merwan Lomri Skye MacKenzie and Yang Zhou Caroline and Richard Marshall Emilie and Paul Marty Adeline and John Mathieu Laure and Jacques Mulbert Ana Duran and Luis Muncharaz Karine and Jerome Nicolas Delphine Largeteau and Jean-Luc Nocca

Douglas Penner-Lacompte* Carolyn and Eric Penot Melissa and Jean-Marc Perrin Laurent and Florence Peyronneau Amira and Frédéric Pierucci Rigobert Pinga Pinga Leila and Pierre Yves Platz Frederique and Nicolas Poenz Alexia and Pierre-Yves Prost Julie and Thomas Proust Marina Pruteanu Monica and Olivier Raynaud Reza and Anahita Reyhani Caroline and Nicolas Rousseau Saloni and Ayush Sardana Sabine Kennedy-Sayag and Hugo Sayag Ségolène Finet and Drew Shagrin Priya and Abhishek Shandilya George Shantzek Julie and Shafat Shaon Sara and Amir Sharifi Florence and Terral Shelby Ang Sheldrake Rachel Lupiani and Xavier Simler Isabelle Solal* Graham Speier* Linda and John Tate Ursula Nicolau and Antoine Trepant Kathrine and Benjamin Videt Livia and Andre Vincent Anne-Claire Paille and Guillaume Vuillardot Alexandra and James Whitbeck Chrystele and Mark Windridge 4 Anonymous Donors * Alumni Donor

Friends of ASALI Board 2022-2023 OFFICERS President: Lorna Neligan Colarusso Vice President: Alexi Remnek ‘87 Treasurer: Bill Langdon

MEMBERS AT LARGE Evelyne Pinard David Renard ‘91 Leigh Schlegel Elizabeth Sheehan Felix Tabary

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

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.

Lorna Colarusso, President

Section Partners (250€–499€)

Community Builders (500€–999€)

ASALI Benefactors (1000€–2499€)

Stamatia Nikolakakis-Azar and Joseph Azar Yasmin and Francesco Ballarin* Femina Affandi-Baudot and Gautier Baudot Violaine Gomar and Laurent Bensussan Elise Breffort Ferrand and Guillaume Breffort Katherine Zouein and Juan Carlos Calderon Castro Laure and Matthieu Chatin Karl Cox* Laure Demeester Stephanie and Eric Ebel Muriel and Thierry Guillaume Fariah and Jamil Jiva Alice and Emmanuel Jousselin Noemi Buccino and Eliot Mills Aleksandra Andan and Kerem Önen Morten and Annie Pedersen Adriana and David Redmond Claire and Nicolas Remy Steven and Nevra Seggie Laura Monroe Singer and Jean-Marie Singer Victoria and Christophe Thoumelou Jesse and Xavier Tumminello Kumi Kitamori and Fabio Vancini Christine and Richard Washington Réka and Christophe Webert

Natalia Buga-Buruiana and Valentin Buruiana Aude Chanudet Schonbachler and Pierre Chanudet Kimberly Coniff Taber and David Pena Alvarez Aude Nobecourt and Alexandre Cosquer Simona Stoica and Loredan Cuc Judith Rosario and Marc Denissel Nathalie and Guillaume Deudon Elizabeth and Hady El Haddad Edeltraud and Jason Fabianke Alexia and Shahin Gashti Julie and Alan Glen Carla Davidovich and Douglas Griffin Michelle Hoffman Eun and Xavier Joseph Karine Douplitzky and Thierry Lunati Fabiana and Renato Pestana Mirinisa and Matthias Ringel Annelise and Jean-Paul Rival Tina and Efrain Rosario Yiping Zhang and Emmanuel Roulin Beth Paul Saunier and Maël Saunier Stephane and Youri Siegel Sara and Trevor Snyder Nathalie and Stéphane Souchet Frédérique and Olivier Tireau Iliana Rodriguez and Santiago Vizcaino

Carol and Pierre Cambefort Camille and Baudouin Corman Marie Adeline Neves and Bruno Coutinho Sara Di Napoli and Francesco Dartizio Mildred and Philippe Delorme Karl Emery and Matthieu Bonte Mireille Franco and Jose Esteve Otegui Kate Miller and Martin Lehec Magali and Frédéric Lemos Evialina Shalimava Robin and Xavier Robin Jennifer Dalrymple and Luis Roth Yuko and Robert Sprung

5-Year Consecutive Donors Stamatia Nikolakakis Azar and Joseph Azar Yasmin and Francesco Ballarin+ Catherine and Philip Boalch Agathe and Pascal Boneu Carol and Pierre Cambefort+ Ann and Christophe Chauvel-Gobin Camille and Baudouin Corman Richard and Adrienne Covington+ Karl Cox++ Laure Demeester Judith Rosario and Marc Denissel Kathleen and Gaël Dominique Muriel Escola-Floch and Ronan Floch Hugues and Caroline Gerard Anne-Laure and Toni Giustini Stuart and Beccy Haugen+ Margaret Jenkins++ Emmanuel and Ashlie Kaspereit

Karine Douplitzky and Thierry Lunati Caroline and Richard Marshall Laure and Jacques Mulbert Douglas Penner-Lacompte+ Carolyn and Eric Penot+ Annelise and Jean-Paul Rival+ Rachel Lupiani and Xavier Simler Laura Monroe Singer and Jean-Marie Singer+ Nathalie and Stéphane Souchet+ Graham Speier Frédérique and Olivier Tireau Iliana Rodriguez and Santiago Vizcaino Chrystele and Mark Windridge

+ 10-Year Consecutive Donor ++ 15-Year Consecutive Donor

Director’s Corner (2500€ and more) Ian Burdon and Laurence Capelli Burdon Arnaud and Emilie Collin Sandrine Jallon-Courduroux and Pierre Courduroux Stéphanie Andrieux and Keith Ney

Senior Class Gift Ludivine Braun and Laure Demeester Nathan, Carol and Pierre Cambefort Margaux Dahan-Hoffman and Michelle Hoffman Luc and Marc Denissel, Judith Rosario Ben, Matthew and Gwenola Dockins Anna, Kathleen and Gaël Dominique Claire and John Gallet, Sophie Gallet-Ponthier Alvaro and Aymeric Gaufroy, Sylvie Pena-Gaufroy Alyson, Isabelle and John Gaynor Robin and Bertrand Houlier, Carole Minveille-Houlier Eric, Alice and Emmanuel Joussellin Tess, Adeline and John Mathieu Chloé, Carolyn and Eric Penot Philippe, Fabiana and Renato Pestana Raphael, Laurent and Florence Peyronneau Ainoa, Monica and Olivier Raynaud Marylou, Annelise and Jean-Paul Rival Tristan and Hugo Sayag, Sabine Kennedy-Sayag Oriane, Kathrine and Benjamin Videt Elise, Livia and Andre Vincent Maria-Paula Vizcaino Rodriguez, Iliana Rodriguez and Santiago Vizcaino

25

Annual

Fundraising

Gala

26

The elegant Evening on the Orient Express gala was a sold-out affair, reuniting over 160 members of our community at the exclusive Golf de Saint Nom la Bretèche.

Participants enjoyed delectable food, the music of a memorable jazz ensemble, magic tricks, and of course our traditional live and silent auctions, all in a splendid setting evoking the mythical luxury train.

Tate, Frederique Tireau, and Pauline Warneck, as well as procurement helpers Fabienne Aschenbroich and Kimberly Mock. Thank you as well to our auctioneers, Antoine Trepant and Fabio Vancini, those who helped prepare the class baskets for auction and to the charismatic Upper School students who provided essential support during the evening.

Be it making or facilitating auction donations, volunteering skills and time, curating a class basket, or conceiving and realizing the decor, the gala was made possible by the efforts of many. We would like to recognize the extremely hard-working and creative Gala committee: Femina Baudot, Caroline Brachet, Arnaud Collin, Jennifer Dalrymple, Livia Froissard, Sandrine Jallon-Courduroux, Fariah Jiva, Eva Lou, Susy Lundy, Marie-Adeline Neves, Fabiana Pestana, Nini Ringel, Robert Sprung, Lina

The funds raised at the Gala and through our Annual Fund enable us to invest in programs and projects not covered by tuition, including classroom technology, financial aid, global citizenship endeavors, and the classroom renovation project. This year, gala money was earmarked for our new digital balance program. Every € raised directly benefits our students. On their behalf, we thank everyone who took part in this fundraising event, including everyone who participated in our online auction!

TOTAL GALA PROCEEDS

Gold Sponsors (2,500€+)

48,482€

Silver Sponsors (1,000€+)

Partner (300€+)

1Food1Me Anne Kervadec Dior Frederic and Magali Lemos Shiseido Emea

Alpic Form American Library in Paris Isabelle Bardoux Bike About Tours Boutique du Vélo Le Bristol - 114 Faubourg Dharma Yoga Eclat de Verre Golf Impact Indoor Studio Le Manège Restaurant de l’Arte Sandrine Roussel SAME Club Sophie & Hannah Sprung Un Instant à Paris Christine Washington

EVENT AND AUCTIONS REVENU

23,161€ Benefactor (500€+)

RAISE THE PADDLE DONATIONS

25,321€

Robert & Yuko Sprung

Alpine French School

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Where Donations are being Spent 2022–2023 Supplies for classroom projects

3,000 €

Technology upgrades

13,400 €

Curriculum mapping software

3,400 €

Fundraising expenses

15,000 €

Extra-curricular clubs and programs

61,000 €

Digital Balance guest speaker

4,300 €

Financial Aid

11,400 €

VLC Storage

4,500 € Scholarship awards

5,900 € Visiting Authors

7,500 €

Summer Awards

9,200 €

Community events

8,000 €

Sources of Fundraising Income 2022–2023

Fundraising Participation Rates 2022–2023

Miscellaneous

5,285 €

100%

100%

90% 80% 70%

Annual Fund (includes Senior Class Gift)

35,330 €

61%

60%

47%

50% 40%

Fundraising Gala (includes Raise the Paddle)

48,472 €

30% 20% 10% 0%

Board of Trustees Club International Events

4,111 €

FoASALI Donations

2,000 €

28

Faculty & Staff

Family

traditional retirement for something much more satisfying: spending my life’s “third trimester” helping others design and realize their own.

Alumni focus The Alumni section of this issue of Compass features seven former American Section students, all of whom employ empathy in careers that range from medicine and law to urban planning and international development.

Cecile Fruman ’85 states “With so much suffering and pain in the world at the moment, I am deeply convinced that empathy is humanity’s only hope.”

Read on to discover how our alumni are exercising empathy on a daily basis.

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David Warren

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I attended from 1969-72 (Sixième Français Spécial through Quatrième).

Although my sisters and I chose the Lycée for a native appreciation of France, we greatly valued the American Section’s simultaneously keeping us at grade level in US subjects and facilitating the friendships and emotional safety to thrive in our rigorous new environment.

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

After the Lycée, I attended Horace Greeley HS in New York, graduated from the American School of Paris, then completed a BA at BYU, an MBA at Harvard, and a post-grad program in Advanced Japanese at the Stanford Center in Japan. I worked roughly 10 years as an international banker, 10 as a management consultant, and 15 in various executive and entrepreneurial roles. My wife, Adrienne, and I have five children, two of whom died young of a congenital illness and three of whom have grown, married, and now bring us great happiness (and grandchildren).

What is your current profession?

What in particular do you enjoy about your field?

I direct the University of Utah’s Career Advancement Center, helping students in the Executive, Professional, and Online MBA programs begin achieving their career ambitions by graduation.

Soon, I’ll also open an online practice, to help people in their 50s and 60s design and realize their ideal “encore” careers. After being fortunate to fulfill my career dreams, I rejected a

In volunteering as an alumni career guide for the Harvard Business School for over 30 years, I found that I loved helping people connect with their “impossible” dreams. Therefore, for my encore career, I trained and certified as a Life Design Coach and as a Senior Professional Career Coach, so I could help a lot more people, in a more effective way. What I enjoy most is the thrill of weekly seeing at least one person break out of feeling “stuck” and gain the excitement of starting the life they were born to live. It’s never too late!

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

Absolutely!

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

If the greatest ultimate joy comes from loving deeply and being so loved, its foundation is surely empathy – to understand, share, and honor the feelings of others. I therefore strive for empathy in all that I do, personally and professionally, and have concluded that life is too short to live any other way.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/or Lycée International experience that has influenced your life choices?

I gained a deep appreciation for the beautiful, common humanity that can unite us, despite marvelous differences, across cultures, distance, and time. My Lycée family, “seeing” others amidst significant differences, and trying to be a good human are takeaways that remain very important to me.

Do you have any advice for current students?

Contact me. I’d love to help you evaluate options. My email: cdwarrenjr@gmail.com Is there anything they could do to prepare for it now?

Practice empathy. The rest will naturally follow.

Anything else you would like to add?

Elle me manque, la France!

29

Alumni Focus

lawyer and worked for eight months at a nonprofit called Equipes d’Action Contre le Proxenetisme (EACP), which provides services to survivors of the sex trade and seeks damages against traffickers in criminal proceedings. I then attended Columbia Law School, and moved to the DC area with my husband, Thomas.

Julia Rigal

’14

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I was in the American Section from 4th grade through Terminale and graduated in 2014. I joined so I could receive a bilingual education, because my mom is from the US and my dad is French.

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

After high school, I did a bi-licence in Law and Art History at the PanthéonSorbonne. I then completed a short internship with an immigration

Athina Gunnarsson

’17

When did you attend the Lycée International?

After living for about five years in Dallas, TX, I joined the American Section in CP and stayed until CM2.

My family then moved to Shanghai, China for two years. When we returned to France, I went back to the Lycée until my graduation in 2017.

Although I do not have American origins, the Section was a way to stay in touch with the culture I grew up in and keep my English level.

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What is your current profession?

What in particular do you enjoy about your field?

I’m an immigration attorney at Ayuda, a nonprofit in the DC area.

I represent clients in immigration court proceedings and applications for asylum, special visas for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and other crimes, familybased petitions, and naturalization.

Working at Ayuda has allowed me to continue working with survivors of trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence, but also to gain a broader range of experience in humanitarian immigration applications. What I love most about my job is getting to collaborate with my clients, many of whom have overcome great hardships, so that they can build a safer, happier future for themselves and their families.

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

After the Lycée, I went to EDHEC Business School, in the Global Business BBA Program. I obtained a diploma in International Business, studying fully in English, with one year each at schools in Lille, Los Angeles, and Singapore, as well as two six-month internships. I was most interested in marketing, so then pursued a Master’s Degree in marketing and digital media at ESCP Business School on the Madrid Campus.

Marketing is defined as a set of actions aimed at studying and influencing consumer needs and behaviors, and continuously adapting production and sales to meet these needs and behaviors. With that in mind, I soon felt pretty troubled, as I was basically learning how to influence people. My aim became to find a way to positively influence people. This led me to fundraising, as it is, in a way, marketing for a good cause. I started in agencies that helped organizations with their major donors fundraising strategy. Today, I am working fulltime in communication, marketing,

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

Yes! The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

Unfortunately, the US immigration system (as, I would imagine, asylum systems in many countries) is devoid of empathy and requires those who are seeking safety to remember and recount in great detail the most traumatic things that have happened to them and their loved ones. The most central part of my job is interviewing clients to get their stories. I meet with clients several, sometimes many, times to discuss the facts of their case and present them in a way that supports the legal theory of the case. Each step of the process requires careful, non-judgmental listening to best be able to present the case before a judge or in an application. I strive to provide traumainformed services which take into account the various effects that trauma can have on trust and memory. Empathy is particularly important in the field of immigration where we are often working with

and event planning for Anuncio, a Catholic organization in Paris.

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

Empathy is a value my parents raised me with. I realized it was important to me when we moved to China. I felt out of place, and it was difficult, at first, to empathize with people who did not have the same culture or outlook on life. It was a great learning experience. Additionally, when traveling around Asia, I was heartbroken seeing underprivileged individuals, mostly children, and was not able to help as much as I wanted to. From then on, wherever, whenever, and in whichever way, it has become a goal in my life to be the most empathetic to those I cross paths with. I consider myself extremely lucky with the life I have; I wish to pay it forward.

Around the end of middle school, I created an NGO, Courons pour l’Education, with a few other American Section students. We ran races while raising funds (which the

people who are characterized by the media as less-than-human, part of a scary “humanitarian crisis,” or simply a statistic.

I build close relationships with my clients and get to witness their powerful stories of resilience. It’s also important to set boundaries so that I’m able to do this work longterm. Signs of over-empathizing, like thinking about clients’ stories late at night or dreaming about similar situations that they’ve been through, are signs that I’m working too much and at risk of burning out.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/ or Lycée International experience that has influenced your life choices?

I think that having grown up in an environment where I met and became friends with people who were from or had lived in different countries contributed to my interest in immigration law. Language skills are also particularly important in my job - most of my clients speak Spanish, and I also work with some French-speaking clients.

American Section helped with) and sent money to schools in Cambodia, Cuba, Kenya, and India. In Upper School, when given the opportunity to go to India for a humanitarian trip with the American Section, I immediately signed up!

Today, I work for a non-profit organization. We spend most of our time at work; I wanted mine to have a positive impact. On my free time, I support causes that mean a lot to me.

I took on some responsibilities for the NGO called À Bras Ouverts, which organizes weekends bringing together young adults and young people with disabilities. I also started a new NGO, Runneusesolidaires, with Livia Robic ’17. We challenge each other with mostly sports objectives, such as the La Rochelle Marathon last November, which I proudly finished in 4:19:31.

Livia and I will also participate in the 4L Trophy, a humanitarian rally in the Moroccan desert. For the occasion, we raise funds and send the money to support causes linked to education and disabilities.

Moreover, whether it is in my worklife or personal-life, I try to orient

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession?

Don’t listen too much to all the opinions from people who tell you you shouldn’t do xyz but don’t actually have any experience in what it is they’re criticizing. If there’s something you’re really passionate about, do it. You’ll likely do better at something that you enjoy doing, and if it doesn’t work out, you can try something else. It’s also totally fine if your job isn’t your passion. I’ll also say don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to do yet. I had a much less clear idea of what I wanted to do when I finished high school than when I was little (I just knew I didn’t want to be a teacher anymore), and I didn’t figure out I wanted to work in immigration law until the end of my second year of law school. A lot of people have much more convoluted paths than me!

If you’re interested in going to law school in the US, you can pretty much study anything you want in undergrad. It might also be helpful to have some work experience before attending. If you’re interested in

each one of my ideas or goals towards helping others: beach clean ups when I am near the sea or helping tourists find their way when I am in Paris; the ways to be empathetic are endless.

It never stops me from going for my craziest dreams, on the contrary, it gives me even more motivation to reach them, as it has a positive impact on the world.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/ or Lycée International experience that has influenced your life choices?

In addition to their help with Courons pour l’Education, and the life-changing experience in Ahmedabad, India mentioned previously, I am extremely thankful that I was pushed to do my best, to think outside the box, and get invested in extracurricular activities.

The Lycée International was also simply a way to keep practicing English, while learning Spanish and Chinese, as well as growing up in a multi-cultural environment. Thanks to that, I am able to travel around the world, communicate with and understand the majority of people

immigration law specifically, language skills are the main thing you can already focus on that will make a difference. I always loved learning languages but had no idea when I was in middle school and high school that my Spanish class would end up being the most directly useful to my career!

Practical tip: The US government has a program to forgive federal student loans for people who work in “public interest” professions for 10 years, and several law schools have their own loan forgiveness programs that are more flexible, which makes it more feasible to go into a lower-paying career even if you have student loans to pay off.

Anything else you would like to add?

I’d like to recommend the book Solito

by Javier Zamora, a memoir about his journey from El Salvador to the United States as an unaccompanied minor when he was eight years old.

It’s very well-written, it’s deep but has a lot of humor in it, and empathy is one of the themes throughout the book. This would be a great book to study in the American Section!

I meet, and help out if needed. The Lycée International is a truly unique environment. The people I met there are still among my closest friends today, as we all shared this special upbringing.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession?

My biggest advice is not to let others influence what you want to do.

Going for the less popular option will sometimes lead you to the most incredible experiences, and right where you fit in. Another piece of advice is not to push back what you want to do to “the moment when you’ll have more time, opportunities, or money.” It does not matter. It is just a question of priorities. For whatever you are doing right now, ask yourself the question of how small changes can help you reach your goals and have a positive impact. It’s not about changing the world completely, but doing your part.

Anything else you would like to add?

The secret to happiness is helping others. It is not a myth.

31

Alumni Focus

Joseph De Larauze

’15

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I attended the Lycée International between 2012 and 2015. I was born in the US and moved to France when I was young. I joined the American Section in Sixième at Marcel Roby, then moved to the Lycée when I started Seconde.

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée?

After graduating, I moved to the US to attend Loyola University Chicago, where I completed a double degree in English and Economics. I was interested in the world of housing, specifically affordable housing, so after a few odd college jobs, I began working for a Chicago real estate development firm that specialized in low-income housing. I then decided to move to Boston, both for its active housing policy sector and to discover a new city. I am still in Boston and have seriously enjoyed the path that brought me here.

What is your current profession?

Why did you choose this field and what in do you enjoy most about it?

I’m currently a Master’s candidate at Tufts University’s Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) department, where I’ve had the opportunity to extend and deepen my professional experience into areas beyond affordable housing. Alongside this, I am working part-time for a not-for-profit affordable housing developer and owner, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH).

With POAH’s sustainability team, I implement energy saving initiatives as well as submit applications to fund deep energy efficiency improvements at our properties.

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I first became interested in affordable housing after reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 article, The Case for Reparations in The Atlantic. This piece, which describes the ways in which African American families on Chicago’s South and West Sides were systematically robbed in their efforts to secure a home, awoke me to certain social injustices. I became interested in working to ensure that housing could be something that everyone had access to, especially those who had historically been shunted away from it. I settled into the low-income housing development field, which drew me as an area where I could learn many things at once, where I could interact with people, and where I could make an impact.

Climate change has been another driver in my professional path.

Between friends I have made, classes I have taken, and the increasing gravity of natural disasters occurring around the world, I’ve grown more and more concerned with the ways in which this crisis threatens us. For this reason, my master’s program and my current work with POAH feel all the more fulfilling, as they allow me to connect my different fields of interest.

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

In my mind, empathy is about placing oneself in another person’s position.

While this can be an uncomfortable experience, it’s a key piece to working in socially oriented fields.

In my previous job, I worked for the Cambridge Housing Authority, a public agency which owns and manages the public housing stock for the city of Cambridge, MA. During resident meetings to discuss needed property renovations, my team would ask: “How do you enjoy living here?

What are your favorite things about your apartment? What do you dislike about your apartment?” While we had our own ideas about the things that were “wrong” with the buildings, giving residents the opportunity to voice their experiences allowed them to feel heard. It also gave us more complete information about what apartments were lacking and made our renovation plans better for it. My areas of interest can be technical and complex, but as they ultimately deal

with serving other people, being able to center their perspectives is key.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/or Lycée International experience that has influenced your life choices?

I have gained many things from the Lycée and the American Section, besides the privilege of a multicultural education. The greatest of these is probably my love for reading. I credit Mrs. Reed, who I had in Seconde and Terminale, with being the teacher who taught me to enjoy Shakespeare, among other authors. In her classes, I learned to think more critically and to diversify my reading. I also credit Mrs. Crist and Mrs. Bullough, the librarians for the American and British Sections, with my discovery of many new books, and many hours spent in the Lycée library.

Finally, the discipline and work ethic that the Lycée and American Section demanded challenged me, particularly because I wasn’t always that motivated a student. Today, I am very grateful that I got to have such a robust high school experience and am sure I will continue to benefit from it in the years to come.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession?

Specific to my areas of interest, neither affordable housing nor sustainability work have high barriers to entry that I have seen. Some of the work can be more technical/scientific, but there is enough need for young professionals in both sectors that there will always be jobs available. The greatest qualities you can practice, if you are interested in this work, are passion, willingness to take on a challenge, and (drum roll) empathy.

Reaching out to people who work in areas that interest you is a sure way to learn new things and meet passionate people. People like to talk about themselves (as you can see from the length of my answers), and in my experience, they’re excited to help young and driven people. LinkedIn is a great way to identify people you might want to speak with.

Lastly, Ikigai is a Japanese concept that refers to “a reason for being,” and can help identify possible professional pathways through a nifty venn diagram that I wish I had known about before I left the Lycée. I would recommend filling it out and seeing what sticks for you.

Raphaëlle Debray

’15

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I attended the Lycée International from 2011 until I graduated in 2015.

I was born in New York to French parents, and attended the French American School of New York (FASNY) until we moved back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It was never a question to continue studying in a bilingual environment.

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

I studied medicine at King’s College London, including an iBSc in Women’s Health, which gave me the opportunity to conduct research with the CRADLE VSA team at KCL, a team of doctors working towards reducing maternal mortality in developing countries through the use of a specific blood pressure monitoring device. I have continued working with them, and have since travelled to Uganda and South Sudan four times to train healthcare workers and midwives in the use of this device, and in identifying symptoms of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure) and sepsis (infection) in pregnant women. I have now been a doctor in the NHS for over two years and am considering my specialty.

What is your current profession?

Why did you choose this field?

I am currently in my third year as a fully qualified doctor in the NHS, taking a year to do locum work (the equivalent of a freelance doctor) while I work towards my goal of entering the Obstetrics and Gynaecology specialty training. I also participate in research with the Women’s Health team at KCL. At the Lycée, I was always most interested in SVT. I did

an internship in a research lab, and found myself asking more questions about why we were analysing a certain sample, and what had led that person to need a blood test, over the actual sample result. I always needed to know the backstory, and worried about how that person must have felt when they had their blood taken – we rarely have to undergo testing if we are okay, right? I realised at that moment that medicine – people – was what I was most interested in, and started working hard towards achieving this goal.

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

I would have done things slightly differently. Medicine is more than just a job, as people are putting their lives, or loved ones’ lives, in your hands, and I do not think an 18-year-old is fully aware of the implications. There are also other factors involved, like the system you are working in (e.g. public health like the NHS or private like in the USA) which can affect how you do your job and, more importantly, how well you do it. Global Health is a passion of mine, and I would have perhaps done some more work in this area, or even a different science degree, to gain more maturity before going down the path of medicine.

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

Empathy is one of the most important, and, yet, undervalued, aspects of medicine. To be a great doctor, one must understand how one’s patients are feeling. It is also important to have a balance and not allow yourself to lean in too much, or it can start to negatively affect your personal life and lead to burnout. I have noticed older doctors often lose this empathy, as they have seen some very difficult things and find it easier to detach themselves rather than feel pain when they lose a patient.

However, the best doctors, and those I consider mentors, are those that continue to empathize with each patient they come across and treat them not as just a disease, but as a whole person. These values are even more important in the work I do with my team in Uganda, as we come across heartbreaking cases that we can’t just steel ourselves against.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/ or Lycée International experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has influenced your life choices?

The Lycée experience is like no other, because you are constantly surrounded by people from different cultures and backgrounds, so learn so much about things you wouldn’t have in a normal French/American/British school. This multiculturality helps develop an open-mindedness that is increasingly important in a world turning to extremes of opinions.

The Section especially was always supportive and allowed us to dream big, which is probably how I ended up getting into medical school on my first attempt!

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?

It is a difficult time to enter my profession, so I would advise anyone interested to make sure they have some experience before making the big leap. It is important to not just look at it as going to medical school, but going into a career that will take 10 to 18 years before you become a specialist in your desired field. Be prepared to have long hours, and to work on nights and weekends while your friends have free time. You will, however, always be the one with the best stories at your get-togethers, and will likely be the one they trust with most anything.

I would advise students to talk to as many people in the field as they can, and to look into what the career is like in different countries. I would also try to get experience in hospitals, clinics, or even abroad, with organizations to see what sort of difficulties–and also wonderful things–you will face throughout your life as a doctor.

Anything else you would like to add?

I just want to wish anyone interested in medicine, good luck! Also, always remember to keep an open mind and open heart when with your patients, as there are too many people whose pain and distress are not taken seriously enough, and it is important they are heard.

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Alumni Focus

for the first semester which was sufficient to catch up. I graduated in 1985 fully bilingual and well prepared to step into the world.

’85

Cécile Fruman

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I attended the Lycée International from 1975 to 1985. I was born to an Argentinian dad and a French mom, and my family lived in Le Pecq, close to Saint-Germain-en-Laye. When I was three my parents and older sister, Agnès, and I moved to Maryland, US, for my dad’s job. When we returned in 1975, Agnès and I were fluent in English and our French was a bit shaky. So it was an obvious choice for my parents to enroll us at the Lycée International — a choice that shaped my life. I arrived at the Lycée in third grade and was in French intensive

Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

I have dedicated my life to international development. After working at the grassroots level in Mali for four years, I have been with the World Bank in Washington, D.C. for 28 years. I came with a oneyear contract thinking I might stay two! The World Bank is a fantastic development institution. Our core business is to advise governments on policy reforms that support sustainable and inclusive growth and to lend for investment projects that are aligned to this vision. I’ve had a very rich and fulfilling career, with the opportunity to work in several dozens of countries across a broad set of development challenges and in various roles. The ability to influence and solve complex policy issues at a higher level has been very motivating.

Currently, I am the Director for Regional Integration in South Asia.

My role is to promote activities and investments that are transboundary in nature which is a challenge in a region where there are strong political divides. Throughout my

I were looking for a multilingual environment that also offered the best possible education. The American Section was an obvious choice.

Marco Fayet

’09

When did you attend the Lycée International?

I was at the Lycée between 2005 and 2009 – first at Marcel Roby for my Troisième, and then at the main campus until graduation. Like many Lycée kids, I had a multicultural upbringing – originally I am halfFrench and half-Nigerian, and I grew up in Indonesia and the UAE prior to joining the Lycée. My family and

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Please give a quick synopsis of your journey after the Lycée.

After graduating, I moved to Montreal to pursue a Bachelors in Economics, Statistics, and Development, and later to Barcelona where I studied Data Science. Being somewhat restless and ever-curious, I hopped around Africa, Latin America, and Europe over the next few years, working at the intersection of international development, data management, and most recently communications.

I started my career at the OECD in Paris and later worked for UN agencies in Senegal (UNODC), DR Congo (UNICEF), and Panama (UNFPA). I spent the pandemic in Lisbon, working remotely for three other UN agencies and two consulting firms operating across Asia and Latin America.

career, I have continued to be driven by the desire to make a difference in the lives of the people who live in poverty and aspire to better opportunities.

I met my husband, Ahmet, who is originally from Türkiye, in Washington and we have been married 25 years. Our children, Lea (24) and Emre (22), attended Washington International School, a school very similar to the Lycée in that it provides a diverse, multi-lingual, multi-cultural environment. I am so pleased that my children have been able to enjoy the benefits of an international education.

I doubt that any other school prepares kids so well for life.

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

Empathy has been a guiding force in my life. As a child and teenager I was known as the “bleeding heart” of our family, deeply engaged in fundraising for charities (think lots of bake sales at the Lycée!), writing letters to prisoners through Amnesty International, and volunteering for several organizations. It’s this sense of purpose and service that prompted me to change course in

What is your current profession?

What in particular do you enjoy about your field?

I am currently working at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. where I lead a knowledge management team that sits under the Chief Economist.

The department I work in harnesses technology to innovate across the whole development space (health, gender, education, climate...). My team translates research findings from 65 countries into actionable insights so policy makers, government officials, and other development practitioners can effectively reduce poverty and improve people’s well-being.

Given my family origins, I always felt it important to work towards some kind of social impact. I gravitated towards economic development after reflecting on the wide range of living standards I witnessed growing up - I wanted to understand the “Why,” and later tackle the “How” (can we do better). The development industry spans the entire globe and thus draws in a lot of third culture kids who - like

my career early on. After majoring in marketing at ESCP Europe and working for a while in consumer and luxury goods in France and Japan, I quickly realized this was not my calling. I took the bold decision to move to rural Mali (Pays Dogon) to work for a French NGO that was pioneering micro-finance programs.

My team and I established a network of over 40 village banks, trained villagers to manage operations, and ensured financial and institutional sustainability. It was an incredibly rewarding job and a formative experience at the age of 23. After four years, I was getting ready to move to another project in Africa when I was offered an opportunity at the World Bank in Washington to contribute to a global study on micro-finance.

As I took on more managerial responsibilities at the World Bank starting in 2008, I realized that I also had a calling to be a caring and emphatic manager. I have taken great interest in helping my team members grow professionally while finding balance with their personal lives, develop their careers, and be motivated to do their very best for the sake of those we serve, the poorest of the world. I have mentored dozens of people throughout my career, helping

me - identify as global citizens.

I strongly value the diversity of people and experiences that comes with this line of work, as well as the sense of perspective and appreciation that one develops along the way. Human aspirations are universal - we have so much more in common than what separates us.

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

I would! The highs and lows are both part of the journey: they clarify what we value and clue us in on how to do better. There are valuable lessons to be learned every step of the way.

On a personal note, I am very much aware of the privilege I come from and I’m beyond grateful for the life I’ve had.

The subject of this issue of Compass is empathy. How is this value integrated in your personal and professional lives?

Empathy is a core value which I try to keep at the forefront of both my

them make choices that serve them and the organization best. I also trained to become an executive coach and now provide coaching services within the World Bank, mostly to women leaders. I also teach yoga and meditation - two practices that have helped me tremendously and which I am happy to share with others.

I believe I have come to be seen as a manger and leader motivated by empathy and compassion. Some may say that I am “too nice” or “too soft,” but I have learned that you can be tough on the issue without having to be tough on the people. Ultimately, I prefer to be remembered as too nice than being a bully at work! It is certainly the belief that I am having a positive impact that motivates me on a daily basis.

With so much suffering and pain in the world at the moment, I am deeply convinced that empathy is humanity’s only hope.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/ or Lycée International experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has influenced your life choices?

Looking back, I can attribute many of the opportunities I faced and choices

professional and personal life. I deeply believe it to be the best guiding light we have, and that it benefits us on every level (personal, societal, even universal). Whether at work or in my day-to-day life, I actively try to put myself in others’ shoes instead of casting judgment. Oftentimes we work with circumstances beyond our control - be they genetic, environmental, or historical. I believe the overwhelming majority of people are fundamentally good and try their best to improve their life and that of their loved ones. Empathy is a wonderful tool to uplift both ourselves and our communities.

What do you feel like you gained from your American Section and/ or Lycée International experience, either in or out of the classroom, that has influenced your life choices?

I’m grateful for the teachers I had along the way – Ms. Covington, Ms. Reed, Mr. Whitacre, and many others - as well as for the enduring

I made to my experience at the Lycée.

Being multilingual opened many doors professionally. Being brought up in an international environment made it natural for me to venture off to Japan, Mali, and then the US. Having friends from the LI around the world meant that I had a support network to rely on whenever needed. I also believe that international schools teach us to be tolerant and embracing of differences and this is a core foundation for empathy. I am extremely grateful to the LI for the excellent education it provided as well as the diverse and committed community which supported my growth.

Do you have any advice for current students who might be interested in going into your profession?

To those young people interested in a career in international development, I would encourage you to take the plunge. Go spend a few years in a developing country, work for an NGO doing meaningful work, roll your sleeves up, develop an understanding for the politics, economics and social conditions, make deep and lasting friendships and enhance your empathy. Take risks at a young age travel the world, challenge yourself, expand your awareness of the world.

You won’t regret it!

friendships that started at the Lycée.

I found the OIB experience to be overall empowering! The diversity of experiences underpinning the alumni community illustrates how boundless the world can be. The American Section leaves its students with a sense of wonder for what was and what has yet to come.

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?

There are many ways to practice development work, and even more paths that can lead to it. I would encourage students to make their own map of the territory: keep your mind open and empathetic, explore, experiment, and take chances. If you’d like to get in touch, I’m easy to find on LinkedIn and always happy to chat!

Anything else you would like to add?

Thank you for featuring me.

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Photo: © Marjolein Martinot

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ANNUAL REVIEW of the AMERICAN SECTION LYCEE INTERNATIONAL de SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

COMPASS 2023/24