Yesterday, Saturday, November 20th, I went on a field trip with my students to visit the "grande école" of Sciences Po at the University of Bordeaux campus. "Les grandes écoles" are elite academic institutions in France that admit students through highly competitive processes. Sciences Po, a "grand école" that specializes in political science studies, has seven campuses across France.
The goal of this day, called "Les Rencontres de l'Excellence," is to push middle schoolers and high schoolers into a path of excellence by having them meet with various professionals of exemplary backgrounds. Another goal of "Les Rencontres de l'Excellence" is to convince these students that excellence is attainable by everyone, no matter what kind of network you have or what area or background you come from.
When we arrived at the university, we had lunch and then we went into a big auditorium where we heard several panelists speak. These panelists consisted of young people who had participated in "Les Rencontres de l'Excellence" themselves when they were in middle school or high school, as well as the head of the Académie de Bordeaux (the academic region I'm in), the president of the University of Bordeaux, the director of Sciences Po Bordeaux, the mayor of Bordeaux, the president of the council of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region (which is the region I live in), the director of the train system (SNCF) in this region, and the director of external communications of a bank in France, Caisse d'Epargne. All of these panelists talked briefly about their backgrounds, why education is so important, and what excellence means to them. They also gave advice for the students and their futures. All of them were great speakers and I tried to follow along as best as I could (it was all in French, of course).
After this panel, the students left to go to different "ateliers" (workshops). These workshops each focused on a different field of study, such as architecture, law, communication and media, finance, entrepreneurship, tourism, and research, among others. Students could go to two "ateliers" which lasted about an hour each where they talked to professionals in that field. These professionals talked about their own backgrounds and universities where students can pursue these majors. They also answered all of the students' questions about their jobs and how they got to where they are today. In the middle of the "ateliers," there was a 30 minute break for snacks.
Overall, this was a great day of learning more about the French higher education system and assisting students with figuring out what they are interested in doing. This day also served as a reminder to always have faith in yourself and to remember that nothing is impossible, no matter your circumstances.
The bus that we rode to get to the university. Can we all just appreciate how nice French school buses are in comparison to American school buses?
Views of the countryside on the way there.
The University of Bordeaux campus. It's quite different from the University of Georgia's neoclassical architecture, isn't it?
With my students and teachers at the university
The auditorium where we went for the welcome panel. There were 800 high school and middle school students, 100 speakers, and 20 workshops offered.
One of the classrooms where we went for an atelier, aka, a "workshop"
Snack break!
More pictures of the University of Bordeaux campus
Nice. Hope you are doing well. Love Aunt Phyllis