Nineteen students and three School of Business and Public Management faculty members will travel to Paris this fall to initiate a new GW study abroad program.
The new GW Paris Study center allows juniors to take 15 credits of required, pre-selected courses at a university in Paris. Three of the courses will be taught by GW faculty and two will be taught by professors of partner institution Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, also known as Sciences Po, said Joel Cook, dean of students at the School of Business and Public Management.
Cook began organizing the program in March 1999 to allow students to go abroad without worrying about transferring credits and taking classes comparable to GW courses. Since the Paris Study center classes are GW courses taught by GW faculty, students automatically receive credit for their work abroad.
“I believe that this will give students a really good opportunity to study business internationally,” Cook said.
He said Paris offers a safe study environment and expands official GW study abroad programs offered in Europe, which currently only exist in Spain.
Sciences Po will offer courses in European business and international communications. The three GW professors will each teach a pre-selected intensive class for one month.
Amy Smith, assistant professor of marketing, will teach the first class beginning on Sept. 17 and concluding Oct. 8, said LaTasha Malone, assistant director of the Office of Study Abroad. Smith will teach basic marketing management and will leave for Paris Sept. 8 to participate in a one-week orientation.
“It will be very interesting to teach in a foreign country for three and a half weeks,” she said. Smith will return to GW to teach in the seven-week accelerated MBA program.
Patrick McHugh, assistant professor of management science will teach a course in human resource management beginning Oct. 15 and concluding Nov. 5, Malone said. Beginning Nov. 12 William Handorf will teach a course on financial management and markets, which will end Dec. 3.
At the same time, students will also take classes with the professors from Sciences Po.
The faculty of Sciences Po will teach courses in Culture and Communication and European Environment.
Every Friday the students will go on a corporate visit to a company in France. They will visit companies such as America Online in Paris and the Bank Credit Leonay, Cook said.
“The site visits will allow the students to apply what they have learned,” Cook said.
Before classes begin students will participate in a one-week orientation beginning Sept. 10. Students will take a course in French every morning and have the opportunity meet each other and learn about the area they will be living in, Malone said.
The entire cost of the program is $17,700, Malone said. The tuition for the program is the same as a semester at GW, she said, and housing will cost about $4,600 for the semester without meals.
Students on the program pay the same annual University fees, except the Health and Wellness fee, which is waived because they are not able to use facility, Malone said. The University fee and the Student Association fee amount to $532.50.
Students were required to have a minimum 2.5 GPA and fill out a simple application, Malone said. About 25 students applied for the program last fall, Cook said. He said some of the students did not meet the requirements of the program and some were accepted but sought other opportunities.
During their time in Paris, the 19 students will live in apartments in the 5th Arrondisement, which is also known as the Latin Quarter of Paris, located on the left bank of the Seine, Cook said. Each apartment will house two students, except for one apartment which will house three, Cook said. The Paris American Academy owns the apartments and GW is renting them for the fall semester, Malone said.
The institution where students will be attending courses is in the 7th Arrondisement which is walking distance from the students’ apartments and accessible by bus.
