NICEVILLE — Six French students will continue their education at Northwest Florida State College for a year starting in August.
Maxime Chardonneau, Marie Garborieau, Noemie Le Roy, Alice Merceron, Sandra Picorit and Clément Pineau are students at the University Technology Institute at La Roche-sur-Yon, which is part of the University of Nantes.
They were chosen through a competitive selection process to spend their third year of college in NWF’s Bachelor of Applied Science program. They will live with host families and study business, marketing and accounting as third-year students in the BAS program.
“They’re bright students,” Dr. Jeremy Ribando, chair of NWF State College’s Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts Division, said. “They place high value on American education.”
To be selected to participate, the French students have to demonstrate high academic performance, write an essay, and interview with a committee of IUT faculty members. They explain how they feel their American experience will benefit their home country, and agree to return to finish their education or go to work.
NWF State College’s exchange program with IUT and the University of Nantes is associated with the Sister City relationship between Crestview and the French city of Noirmoutier, which has spanned more than 20 years.
One distinctive aspect of the exchange program is that French students not only attend school at NWF State College but also live with local host families — an “opportunity to be immersed more completely into American life and culture,” Ribando said.
The students who will arrive in August are the second group to attend NWF State College under the exchange program. In August 2014, three IUT students came to NWF and studied for a year.
“They are at a definite advantage for studying in America,” Ribando said. “The jobs they will be able to get are better because they came to study abroad.”
Ribando said plans for the exchange program include establishing a 10-day exchange for second-year students at NWF, along with faculty, to travel to France so that “we can introduce our students to them.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Students from France to begin studies at NWF State College