As of the 1st of May the English language and e-learning departments of Smart Business Communications have joined the ICB group. Smart has 15 years experience in the development and delivery of Business English training predominantly for the banking and financial sectors in Paris with a team of highly experienced trainers, administrators and IT specialists.
Everybody is familiar with the “What I Did Last Summer” essay: typically written in the fall in an English class, it is usually something that the student just scribbles down, desperate to finish the essay and continue with their denial that the school year has actually started. However, this “What I Did Last Summer” essay is, I assure you, not the typical essay. To begin, I’d like to backtrack a little bit.
During my junior year, Pembroke Hill began to offer a new program through the French department: a summer-long internship in Paris at an English school for businessmen, all expenses paid. When my French teacher at the time, Madame Miller, told our class about it, I immediately launched into fantasies of myself living in Paris, teaching English, and of course, being completely immersed in French culture. It was a little far-fetched, I knew, but not completely out of my reach.
Fast-forward to my senior year of high school. The application for the internship, which I was definitely still interested in, was due the week after winter break. In other words, I had just finished all of my college applications and was looking forward to a nice long two weeks without ever having to fill out another application again when I suddenly remembered—there was still one application left: the one for the French internship. I balked at doing more work—after all, hadn’t I just finished arguably the most important applications of my life?—but my desire to live and work in Paris won out.
It was the best decision I ever made. After the stressful process of applying for and winning the internship, there was the even more stressful process of applying for and receiving a visa to live in Paris. However, the actual internship itself made the stress more than worth it. For five weeks, I got a chance to live in the middle of Paris, work in my first real office setting, and experience what it was like to be independent. The fantasies that I’d had junior year didn’t even begin to approach what the experience was truly like; my summer in Paris was one of the best of my life.
I cannot even begin to describe the myriad opportunities that I received while there, and how they changed me. For one, I became much more independent and self-reliant. I essentially had to completely learn my way around the city, with only a map of the subway and streets as my guide. I remember one day, during my weekly phone call home, I told my mother that I had spent the entire day exploring the Latin Quarter and visiting Notre Dame. She asked me, “Did anybody go with you?” And I answered, “Of course not!” For me, it was natural that I just did everything alone, from exploring the city and finding the Museum of Photography to eating in restaurants and cooking my dinner. Another side of this new independence is that my self-confidence grew simply because I had to talk to people, to ask them for help or directions or even just to order food in a restaurant—all in French.
In the essay that I wrote on the internship application about why I was applying for the internship, I said that I wanted to break down cultural barriers by showing French people that an American could live and flourish in Paris. I tried my very best to accomplish that goal. However, I didn’t realize that the converse would also occur: I was amazed by the tenacity and dedication that the businessmen and women who were learning English had during their lessons. It inspired me to improve my own language skills, and my French vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds.
I cannot say enough good things about this program. Mr. Wrobley, the owner of ICB Europe and the founder of the internship, is an amazing man for starting this program as well as a great boss. The office team in the office is friendly and open, and the clients at ICB Europe are enthusiastic and hardworking. I would also like to thank Ann Miller, my French teacher, for allowing her students to have this opportunity. I think that my entire French class (and perhaps even Mr. Wrobley) would agree when I say, “Tout est pour le mieux avec la meilleure des profs possibles!”
All in all, I have only one piece of advice to give this year’s seniors:
Don’t be lazy over winter break. Go to your computer and fill out just one more application—this is an opportunity that you don’t want to miss.