Going Global with Barbara
Paris - April 2023GOING GLOBAL WITH BARBARA:
INTERNATIONAL YOUTH LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
WIF is proud to partner with Going Global with Barbara (GGwB), an organization devoted to exposing African-American youth to the possibilities that exist through travel and study abroad, on its International Youth Leadership Program. This organization is normalizing the conversation around college admissions and expanding it to include the possibility of studying abroad.
GGwB embarked on its second year of service with an April 2023 excursion to Paris that introduced eleven (11) male and female teens to the prospect of undertaking university study abroad. Using the same model that underpinned two successful trips in 2022, WIF organized campus visits to the American Business School (part of Groupe IGS) and the renowned Sciences Po, which is ranked third in the world for politics and international studies. Entrée to Black Paris provided its iconic, university-focused Black Paris after WWII tour, and WIF organized another networking dinner with Black university students from several local institutes of higher learning.
AMERICAN BUSINESS SCHOOL
For this first visit to the American Business School, GGwB students met with Associate Dean Jessica O’Brien; Undergraduate Academic Program Manager Kourtney Arlhac, and Corporate Relations Project Manager Christopher Vilevac. They then sat in on a class in Intercultural Studies (taught by WIF board member Nicole Matusinec).
After class, Miranda Suarez Peredo (a former student who recently began working as an ABS admissions officer) and Larissa Idohou, President of the Council of International Students talked to the group about student life at the university.
The visit culminated with a campus tour led by Larissa Idohou.
LUNCH AT NEW SOUL FOOD LE MAQUIS
Between the visit to the American Business School and the afternoon walking tour, students and chaperones enjoyed lunch at an African street food restaurant called New Soul Food Le Maquis.
ENTREE TO BLACK PARIS WALKING TOUR
WIF Founder & CEO, Dr. Monique Y. Wells, is also a co-owner of Entrée to Black Paris. She once again led the group on ETBP’s Black Paris after World War II tour, the first part of which focuses heavily on Paris universities.
SCIENCES PO
WIF organized a visit to Sciences Po, a research university in the social sciences that is ranked No. 1 in the European Union and No. 3 globally in political science and international studies. Sylvain Quatravaux, Director of the Center for the Americas, took the group on a tour of the campus, including the new facility at 1, place Saint Thomas d’Aquin.
Afterward, Quatravaux and his colleague, Chloé Pradal-Morand, Program Manager for the Sciences Po Summer School team, talked to the students about all that the school offers for undergraduates and grad students.
NETWORKING DINNER AT AU PARADIS TROPICAL
Students from the Sorbonne, the American Business School, the American University of Paris, and Parsons Paris joined the Going Global cohort for an authentic Haitian meal. One of the American Business School students and one of the Going Global teens celebrated their birthdays together that night!
JAHQUINN TOOKES – PILOT
Barbara Eubanks shared the following info and the photos below regarding the students’ flight home on Delta Airlines:
One of our student guests is actually a licensed pilot. I mentioned it to the crew and moments later they told him in a very serious voice “Young man, the captain wants to see you.”
They spoke in lots of acronyms and chatted about their mutual love of flying. The captain told him that someday he would be sitting in that seat next to him again, but in a pilot’s uniform.
We believe that too and can’t wait to see it!
