Testimonials
Statements by former students in the Paris program
鈥淭he USF Program in Paris was my first international travel experience, and I'm glad
that it was. The program is expertly planned and this makes for a very smooth and
memorable experience. I was able to see things and go places well beyond what a typical
tourist in Paris ever sees. Not only did I learn about art, Paris and French culture
on this trip, but I learned a lot about myself. I left Paris with a new perspective
on life, an expanded French vocabulary, new friends and a ton of memories that will
last me a lifetime. If you have the opportunity to go on this trip, do it. You won't
regret it.鈥�
- Alexi Berry
"Of all the things I learned while studying abroad, I think that one of the most
important things I learned was 鈥�"not strange, but different."鈥� Being in a new environment
and surroundings can make one feel uncomfortable and alienated, but in Paris I grew
to learn that the differences in the cultures, language, mannerisms, and city life
were not strange, but different and unique to the place. Studying abroad opened my
eyes to so many new perspectives on life, and different ways to embrace each other
and accept uniqueness everywhere. I'm so glad I had the chance to experience a way
that people in another part of the world live!"
- Gabrielle Groos
鈥淭he best part about studying in such history-rich cities such as Paris and London
is that you become part of the history and aura of the places yourself. I found new
perspectives in simply being present in these places and imagining all that has happened
before me. As with most students, money was an issue for me. But if you truly want
to go, you will find a way to make it happen. You will make friendships in the program
as well as internationally that will last well beyond the trip. This experience has
no doubt inspired me to make future travel plans.鈥�
- Alan Phan
鈥淭he Paris Program was the opportunity of a lifetime. It was affordable and provided
me with endless opportunities to see a variety of amazing art. I felt inspired the
whole time I was there and continue to draw inspiration from the memory of those experiences.
Despite the fact that most of the locals spoke English, it opened my eyes to the benefits
of learning another language. I am now enrolled in French classes! If I had the chance,
I would do it all over again.鈥�
- Courtney Spring
鈥淭he willing dislocation that I lived there helped feed my curiosity, gave rise to
new interests, and was perhaps the single most important aspect of my formation as
an artist. My month there was filled with different activities: from our explorations
as a class and group travel, to finding a new place to go to within an unending list
of sites, new food to taste, making friends with strangers, falling back in love with
walking and finding time to sit quietly while watching the city pass by. I started
thinking of Paris as a home! If there is one 鈥樷�渟ide effect鈥欌�� to living in Paris as
a student in the program, it is always wanting to go back.鈥�
- Maria Velasquez
鈥淧aris is just one of those places that changes your life forever and it stays with
you. If you take yourself seriously as an artist, you can go on this trip in walk
in the streets that artists walked, see the things that they saw, sit where they sat.
This program gives you the information that you need to be in an unfamiliar place
and the time there to make it familiar.鈥�
- Jaisen Crockett
鈥淭his was my first trip to Paris and it is one that I will never forget. I am a painter
and I truly believe that the people, culture, and lifestyle of Parisians will affect
my work forever. I return from this trip with more education and inspiration than
all of my graduate studies have offered thus far. Not only do students see a large
amount of the most important art works of all time, they get to witness a culture
that acknowledges the value and necessity of artists. As an artist, the value of this
experience is priceless.鈥�
- Chuck Carbia
鈥淢y time in Paris affected me and my art in ways that will be with me forever. The
program is long enough to feel a sense of familiarity and belonging, to be able to
make a return visit (or two, or three) to all your favorite museums and galleries,
to visit and study your favorite paintings until your head and your heart are full,
to walk the Paris boulevards without the aid of a map, to find the very best chocolate
croissant, to photograph a parkscape at all times of the day and night, to be gifted
with a smile of familiarity from a shopkeeper, to spend hours at a sidewalk cafe chatting
or studying faces, to dance until the wee hours in a nightclub, to attend as many
week-end gallery openings as you want, to study aspects of art history and art theory
at the place of their conception, to give accurate directions to American tourists
(and maybe even French tourists), to fill a sketchbook (or two or three), to haggle
in French at the best flea markets in the world, to attend special receptions at the
Louvre, to ride the metro disguised as a Frenchman, to visit Van Gogh's cathedral,
and Daumier's Ile St. Louis, and Pei's pyramid, to realize that even five weeks is
not enough time. There must be some things left undone, untried...there will always
be a reason to return.鈥�
- Connie Barnes
In Paris, "I had long imagined what Paris was like before I went there and the program
made the city live up to and exceed my expectations. For five weeks I became a citizen
of the city, using its metro system, art stores, bookstores, grocery stores, museums,
galleries, restaurants and cafes (Oh, the food!) The program is designed for you to
tap into the true ether of Paris that the typical tourist will never find. But the
program only gives as much as you do. It is not a guided tour of the Eiffel Tower
and Champs Elysees but rather a very informed and useful tool that allows you to gain
insight into a new culture and into its history. If you are open to the idea of living
in the city, i.e., behaving as the French do, embracing and conquering your sense
of smallness that is the byproduct of culture shock, then this is an opportunity that
you should seriously consider."
- Andrew Rush
"Studying in Paris is not only the chance of a lifetime, but it is so important to
students who wish to make careers out of their experiences and studies. It is overwhelming
to see the same city and the same paintings that you have only read about in textbooks.
My experience in Paris not only greatly enriched my knowledge of art,; it also provided
the chance to live as a Parisian in the city that shaped the essence of nineteenth
art."
- Kristin Welch
鈥淭he summer program in Paris provided a rich array of experiences which will last
a lifetime. Our time in Paris was filled with delights: trips to cathedrals, explorations
of the city, concerts, French food, new friendships. Perhaps the most significant
and lasting value to the program for students, however, was that it provided the opportunity
to see so many works of art. I will never forget the reaction of art students when
they first entered the Louvre: hundreds of art works they had only seen in books and
slides became realities, only an arm鈥檚 length away... I recommend this program to
all art students; I believe the program makes a significant impact on students鈥� lives,
greatly increases their knowledge of modern art, and elevates their artistic sophistication
to levels which could never be reached without the Paris experience.鈥�
- Janeen Larsen
鈥淔or an artist especially, or those in the Humanities/Fine Arts disciplines, studying
in Paris or abroad is an absolutely invaluable experience. You are immersed in an
ocean of spectacular culture, arts, tradition, and unfamiliar words which that overwhelms
the senses at first, necessitating a reassessment of your world and local view. It
is an expansive view to say the least. But in several days, and by the fifth week,
Paris will feel like home, as you now order your caf茅 creme in semi-impeccable French
and take full advantage of your cosmopolitan status. And it is precisely this nonmyopic,
broad scope of our one world/many differences/many cultures which seduces us, reaffirming
our individuality while recognizing commonly shared experiences amongst all...A panoramic
view of life while living history in one gorgeous city.鈥�
- Trong Nguyen
鈥淚 fell in love with Paris when I was twenty 20 years old visiting as a tourist for
five days. If asked why I loved Paris, I would say it was beautiful, and historic
and of course very romantic. All quite true but easy answers. I came to understand
why I loved Paris many years later as a student with the USF Summer Program in Paris.
Living at the Foyer gave me the opportunity to discover Paris in depth, to look at
this amazing city in depth from all angles and to do it at my own pace. As an Art
History major this experience is invaluable, even essential to an understanding of
the history of art. I recommend this particular program to students with little or
no experience traveling abroad because it is so complete. The program鈥檚 group and
independent activities are balanced in a thoughtful and sensitive manner so that each
student may find his or her comfort level with traveling in a foreign land. All of
the above are important components in describing the USF Paris program but the most
important reason to go to Paris with this program is to see first- hand the works
of art that can only be viewed by slides in the classroom in Tampa. There is simply
no comparison. Paris is a talented teacher. Its people, its art, its Metro, its language,
its food and so much more will transform and inform you.鈥�
- Susan Turo
鈥淚 am still absorbing the many great rewards that I have received from my studies
abroad. Besides the obvious advantages that being situated in Paris allows one (numerous
museums & galleries, parks and attractions, excursions), for perhaps the first time
in my life, or in a very long time, I was able to stop and simply enjoy a beautiful
day in nature 鈥� the fact that my enjoyment of a carefree afternoon, spent doing nothing
and worrying about nothing 鈥� was in France only made the experience that much more
memorable and magical.鈥�
- Curtis Brown