I am currently in the process of completing my “Dossier de Candidature” for SciencesPo in Paris. If everything goes as planned, in a few short months I will be catching a flight to one of Europe’s most famed (and infamous) cities. My roommate, who as also travelled extensively, went on exchange to the Netherlands and maintains the opinion that everyone should go on exchange if they get the chance. It is somehow very different to simply throwing your belongings in a backpack and heading out to whatever country strikes your fancy. For one, there is a lot more paperwork!

However, I am nonetheless very excited to be heading off on a European adventure, school-related or not. I chose SciencesPo for several reasons. I have chosen French as my language, and I feel that Paris is the ideal place for me to perfect my language skills. Being at a French university, and surrounded by peers who are speaking the language I intend to become bilingual in, is undoubtedly the best way to improve my fluency. SciencesPo offers courses,like, “A l’origine de la crise écologique : pour une histoire environnementale” and “Agriculture, Food and Globalization” that would be very fitting with my interests and current pursuit here at UBC. My resource specialization is sustainable agriculture, and I am interested in all stages of agricultural business, from farming to marketing to consumption and waste. I would very much like to study how Europe is dealing with current issues of sustainability, and feel that SciencesPo is an excellent place from which I will be able to do so, and also have first-hand experience.

I am hoping to live and work in Europe once I have completed my undergraduate degree here at UBC. I am also interested in pursuing a Master’s degree in the EU, and therefore am keen to study there on exchange to make academic as well as personal and professional connections which may further my studies and perhaps even my career in the future. I would very much like to be in a bigger centre, like Paris, in order to have the most potential at my fingertips.

At the end of December, I hope to get over to Scotland to visit my Gran for Christmas, and then am applying to go to the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands for the spring semester. I have never been to the Netherlands, and am very excited about the chance to live and study there for a few months. It may be a fair while till I’m back at UBC!