(August 7, 2014)

Centenary College first-year students depart for Paris

SHREVEPORT, LA — More than 130 incoming first-year students departed Centenary College's campus Tuesday morning for Paris, France, along with 10 faculty members who will be teaching immersive academic courses during the inaugural Centenary in Paris program from Wednesday, August 6 to Wednesday, August 13.

"We have done extensive research and our Dean of Students, Mark Miller, has worked hard to make excellent plans for the day-to-day programming," said Chris Lavan, Centenary's Director of Global Engagement. "This will be an enriching and mind-opening experience, as the students will actually see the same things they are reading about in their courses. It's going to be incredible."

Students, faculty, and staff members arrived in Paris on the morning of Wednesday, August 6 and checked into their home away from home, the international youth hostel FIAP Jean Monnet. Class work for the four-credit courses, such as English 190: Writing Paris/Writing Home and Business 190: The French Connection: Business in Paris, began in Shreveport and will continue at various locations around Paris.

Students in English 190 will have the opportunity to explore the 5th arrondissement neighborhood where Ernest Hemingway lived while discussing their reading from Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. Business 190 students will visit Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, the largest antique market in the world, and complete an on-site journal entry connecting their first-hand observations with their assigned readings on "Adaptive Reuse."

"Centenary in Paris was like the cherry on top of an already spectacular liberal arts college," said Collin Hughes, an incoming first-year and recent graduate of Caddo Parish Magnet High School in Shreveport. "I look forward to seeing Paris in a completely different way, thanks to the perspective-changing knowledge that my Listening in Paris (Music 190) class will give me."

Many Centenary in Paris participants will be recording their adventures via social media, utilizing #CentenaryInParis to tell their stories and keep in touch with family and friends at home. Some of this student-produced media will be showcased in a special Centenary in Paris exhibition opening at Centenary's Meadows Museum of Art on Saturday, August 23, along with multi-disciplinary works created during the immersion term by students in art, business, english, psychology, and theatre courses.