International Studies > Statements by former students in the Paris program

The 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.

- Courtney Spring

Paris is just one of those places that change 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.

- Jaisen Crockett

This 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.

- Chuck Carbia

My time in Paris affected me and my art in ways that will be with me forever. Four weeks in Paris 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 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.

-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."

"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 century art."

"I don’t always know how to describe my experience in Paris. I feel like I’m bragging, sometimes, when I speak about it. Yet when I find a fellow traveler, a kindred spirit, I’m a member of an elite club. Always, in complete strangers, when we find the other has traveled abroad, we have a mutual understanding, equal footing, the common ground that can bind two people together. I have made many new friends through the knowledge and experience I gained overseas. I also have a better awareness, pronunciation and understanding of the French language. I’m still amazed at how quickly I picked it up and was able to hold conversations with native speakers (“the concert’s sold out, another baguette please, stop bothering me”). I feel that the program has enriched my life in indescribable ways and opened my mind to a new way of seeing.”

-Barbara Beeler

“The summer program in Paris provided a rich array of experiences which will last a lifetime. The five weeks were filled with delights: trips to cathedrals, explorations of Paris, 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’s length away... I recommend this program to all art students; I believe the program makes a significant impact on students’ lives, greatly increases their knowledge of modern art, and elevates their artistic sophistication to levels which could never be reached without the Paris experience.”

“For 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 overwhelm 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 café 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.”

“I fell in love with Paris when I was twenty 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 for five weeks 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’s 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.”

-Susan Turo

-Curtis Brown