Jalen and Maria pose for a selfie in a reflective hemisphere in Nancy, France.
Master's

Studying in France as Americans: Kicking Off an Awesome Summer

It’s already been a month since Jalen and I officially finished the first year of our master’s degrees at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne. This month has been both busy and relaxing, and we’re excited to share what we’ve been up to with you all.


As part of his master’s degree in Logistics, Jalen has continued working at his internship. This month, he has enjoyed refining his skills, has taken the lead on a new project, and has been learning to navigate enterprise resource planning software.

Though I don’t have any work to do for my master’s degree in Public Law this summer, I did have to apply for a changement de parcours, or concentration change, due to an unfortunate administrative circumstance that I faced when applying to the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne in 2020. Initially, I was unable to apply to my preferred Public Law concentration, called Intégration Européenne et Gouvernance Globale, as it was not integrated into the Études en France platform that Americans use to apply to higher education programs in France. However, the required classes for all of the Public Law concentrations are the same during the Master 1 year, meaning that the concentrations don’t begin in earnest until the Master 2 year. With this in mind, I was able to apply to a different concentration knowing that I would need to switch at the end of my first year. Therefore, I went through an in-house application process and was accepted into my preferred concentration for next year!

Apart from school and work responsibilities, Jalen and I managed to have some fun this month as well. We took a weekend trip to Nancy, France together where we explored beautiful parks, amazing museums, lovely churches, and more. We had a great time on our mini vacation and were reminded of how much we love travelling together.

Furthermore, Maria’s mom, sister, and brother came to Reims for a visit almost immediately after the French border opened to tourists. It had been almost a year since we had the opportunity to spend time with them in-person, so it was a welcomed reunion. We loved showing them around Reims, going shopping together, sharing French pastries, and more for a whole week.

All in all, our first month of summer has been a really pleasant one. We are looking forward to making more memories and continuing to enjoy our time off from classes. How have you been spending your time lately? Have a question or want to know more? Tell us in a comment.


Check out this month’s update video!


Check out our other monthly updates!


Check out our video about our trip to Nancy!

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