Meet Caroline from France
Caroline had really come a long way from her days as an ESL student. Read all about her fabulous journey.
The adventures of Caroline in the United States.
Two and a half years ago I was in France, miles away from thinking of all the adventures I would go through in the US. The first adventure started with a tumultuous year as an au-pair for three American families. Originally I am from a French working-class family. At my mum's bed and breakfast life was simple. Thus, my arrival in the United States was a TOTAL shock.
Despite these obstacles, I decided to stay in the United States and apply to Hunter College. It was a big challenge for me knowing that my English was almost only based on communicating with toddlers, i.e. "if you're happy and you know and clap your hands".
I started at the IELI in the Fall of 2006. I began as a level 6 student and in one semester finished the program. From these ESL classes I learned about the American culture, but more importantly I learned how to write essays and read faster. All of this, thanks to the help of the IELI's teachers, especially Shant Melkonian, (thank you Shant!). Those skills allowed me to start with confidence taking regular classes at Hunter College in the Spring of 2007.
The first four classes I took were very difficult for me. I spent twice as much time studying as my classmates. However, after about a month and a half, I felt much more comfortable due to my hard work and also because I had the help of my classmates. For me, one of the keys to being successful in college is to study in groups. So after finding the best students in the class, I asked if we could work together. The result is that my grades improved as well as my participation. As soon as I felt comfortable with my coursework as a Psychology major I started an internship in a rehabilitation center in Harlem at the beginning of March 2007. The end of the first semester was more than satisfying for me. I was able to follow along in class and, after the internship I realized that Psychology was not a career that I wanted to pursue. I just wanted to use it as a tool for my new orientation in international politics. Thus, I decided to declare my second majors as Political Science.
After a summer (2007) spent studying political science, I started my junior year as a candidate for a Bachelor of Art with a double major in International Politics and Physiology.
I started the Fall semester 2007 studying for the CEP (a CUNY wide test) which I passed. I believe attending the classes offered by the Reading and Writing Center of Hunter College really helped. In the meantime, I started another internship but this time with a fundraising organization called Friend of FOKAL located at the Open Society Institute. FOKAL is a foundation created by philanthropist George Soros more than 12 years ago in Haiti. It is dedicated to the promotion of Democracy and open society values through support of education, community and grassroots development. Friends of FOKAL is the US arm and they exist to let people know about the positive changes happening in Haiti. Their websites are www.fokal-usa.org and www.fokal.org. I encourage everyone to read about the organizations and to get involved.
After two years of intense work, I was done for a winter break. However, being the workaholic that I am, I registered for the Model UN class. Hence, the course that was for the spring semester 2008 started earlier than expected. The first competition, the Harvard Model UN was from February 14th to February 17th, and needed a lot of preparation. Thus, we started studying for it during the winter break. I was the delegate for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and assigned to the Legal Committee. The Conference was amazing. One hundred and ninety two countries represented by 3000 delegates from 30 different countries, with one goal, working together to make this world a better place to live. The Hunter students did not win any awards, but learned a lot from the winners who were the students from the Netherlands, on how to be a good delegate. It was well learned because at the next conference hosted by the Macaulay honors program at CUNY on February 27th, 28th, and 29th, Hunter students won 9 awards in total, including one from me as a delegate of South Africa. The last competition of the semester between Hunter's students will be in April and I will represent France on the matter of Kosovo.
My next adventure will be to participate with the study abroad program on a trip to China this summer. The program called ‘Politics in Emerging China' will give American students the opportunity to study politics for one month in a Chinese University, learn basic Mandarin, participate to discussions with Chinese students to learn about their culture and present to them another way of life. What a fantastic opportunity!
Next, I will try to secure an internship with the Unites Nations or an affiliate branch, such as the Rogowsky Internship Program in government and public affairs, while finishing my BA in Spring 2008. Then for a year and a half, I would like either to work in peacekeeping with the UN, (if I can get accepted) or anchor a summer program in Israel to study conflict resolution followed by the Jet program, an exchange program proposed by the Japanese Embassy in numerous countries to go to Japan and teach English and French before returning to New York and attending Columbia University in September 2009 where I will be pursuing a Master's Degree in international relations.
Those future adventures promise to be challenging, but one thing I have learned in this country is that even if things do not work the way I want them, I know that "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." Thanks Eleanor Roosevelt.
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