Truman Study Abroad Programs -
The Angers European Business Semester
"Europe matters.
It mattered enough for the United States to sacrifice half a million men and women in World War II. It mattered enough for American forces to stay on the old continent for half a century thereafter to keep the cold war cold.
Now, at this beginning of a new millennium, Europe, its spreading zone of peace and prosperity, still matters. And politically, too, Europe is experimenting in ways that should interest us."
Elizabeth Pond, The Rebirth of Europe. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1999.
The Angers European Business Semester is part of the Applied European Business Program at ESSCA.
The Angers European Business Semester is both part of ESSCA's international exchange programs for foreign students and an option for ESSCA's French students in their fourth year of studies in our new graduate program.
Its special focus on different aspects of the European business environment and economics as well as modern history and contemporary socio-economic and political issues makes it a unique opportunity for students who wish to obtain a first-hand insight into European affairs and to understand what the European Union really stands for. The Angers European Business Semester is taught entirely in English, but also offers an optional French language course at different levels.
The program has been running with growing success for several years now with participants from America, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe. 45 students of over a dozen different nationalities participated in the 2001 program. They gained not only specific academic knowledge but also lived a truly multi-cultural experience. Ho Sung Lee from Ateneo University, Manila, recalls his semester:
Angers"Looking back, I really miss the diversity of the people who were in the program. There were Spaniards, Mexicans, Americans, Austrians, Germans, Finnish, Belgian, Dutch, English, Irish, Italians, Romanians, Lithuanians, as well as Taiwanese, Thai and some fellow Philippinos. They're all very different people. I went out so often because we would just sit around and talk, and it's fun because everybody's so different and you learn a lot from each other. We were all in a country that wasn't our own so everybody respected each other. I'm not saying that all Americans or all Germans are humble, but the people who are willing to go on an exchange program are naturally more open-minded. We all spoke English, too, so there we were, one diverse group of 'open-minded' people...it was a lot of fun."