Medill IMC Paris program offers students opportunity to learn from diverse perspectives

Three IMC students studied for 15 weeks at Sciences Po and benefitted from seeing the world and people in a new way

Long known as the city of light, Paris continues to serve as a beacon for the culturally curious and intellectually driven people of the world. Northwestern Medill IMC students are no less immune to the city’s call, as shown by the students who enrolled in the Medill IMC Paris program in which they took classes for 15 weeks at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, also known as Sciences Po.

Anthony Fleet, Lainey Fox and Priya Ramanathan seized the opportunity to study abroad during the fall in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world.

“I loved to hear from my Northwestern classmates their stories of what it’s like to live in other countries,” said Fleet, who had never been abroad before Paris. “I wanted to see what it meant and how it felt to immerse myself in the center of not one but many different cultures.”

Fox, who also values Northwestern’s diversity, agrees, saying she wanted to expand upon her IMC experience by learning different points of view by immersing herself in an entirely new environment. “The highly international makeup of Sciences Po made it the perfect place to expose myself to countries I haven’t been to yet,” Fox said.

Beyond international diversity, Fleet, Fox and Ramanathan valued the educational differences afforded them by Sciences Po’s professors as the instructional methods differed significantly from that of Medill IMC.

“The classes were more theoretical and discussion based and often centered around hypothetical situations versus the client-based projects offered by IMC,” says Ramanathan.

Fox and Fleet agree, adding that the different teaching style was one of the biggest surprises from the program. And they wouldn’t change a thing.

“Being able to learn from people who represent so many different countries all in one room is like a mini United Nations,” said Fleet. “I’ve only been used to the American perspective, and you don’t get that external view of us when in the U.S.”

“The classes open up your mind and give you a whole new view of the world around you,” Ramanathan added. “You learn how to work in different cultures, and the professors brought new networks and work experiences to the mix.”

The Paris program is one of several global experiences the IMC program offers. Learn more about IMC domestic and global opportunities, including London, Asia, Paris and San Francisco.