Bonjour à tous! I’m Clare. I’m a rising junior (I can’t believe I’m saying that already) double majoring in Accounting, Business Analytics, and minoring in French. Pitt always felt like the natural choice of university for me. I’ve lived 30 minutes from Oakland my whole life, and all my siblings went here; although my parents went to Penn State. I try not to hold it against them.

Outside of school, my favorite hobbies are baking and reading. Naturally, I am most excited to visit Paris’ exquisite boulangeries and patisseries – maybe I’ll finally find a croissant recipe that actually turns out right. Sixth time’s the charm? 

This will be my first ever internship, my only other job experiences having been in food service. I’m both thrilled and immensely nervous to be starting my professional career in a different country, in a language which I speak, but not fluently. It feels a lot like throwing myself in the deep end of a pool. But it’s been a dream of mine to study abroad since way before I came to college, so I knew I had to do this program from the moment my counselor told me about it. Despite my nerves, I know that no matter what happens, my time abroad will teach me adaptability, courage, and perseverance. 

I’ve been studying French for almost 9 years at this point, and while I think I can write and read pretty well, speaking and comprehending native speakers’ slang and fast pace has always been a weakness of mine. My biggest goal for this program, aside from gaining professional experience in my first internship, is to improve my speaking, to the point where I can consider myself at least close to fluent. Fingers crossed. I’ll be speaking French at work, at home, when I’m out and about – I can’t wait to see how much I’m going to improve! 

It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks regarding my internship. Thought I had one, then suddenly found out on Friday it wasn’t going to pan out. No matter, the wonderful folks at EUSA found me another opportunity straight away. It’s not been confirmed yet, but I’m pretty sure I have it, though I don’t want to jinx anything…

As I write this, I’ve still got some packing to do. So I’ll see all of you on the other side of the Atlantic!