Strasbourg Field Study & Internship

BCA's Strasbourg Field Study & Internship program offers exciting opportunities for learning through BCA's partnership with Internships with Francophone Europe (IFE). The BCA-IFE program helps you to find an internship placement working in a professional environment alongside French colleagues. Download a Prospectus here.

Your experience will open new opportunities and discover a lively European society moving in new directions that are inspiring, thoughtful and creative! The program will provide you with:

Fluent French
European insider abilities and knowledge
Increased self-confidence and poise
Deeper understanding of one’s own culture
The beginnings of an international professional network
Something to show: significant work and research accomplished in France, in French

You might consider studying on the traditional BCA Strasbourg program during the fall semester and switching to the internship track in the spring semester so that you can spend a full year in France!

Immersion in French Society

Daily participation in the workplace is an ideal way to observe and participate in contemporary French society. Through intensive coursework, a seminar in European issues and a research project in a chosen area of interest, you will leave France surprised at how much you learned about France and about yourself. Plus, you will earn academic credit and add professional experience to your resume.

About the Program

There are four tightly-linked parts to the 18-week BCA-IFE Strasbourg semester:

1. PREPARATION
Students spend the first five weeks in an integrated, inter-disciplinary preparatory program, taught at BCA’s Strasbourg Center. The three, 3-credit courses – combining lecture-seminars with workshops – provide necessary keys for understanding France and the European context. Once on-the-job, students attend a weekly seminar on critical approaches to globalisation. (More on course content...)

2. PLACEMENT AND INTERNSHIP
Students in the Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program are placed in internships that reflect their own goals (academic, career) for this opportunity.(More about the Internship Placement...)

3. RESEARCH
The best way to solidify what’s learned in the work place is to write about it. Student interns work with an advisor to research and write an independent study project on a topic arising from their work and useful to their host organization. (More about the Research Paper...)

4. ACCOMPANIMENT
The Strasbourg Field Study and Internship program is a challenging semester of international study. As such, it is fully-structured to provide all the guidance, support and accompaniment students need to succeed.

A NOTE ON LANGUAGE: All courses are taught in French (by professors accustomed to communicating clearly in French to non-Francophone students). Students are required to speak French at all times when on BCA premises, both during the preparatory session and afterwards.

Student Placement Profiles

Cheryl Mariani, Juniata College
Consular Services of the United States in Strasbourg

As as intern at the US Consular Services, Cheryl works as an assistant to Consul Vincent Carver, who rapidly became confident in Cheryl’s abilities. Her tasks have included at first preparing for the visit by legal counsel of the State Department who came to discuss relations between consulates and European Institutions. Her participation in logistics was invaluable, as it was with her supervisor’s participation in a conference on environmental policy in Europe including editing and correcting a speech given by him. Finally Cheryl will carry out a market research on "Bio Valley" in Alsace, resulting in a report on bio-technologies in Alsace. She also carries out various administrative tasks (database of US firms in Alsace, etc.) as well as translations when needed.

Student Placement

Yuan Wang, Juniata College
Center for Information on European Institutions (CIIE)

As an intern at this public information service in Strasbourg, Yuan performs a variety of specific tasks. First, she regularly maintains the website by posting new translations as well as updates of existing information (texts, event calendars, etc.). She has contributed to the production of an English-language fact sheet on relations between the EU and China (Yuan is Chinese) while also helping to establish the French-language version. In addition,Yuan has been asked to reread and improve a questionnaire which the CIIE uses at the time of its public activities with various groups. She also participates in events outside of the CIIE such as a meeting with a member of the European Parliament in March.

Quick Facts

Fall: April 15
Spring: October 15

Program Dates

Language of Instruction

French. Five semesters of college-level French (or equivalent) are required.
Students who complete one semester at BCA Strasbourg automatically meet the language requirement for the internship program.

Host University

Internships with Francophone Europe (IFE)

Housing

Host families or university housing

GPA Requirement

3.0