From Princeton to Paris

Sarah Betancourt at Versailles
Sarah Betancourt, CUPA alum from spring 2019, visiting the Château de Versailles

Sarah Betancourt featured in the
Princeton International Magazine

 

The cherry blossoms in spring, thunderous applause at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, a dramatic sunset over the Seine: these are a few of the images Sarah Betancourt shared with the world when she took over CUPA’s Instagram stories in the spring of 2019. Thanks to her stories, we were able to live Sarah’s Parisian life, if only for a couple of hours.

For those of you who would have liked to see more of her experiences abroad, you’re in luck. In the latest issue of the Princeton International Magazine, the piece “At Home in Paris” offers a more detailed account of Sarah’s semester with CUPA’s Immersion Program. In the article, Sarah recounts how she became a part of her CUPA host family, even joining them on vacation. She also spoke about her dance class at the Studio Harmonic that she took as part of her curriculum and how it was an inspiring and motivating experience.

Here are some highlights from the feature:

“Her study abroad program provider, the Center for University Programs Abroad (CUPA), allowed her to take a range of courses at universities such as Université Paris 8 and Université Paris-Sorbonne. All five of her courses were taught in French, and most of the students in her classes were native French speakers.”

“Her language skills improved dramatically. ‘There was definitely a steep learning curve,’ Betancourt says. ‘Just getting used to only listening to French in my classes was exhausting for the first couple of weeks, but I knew that’s what I wanted to be doing — so that made it worthwhile.’ ”

“Her home life was not the only unique part of Betancourt’s semester abroad. When she was not spending time with her host family or in the classroom, she was dancing at Studio Harmonic, a local studio in the city. Betancourt attended open danse classique classes twice a week for advanced ballet, which will count toward her certificate in dance at Princeton.”

You can read the full article here: http://bit.ly/2RXNB1Z

To see Sarah’s Instagram Story Takeover: http://bit.ly/2OnBqsU

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