{"id":15804,"date":"2026-03-25T09:45:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=15804"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:44:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:44:44","slug":"umes-welcomes-french-foreign-exchange-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/umes-welcomes-french-foreign-exchange-students\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES welcomes French foreign exchange students"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The University of Maryland Eastern Shore had a first in the campus\u2019s nearly 140-year history \u2013 its first group of foreign exchange students. University of Lorraine students Nathan Millot, Yanis Choucha, Elliott Wagner, and Flavy Seminara are spending the spring 2026 semester in Princess Anne.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore had a first in the campus\u2019s nearly 140-year history \u2013 its first group of foreign exchange students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students, who come from the University of Lorraine (UL) in France, came to UMES as part of a partnership between the two schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe organically found this partnership through a direct reach out \u2013 the university contacted us,\u201d said Phillip Broussard<\/strong>, Director of Global Opportunities at UMES\u2019 Center for Foreign Language Instruction & International Education. \u201cThere was a year-long dialogue between the two schools and ultimately, it came down to finding the most synergy between our business programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the agreement, each school can host up to five students per semester, per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving the partnership between the UMES and the University of Lorraine demonstrates the international reach of our academic programs,\u201d said Dr. Derrek Dunn<\/strong>, Dean of the School of Business, Engineering, Applied Sciences, Technology, and Tourism Management. \u201cAllowing our students to study abroad offers them a learning experience that is essential in our institutional mission of creating global citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, recent UMES graduate Jalen Gourrier<\/strong> was the first to participate in the program by spending a semester in France. This year, UMES hosted four students \u2013 three juniors, Yanis Choucha<\/strong>, Elliott Wagner<\/strong>, Flavy Seminara<\/strong>, and sophomore Nathan Millot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quartet are accounting, finance, and marketing majors and will spend the spring semester on campus. During their time in Princess Anne, the French contingent will also get the chance to experience life on campus while also exploring American culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the things I\u2019m hoping to take away from this experience is to see the difference between French and American ways of teaching and learning,\u201d said Millot, who is visiting the United States for the first time. \u201cSo far, the biggest difference I\u2019ve seen was the length in classes. In France, one class is often three hours long, where the average college class here is a lot less and it passes fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the semester, the students will have opportunities to visit various locales including Ocean City, Washington, D.C., and other destinations in order to make their experience at UMES a memorable one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing in a new country and not knowing anyone can be a scary and stressful situation,\u201d Millot said. \u201cBut during my time at UMES, people have been welcoming. I think if you\u2019re polite and nice, you won\u2019t have a reason to be stressed or scared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opportunity to host the exchange students not only came down to a strong partnership, but to a bit of good fortune as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broussard said of the various foreign exchange locales available to UL students, UMES was the only partner in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the program, the four students pay their tuition fees at the University of Lorraine while only paying auxiliary fees at UMES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to bring down those barriers to bring them here,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout that kind of MOU, we would likely go another 100 years without having exchange students on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Broussard, \u201cHosting these exchange students is a vital step in expanding UMES\u2019 global footprint and reinforces our mission as a globally engaged HBCU. We want to give students a chance to have global experiences they can remember for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore had a first in the campus\u2019s nearly 140-year history \u2013 its first group of foreign exchange students. The students, who come from the University of Lorraine (UL) in France, came to UMES as part of a partnership between the two schools. \u201cWe organically found this partnership through a direct…Read more UMES welcomes French foreign exchange students<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1559,"featured_media":15807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-15804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15804"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=15804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}