Hello! My name is Drew and I’m a junior at the College of Charleston. I’m majoring in International Business with a minor in Business Language in Spanish. This semester, I am studying at EDHEC university in Nice, France. There were many CofC exchange programs that I was interested in, however, the program in Nice was one of the only programs that allowed me to take business courses in a country where English is not the first language. EDHEC is one of the top 15 European business schools and they offer courses taught in English and French. I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone to better prepare me for my future career. I also needed to be able to take courses that worked towards my major classes in order to graduate on time so EDHEC was the perfect option! I am super excited to be in such a beautiful city on the water! 

My study abroad experience is my first experience being in Europe so I wasn’t really sure what to expect or what goals to set for myself. This past summer was extremely busy for me and I spent so much time figuring out logistics like getting a visa and booking flights that the research I did was next to none. I only had a break of about three days to pack for my trip and prepare to leave so I kind of went into it blindly. I did a bit of research about what the weather is like here solely for packing purposes but that’s about it! Given this, going into this semester, my main goals were pretty broad: travel as much as I can, learn about French language and culture, and make new friends.