How is the Program Structured?

UVA students in Lyon have an on-site manager who will help them find housing and arrange for monthly cultural activities; a tutor; an optional two-hour per week advanced course in the French language; and individual academic advising at several levels.

Our on-site manager serves multiple functions:

• Helps UVA students with housing selection, getting started in Lyon (setting up bank accounts etc), and general orientation to the Université de Lyon-II.
• Organizes monthly cultural activities with the other UVA students. Cultural activities might include going to the theater, the opera or a professional soccer game. Bread and cheese gatherings are also organized. American students are encouraged to invite their French friends to these gatherings as well. Some cultural activities may also be done in conjunction with students from Brown University and Georgetown, schools that already have established exchanges with Lyon-II. These cultural gatherings are a chance to touch base with people from home, relax, exchange experiences and share new ones!
• Serves as a general contact person. The on-site coordinator is available to UVA students for advice and to help deal with any difficulties that may arise. Of course, the on-site coordinator is available for counsel at any time in case of emergency.

Course in Advanced French

UVA students have the option of enrolling in an advanced course in French during the regular academic year. These courses, which normally meet for two hours each week, are offered under the auspices of the Université de Lyon-II's highly reputed International Center for the Study of French. (the CIEF - Centre international d'études françaises)

Tutoring

UVA students will be provided with six hours of tutoring during the course of a semester to help with homework and written assignments in French. Tutors will help students understand the expectations of French professors with respect to written work such as essays, "explications de texte", "commentaires de texte" etc.

Individual Academic Advising

Prior to the beginning of each academic semester a general orientation will be offered to all UVA students in Lyon. Although Lyon II is quite advanced in this area, don't expect to find the same computer amenities that you have here at UVA! If you decide to bring your own laptop computer make sure it is compatible with the 220 volts AC in France. Also remember that there are many "cyber-cafés" in Lyon and that students get a discount for internet access. It is also recommended that all students set up "Mail forwarding" from their UVA mail accounts to their new E-mail adderesses. (If you are using a Hotmail, for instance, this can be done prior to departing Charlottesville.)

Individual academic advising will be offered by our exchange coordinator Professor Vincent Michelot, a political scientist who is a member of the Department of English and American Studies at Lyon II. Professor Michelot lived in Charlottesville for one year as a Fulbright scholar in 1991-92. His doctoral thesis on the US Supreme Court was done in conjunction with several professors in the UVA Government Department. Professor Michelot has also taught in the UVA French Department. Since that time, we have maintained friendly and professional relations between our two schools. These personal ties, we believe, will also contribute to the success of the UVA-Lyon II exchange.

In theory, students may enroll in any course at Lyon-II. However, as is true here at UVA, close advising is necessary in order to obtain the right classes for each individual student, since certain courses may not be appropriate or even available for one reason or another. We urge students to consult the course evaluations submitted by recent exchange students since these are precious guides to course content, to required written work and examinations, and to the teaching styles of individual professors.

Beyond this initial academic advising, students have recourse to the Foreign Student Advisor in each individual academic department at Lyon II. In fact, UVA students will be required to register with the department of their major at Lyon II, whether that be the Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, or French departments. French students do the same. As you will discover, most French undergraduates take 90% of their courses in one single department! They tend to specialize much earlier than do we. As a result, they often have a tight schedule of required courses to be taken in sequence and have very few electives. American students, however, will be able to pick and choose among departments as they do here at UVA. You will soon discover that just about everything, from insurance to computers and course selection is embedded within a particular cultural context!! This is just part of how you will be absorbing French culture in daily student life.