This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Hollins Study Abroad program. The Hollins University French Program kicked off the célébration a little early with the launch of the university’s first department-sponsored study abroad internship last May.
Created in partnership with the Saint-Lô Institute in Normandy, France, and Roanoke Valley Sister Cities, the internship fully funded two Hollins students and one graduate for three weeks in Saint-Lô, one of Roanoke’s seven sister cities. The first Saint-Lô internships coincided with significant celebrations for Normandy: the 80th D-Day anniversary festivities and the Olympic Torch passing through on its way to the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Vivian Urda ’24 and Ella Strickland ’25 taught English at the Institut St-Lô, which includes all levels from elementary to associate bachelor’s degree. Ava Kegler ’25 worked at Ouest-France, a daily national newspaper based in Saint-Lô.
“This partnership was a natural addition to our program, enabling students to gain hands-on, high-impact professional experience while expanding their French skills in a practical setting,” explains Jeanne Jégousso, Ph.D., assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies and the director of the French program, who oversees the internship.
Open to all Hollins French majors and minors, the internship also strengthens Hollins’ ties with Roanoke and highlights the mutual benefits of international collaboration through an exchange where two Saint-Lô students attend programs at Hollins summer programs each July. Thanks to the generosity of Ann Utterback ’90, the French Program is able to provide airfare for the Saint-Lô interns who live at the Institut and with host families.
Full-immersion Language Internship with a Hefty Dose of History
Both Kegler and Strickland had participated in Hollins’ January Term Language Immersion program in Tours, France, and Strickland spent the 2024 spring semester in the Hollins Paris program with the Institute for International Education of Students (IES Abroad). Their time in Normandy, though, was a different experience from Paris. “I was using my French the entire time because Saint-Lô is a small town,” Kegler, a double major in French and international studies, explains. “It’s not like Paris where there are a lot of English speakers.”
Medieval castles dot the Saint-Lô landscape, as do ruins from The Battle of Saint-Lô, which almost destroyed the city, fought from July 7 to July 19, 1944, following the Allied landing. “It’s amazing to see history in real life and not just in a textbook,” explains Stickland, a communications studies and French double major with plans for a diplomatic career. The interns attended numerous diplomatic events between the U.S., France, and Roanoke’s global sister cities in Belgium. They even met Emmanuel Macron, President of France, at a D-Day event. “I feel so lucky, first to be a Hollins student, and to have been an ambassador for Roanoke and for Hollins,” says Strickland.
Interning at Ouest-France andInstitut St-Lô
Kegler shadowed journalists, participated in veteran interviews, and covered historical D-Day reenactments. Only one journalist spoke some English. “The fast-paced environment challenged my understanding of the French language and forced me to trust myself and my previous study-abroad experiences.”
Strickland used her Communication Studies coursework to prepare lesson plans and discussions for teaching English at Institut St-Lô. Older students peppered her with questions about American culture, while the youngest students loved hearing her read Goodnight Moon.
“Normandy felt like home in the way that you run into your neighbor while you’re on a walk,” says Strickland, who last summer hosted two teenagers from Institut St-Lô for one week at her home in Northern Virginia as part of the exchange program.
Kegler and Strickland agree that it is Hollins’ smaller size that made for such a world-expanding opportunity. “At a bigger school, I would’ve competed against a lot more people for the internship,” says Kegler. “Hollins provides us with many opportunities to help us enrich our skills. The funding by the French program made it possible for me to do the internship.”
The immersive Saint-Lô internship is distinct among Hollins’ several traditional study-abroad programs and rare in academia, Dr. Jégousso says. “Its timing, directly after the spring semester, allows students to engage in extraordinary events, gain practical classroom experience in a French context, and position them for careers in education, international relations, and other fields requiring bilingual and intercultural skills. Long term, the exchange will foster community engagement by building vibrant connections between Hollins, Roanoke, and Saint-Lô, creating a sense of belonging and global citizenship.”
Currently, the French Program is accepting applications for two Saint-Lô interns for this coming June.
