FRENCH-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 73, 15 January 1947, Page 6

FRENCH-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

INTERCHANGE OF GIFTED STUDENTS CLOSE INTER-CULTURAL RELATIONS An American Institute of France has been formed to stimulate French-American friendship by promoting interchange of some of these nations’ most gifted students, states an American newspaper. Leading educators of both nations joined to establish the Institute, whose President is Dean William F. Russell of Teachers College, Columbia University. These men founded it in the hope of expanding French-American friendship and forming closer intercultural relations, according to Dean Russell. “The two countries must stand shoulder to shoulder in the future as they have in the past,” he declared.

Dean Russell described the programme as follows:

For a few selected American students, the Institute will provide opportunities in France which are ordinarily available only to a small number of top-ranking French students. For example, several Americans will have access to the select Ecole Normale Superieure, which has trained many leaders of France. Dean Russell believes that there will be exceptional opportunities for Americans in the study of ceramics, art, international relations and other subjects in the finest institutions of France.

In return, American universities will make available to outstanding French students some of the best educational opportunities this country can offer. Dean Russell observed that in American technical, industrial, and professional schools the French student may receive education that is different from, and sometimes superior to what he can find in his own country. Students of both nations may seek advice and guidance at offices of the Institute in both New York City and Paris. The New York headquarters at 19 East Sixty-fourth Street will begin to function shortly. The offices, located at 96 Boulevard Raspail, Paris, were set in motion last summer under the direction of Dean Russell. Another service to be offered will be the evaluation of the students’ university work. This will be particularly useful to American students in France, Dean Russell observed, for American universities, accustomed to credits and points, have difficulty in determining the credit that should be granted for work abroad. Accordingly, the Institute will issue certificates in American terms. American students in France may not be as warm and will fed as in the past, Dean Russell observed. “But they will be very welcome, as will French scholars in this country.”