Title: I attended American Intercontinental University London in Paris, France from July 2006 to August 200
1Fashion in the Summer American Intercontinental
University- Summer B 2006 Hillary Dixon
Results
- I had the time of life living abroad. I made
some amazing friends that I still keep in contact
with. We have actually made plans to all meet up
again soon. We plan on having reunions regularly
so that we can stay up with each other and what
we are doing in the fashion industry. I learned
so much about trends and more about what I want
to do as a career. I am going to take more
design classes and now have a broader scope of
skills that I can bring to which ever career path
I choose. - The housing was great. We were really fortunate
to live about five minutes away from the ACCENT
center where we took our classes. Unless you
requested a certain person as a roommate, you
lived by yourself. Which in the long run I think
was better because you spend you mostly spend
your time with people and its nice to just have
time to be by yourself. But when you first
arrive and are new to the environment, its nice
to have someone around to discuss things with so
that you dont feel so homesick. - The courses that I took were Fashion Styling and
Trend Forecasting. For Trend Forecasting we made
two different mood boards based on trends that we
predicted would be popular. My instructor taught
us to look retrospectively to what was popular a
long time ago and bring it back with new and
innovative embellishments. The first mood board
that I did was a Napoleonic inspired board and
then we were to design a collection of eight
pieces to go along with the mood. The second
board was a nautical theme with the British flag
as the inspiration. I really enjoyed this class.
For the second class, Fashion Styling, we had to
take three different photo shoots and turn them
into a miniature magazine. It was interesting to
be a stylist and pick out what to wear and where
to have the shoots. - As side excursions we went to London for one
weekend, the Loire Valley, Palais de Royal, The
Louvre, Versailles, Giverny (where Monet lived),
and just toured around Paris going to districts
such as Monmartre, the Latin Quarter and the
Bastille district where we lived. We went to a
ballet at Opera Bastille, mass at Notre Dame, the
worlds biggest flea market, a choir concert at
Saint Chapelle, celebrated Bastille day with the
locals, watched the ending of the Tour de France,
shopped along the Champs dElyesee and of course
went up inside the Eiffel Tour.
Introduction
I attended American Intercontinental University
London in Paris, France from July 2006 to August
2006. I went abroad for many reasons. One being
that I needed to go out on my own and learn more
about myself and all that I could accomplish
being on my own, I also went because I havent
really gotten that much fashion classes here at U
of I and I also went because I wanted to broaden
my knowledge about the fashion industry and where
is a better place to do it than in the fashion
capital of the world!
Objectives
- My expectations going into this was to grow both
mentally and also through as much knowledge as I
could absorb while being aboard. Whether it be
about another countrys language, culture,
through the classes that I was enrolled in or
about anything else. - What did you hope to learn and experience
- .What I hoped to learn was more about myself as
a person, what type of person I am or hope to
be - ..What type of profession I want to go into in
the fashion industry - . Meet many influential people in the industry
that could maybe some day hire me to work for
them - .Make contacts and network through friendships
that I form while abroad
Materials and Methods
Being a senior last year, I was in a conversation
with my advisor Rachel about graduation and what
else I had left to do and we realized that I only
had about 16 hours to graduate at the end of last
semester and that I only needed hours, I had all
of my required classes finished. She suggested
that I do it abroad. I had always wanted to go
abroad, but just never thought that it was in the
cards for me. Fortunately it was! The preparation
process was pretty painless. I contacted their
office and spoke a couple of people, there was a
mini-interview session over the phone and all I
had to do was fill out and application. A couple
of month later I received a call that I had been
accepted and was going to Paris! Fortunately for
me my parents had been saving their frequent
flyers miles for many years and so I was able to
use those to get there and also to come home, so
that it very easy for me.
Discussion / Conclusion
I completely recommend both this program and
study abroad to anyone who interested in it. It
will be by far be one of the best investments
that you can make in your future.