KCC to host French exchange students in January

Seven French students will be on the Klamath Community College campus for the winter term in early January.

KCC is partnering with the CESI School of Engineering in France as part of a student exchange program, according to Dr. Fred Griffiths, KCC’s director of International Studies. In turn, KCC hopes to send several students and a faculty member to France.

The college also signed a partnership with Rennes School of Business just outside of Paris. That program will allow KCC business students who want to earn a bachelor of science degree within three years to finish their business studies in France in the third year.

“CESI is a highly reputable program,” said Griffiths. “Most of the students will study in Paris, but the school has 25 campus locations across the country. The school helps with the logistics and housing. And both of the institutions we have partnered with are 100% English-speaking programs.”

The French students coming to Klamath Falls will need housing and Griffiths is asking the community for families to put the students up for 11 weeks. A stipend will be paid to the families to help cover costs.

“These are high-performing students, vetted by CESI,” Griffiths said. “Our engineering programs are some of the most demanding, but we hope they will have time to tour our region, too.”

Four of the French students will study in the Computer Engineering Technology program and the others will attend the Manufacturing Engineering Technology program. They will each take an average of four classes for the term.

“In turn, our students would go at the beginning of their second year of college and study for an entire semester at CESI,” Griffiths said. All the credits between the schools are fully transferable, and tuition and financial aid remain the same as if the students were on the KCC campus.

Business exchange program

Linda Williamson, KCC’s faculty program lead for Business Administration, will visit France next year to assess the business program at Rennes. The campus is about 200 miles southwest of Paris, in the Brittany region.

This opportunity provided by KCC is particularly special for Williamson, who has been a life-long admirer of French culture but has yet to visit. French icons adorn her office walls, and she has been studying French vocabulary whenever she gets a spare moment.

KCC President Dr. Roberto Gutierrez agreed that Williamson is the perfect choice to visit the country for a couple of weeks.

“We hope this will encourage other faculty to become part of the exchange,” he said. “It helps build diversity of viewpoints in the classroom. It also aligns with the KCC’s international program goals including local economic development.”

The business exchange program offers four fields of study: Associate of Applied Science of Business, Business Technology, Accounting, and Digital Marketing. The benefit of the program is that students can obtain a degree in three years, rather than the usual four. The third year includes a business internship.

“We have a very solid business program here,” Williamson said, “which reflects the work of several other fulltime faculty and many adjunct faculty as well. We monitor the industry carefully and add in new courses and options when needed, all with the oversight of both my dean, Chris Stickles, and my Business Program Advisory Committee.

“I’m thrilled that we caught the attention of the school in France and look forward to connecting closely with other programs here (such as Digital Media) to ensure that our students get a quality education and are fully prepared for their next step.”

 For more details on CESI, visit cesi.fr/en; and for Rennes, visit rennes-sb.com.

To contact Dr. Griffiths about hosting students from France, email griffiths@klamathcc.edu. Contact Linda Williamson at williamson@klamathcc.edu.