Sponsoring refugee students
|
||||
|
||||
Presentation
Every year, École des Ponts ParisTech's Refugee Student Program welcomes people from exile to consolidate their French and help them resume their studies in French higher education. Ponts Alumni provides support for this program, the main point of which is toassign an alumni sponsor to help them in their professional orientation.
The role of this sponsor is to inform, advise and support students in their career choices, drawing on their experience of the professional world in France. This involves choosing a field of study in line with the job market, proofreading CVs and cover letters, simulating recruitment interviews for internships or work-study placements...
The sponsor also plays a role in the student's inclusion in French society, helping him or her to discover the daily life of French engineers and the specifics of our culture.
This sponsorship is above all a relationship that you create together, depending on the time and affinity you develop together.
To illustrate this, here's a testimonial from one of this year's sponsors, Paul Chabas:
"I've been taking part in the alumni/refugee pairing program for 3 years and have therefore been in contact with 3 people: Yeneakal from Ethiopia, Jabril from Somalia and Arman from Bangladesh. Each time I've tried to organize a typical French meal at my place to meet them and chat, and each time it's been great fun! Cultural exchanges of course, debating whether it's better to eat camel liver or honey pops for breakfast, for example. But above all, it's about students asking themselves lots of questions that we can help them with: is it better to do a master's at the Arts or at Dijon University, how to make the most of your CV, or is it okay to go to an afterwork party with colleagues if you don't drink alcohol? It's not a very time-consuming activity, I'd say it's taking one hour a month to take stock of the situation with the student and possibly meeting him or her in person, which is always nicer. What I appreciate in this activity is being able to give direct help to someone, that you have in front of you a plus for their adaptation in France, and also meeting someone, Yeneakal for example has since become a friend!" |
With 25 students at the start of the 2023 academic year, we need to strengthen our team of godmothers and godfathers. If you'dlike to make a difference by helping to welcome and support refugees, this is your chance to take part in a human experience by filling in the short questionnaire below: