B&M Behind the Scenes

Lena Bodingbauer is currently completing her semester abroad at EDC Paris Business School. We asked her for experiences she has already made in the first one and a half months in France.

Please introduce yourself in a few sentences!
Hi everyone! My name is Lena, I’m 21 years old and from Austria. Currently, I am in the 5th semester of the bachelor’s degree in Business and Management.

Where do you spend your semester abroad? Can you tell us about that?
I am spending the semester at EDC Paris Business School. Together with three other students from MCI, we are doing the Business Administration program at EDC. For almost two months I have been enjoying life in Paris and I am more than happy that I chose this city.

Where do you see the big differences between the partner university and MCI?
EDC Paris Business School was supposed to be in their new building by now but unfortunately, it will take some more time for them to relocate. This being said the building we are currently having lectures in is not as pretty as the facilities MCI offers but it is in the middle of Paris’s business district La Défense which is really cool. Most of the lecturers here have a French accent and it occurs frequently that they switch to speaking French  We also have Midterms in addition to the final exam. At EDC only less than 20 people are in one course which means that the lecturers can focus more on individual students.

What is it like to be abroad during COVID-19?
I consider myself very lucky to be in Paris and have the experience of a semester abroad as most of them got cancelled. As we still have a lot of classes face to face only the mask we are wearing reminds us of the pandemic. Additionally, as the number of cases in Paris is constantly rising there are of course some rules and new laws we have to obey but they are not really restricting us in having a great time here.

Are you already looking for an internship? If so, which company are you planning to do the internship? Is there a specific industry you want to work in?
Yes, I have been applying to companies for some weeks now. I do not know where I will be doing the internship yet, but I would like to work in the field of Marketing, Project Management or Human Resources. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has not made it any easier to find an internship as the response from a lot of companies is that they are not able to take any interns due to the corona crisis.