Columbia College Goes To France

by Christina Delgman
cmdelgman1@cougars.ccis.edu
    
     Columbia College will go to France in  spring  2011 with EF College Study Tours. The trip is open to faculty, students, friends and family.

     The trip departs May 16 from St. Louis, arriving in Paris. Visitors will stop in Paris, Nice, Monaco, Provence, Avignon, Lourdes/Biarritz, Loire Valley and Normandy. Students can enroll in courses related to the trip for up to six credit hours. If students decide to take a course, they can use their student loans toward the cost of trip. 

Dr. Ann Schlemper, associate professor of

mathematics, shows the EF College

Study Tours Web site.



      Students who sign up now will pay $3,583. Prices will increase the longer students wait to register. Costs are nearly all-inclusive. Round-trip airfare, all breakfasts, seven dinners, hotels, tour guides, transportation and entrance fees to the attractions are included in the cost, said Dr. Ann Schlemper, associate professor of mathematics, who is coordinating the tour.

      In Paris, travelers will visit Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, among other sites. They also will get to see the Roman Ruins in Arles. In Loire Valley, they will tour the wine country. Students will have a full day to tour the beaches of Normandy that witnessed D-Day. The EF College Study Tours Web site provides a day-by-day itinerary for the trip.

     In addition to earning course credit hours, the trip offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, said Dr. Robert Boon, professor of humanities. He said that these trips expose students to new cultures. Seeing places like this on TV or YouTube is just not the same, said Boon. Just the traveling experience alone would be something new and interesting, Boon said.

     Schlemper said some students sign up again the next year after taking one of the tours. Kristina King went to Spain last year and will participate in the France trip. King said she can’t wait for the trip and that it has been a dream of hers. She said that the trips are well worth the price and it “will change you and your perception of the world around you.”
     Students can learn more about the France trip at http://www.efcollegestudytours.com/. Enter tour number 398567.