France? Free? For Parkies ONLY.....

It's that time of year again.

We're about to select the 20 students who will accompany a faculty member to France in May 2009, for a two-week (all expenses paid) tour of Dijon (and Paris) France.

Here's the deal:

The Park School has a partnership with the Burgundy Business School in Dijon, France. Under the terms of the agreement, a Burgundy student receives tuition assistance to study at the Park School; in exchange, a group of 20 Park students is invited to visit Dijon and Paris for two weeks at the end of May – all expenses paid except for airfare and whatever you want to spend on extra food and travel.

And if you truly can't afford the airfare, the dean's office will help. NOBODY should have to turn down this opportunity because of cost.

Here are the details:


-- The trip leaves New York the Monday following graduation. The length of the trip is approximately 2 weeks. Final dates and details TBA.
-- The group will fly from New York City to Paris. Participants will be responsible for paying their own round-trip airfare (again, if you're lucky enough to be picked, we'll find a way for you to go).
-- The Burgundy Business School will be responsible for all other expenses (except, of course, those listed above). They will pick you up at the airport in Paris, and take care of you for two whole weeks -- including lodging, food, transportation, and a full itinerary of events and activities.
-- The schedule will include museum tours, day trips, media visits, lectures and social events with international students studying at Burgundy.
-- The schedule also will include free time to explore Dijon, and surrounding areas OR travel to London, Amsterdam, Munich, etc. Your expenses on that kind of wider European excursion would be your responsibility, but your expenses if you stay in Dijon will be covered by the school.
-- The schedule will also include a visit to Paris. Burgundy will cover all of your expenses on that trip.
-- The group will be accompanied by a faculty member who will be coordinating the trip over the next seven months and during the two weeks you're in France.
-- The trip will be offered as a learning experience that DOES NOT require you to enroll for academic credit. We are doing everything we can to keep the costs as low as possible, and we are sensitive to the fact that many students cannot afford to buy a summer-school credit.

This year, we can take up to 20 students to France. You MUST be a full-time Park MAJOR to be eligible; Parkies who graduate in May 2009 can apply.

Obviously we expect many of you to applyl (why WOULDN'T you apply?). So here's what we're going to do:

Monday morning, Sept. 29, there will be forms in the rack OUTSIDE the Dean's office on the third floor of Park. Stop by, fill out the form, sign it, and hand it in to the Dean's Office reception.

One submission per student ONLY. Students who submit multiple forms will be disqualified (somebody tried that last year....doesn't work).

We'll be accepting forms until 5 p.m. Wednesday, October 1. No exceptions.

If you're studying abroad or in LA, you can email Gwen Benners in the Dean's Office, (gbenners@ithaca.edu) expressing your interest and providing her your name, address in Ithaca, telephone number, and class. That will "count" as your submission (we'll transfer the info to the form and put it in the box with the rest of the applications).

ALL students currently on campus in Ithaca must submit the paper form to the dean's office. If you're sick, you live downtown and can't make it to campus, you're working an internship and can't get to the dean's office, ask a friend to fill out the form for you. Sorry, no exceptions on this one; we're trying to be fair to everybody.

On Thursday, October 2, we'll review the forms, make sure we have all the information we need on each form, and put them all in a box.

We'll select 20 forms – lottery-style. By applying, you're committing to the trip, so please don't apply unless you're sure you can go.

And the winners will be off to France in May!

Isn't it SO FUN to be a Parkie?!