Portraits

When Léa Moukanas found she had been admitted to the London School of Economics and to Sciences Po, she chose to remain in France so she could continue her non-profit work here. We talked to Léa, the youngest president of a charitable organisation in Europe, about her commitment. This interview is the fourth in our 2017 #FirstYearsScPo series.

Imagine being a well-behaved young foreign woman far from her family in Paris in May '68. Imagine being any young woman at Sciences Po in the late 1960s, where the 25 percent of female students had to struggle to achieve more than the graduate destination expected of them: marriage. That was Rula Ghani 47 years ago. Today, she is the first First Lady of Afghanistan to have a public profile; an example and source of hope for Afghan women. “I learned to adapt”, she modestly comments. We looked back on the student years of this exceptional alumna, who gave a guest lecture at Sciences Po on Friday, October 13.

“I was eighteen years old, I was just starting at Sciences Po and I was left-wing because, given what I was and what I was reading, I didn’t see how I could have been otherwise*.” The year is 1989. Édouard Philippe had “only just” passed the Sciences Po entrance exam after a year of literary classe préparatoire. It was the start of three “dream years” for him on the university’s Paris campus.

Following an agreement between Sciences Po and the Inlaks Foundation in October 2015, a recipient of the prestigious Indian scholarship will attend Sciences Po this fall for the first time. Neha Vijay Nair, Senior Security Consultant at Kawach Media & Databases, will pursue a Master in Advanced Global Studies & International Security. Find out more about her story below.

Lukáš Macek, the energetic Czech director of the Dijon campus, which focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, has seen the institution grow with—or despite—the contrary winds blowing across the continent.

Originally from Vancouver, Zak Vescera is pursuing the dual degree between the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Sciences Po. He has completed two years at the Reims campus, where he studied European and American relations, and will matriculate to UBC in the fall, where he intends to major in International Relations, with a speciality in security, and minor in French.

Uddeshya Nigam, who comes from India, will attend the Sciences Po Campus of Le Havre this fall, where he will pursue the Europe-Asia programme. The third in our 2017 #FirstYearsScPo. Read the interview below.

The courses offered on the Menton campus focus on the Middle East and Mediterranean Basin countries. Intercultural dialogue and interreligious debate are an important part of campus life, largely thanks to Bernard El Ghoul, the director of the campus, who fosters the common values of tolerance and living together among a student community of diverse backgrounds and origins. Portrait of an esteemed director, whom students affectionately call the "Lebanese Di Caprio."

Hugo Givernaud has always been passionate about American sports, especially basketball. He took advantage of his undergraduate year abroad to realise his childhood dream: he interned as a sports journalist and interviewed some of the NBA’s top stars.

Malak Gadalla, who comes from Egypt, will matriculate to the Sciences Po Campus of Menton in the fall, where she will pursue the Europe-Middle East programme. The second in our 2017 #FirstYearsScPo series. Read the interview below.

In over ten years as director of the Nancy campus, François Laval has certainly made his mark. Perhaps this is because he's always available, always active and always concerned about students' personal and academic development.

Florent Bonaventure, director of the Le Havre campus since 2013, is as fascinated by Asia as his students in the Europe-Asia programme. This committed, enthusiastic 36-year old history lecturer does his utmost to ensure his students can have a fulfilling student life as well as a first-class education.

Sciences Po alumnus Sunghan Kim has recently been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. In his role as principal product owner at Coupang—the world's fastest growing e-commerce site, known as the "Amazon" of South Korea—he has developed a fraud detection system to identify reviewers not associated with sellers. Alongside Coupang’s founder, Sunghan Kim has helped turn the platform into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise within four years. Interview.

Romasha comes from Calcutta, Alleiah from Ahmedabad and Akhil from Hindupur. All three are outstanding students who could not have come to study in France or at Sciences Po without the various types of financial aid they receive. In this video, they talk about their life in France and their plans for the future. 

Hardy Hewson, a British student in his second year of the dual bachelor’s degree programme between Sciences Po and Columbia University, tells us about his experience on the Menton campus, from classes specialised in the Mediterranean and the Middle East to parties on the beach and playing rugby in the town where rests Webb Ellis, the sport’s founder.

In the run up to the French presidential election, the famous weekly Paris Match invited international students from the Sciences Po Undergraduate College to shed some light on the words that matter to them in politics. Lukas Hochscheidt, 19, a German student in the dual Bachelor's degree programme with Freie Universität Berlin on the Nancy campus, chose the word ‘ethics’.

Cyrille Nkontchou is an African leader committed to the development of his continent. A graduate from Sciences Po and Harvard, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2006.

Siffrein Diana is in second year of Undergraduate College on the Reims campus. He shares his reasons for choosing Sciences Po: to be part of an international environment, gain a solid academic foundation, and be able to pursue his passion for the violin. And finally, to discover what he really likes so he can fulfil his potential. Interview.

Khasan Redjaboev is from Uzbekistan and a graduate of the dual degree programme between Sciences Po and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.

Gabriella Soriano has just started her first semester in the Middle East and Mediterranean programme on the Sciences Po campus in Menton. Gabriella wants to work to promote women's rights in the Middle East and, more generally, wherever gender inequality persists.The fifth in our series #FirstYearsScPo.