Here at the Middlebury Ecole en France, our undergraduate students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in French culture in more ways than just going to French university; our students also live with French hosts or host families and participate in service learning doing volunteer work that ranges from tutorting to working in cafés or in museums.
Two of this semester’s Paris students, Nicole Hoehle and Preston de Garmo, volunteer with the assocation la Salle Saint Bruno, an organization that serves and supports the residents and the associations of the quarter La Goutte d’Or. Recently, Nicole and Preston had the opportunity to contribute to the quarter’s conversations in going to see an exposition and sharing their thoughts and impressions in an article published on the site of the Goutte d’Or et vous, another organization that that aims to:
“-inform others about the quarter [of the Goutte d’Or], its history, its goings-on
– support and highlight the value of local and associative initiatives
-to bring out and highlight the value of the initiatives of the quarter’s residents
-contribute to the democratic debat and to democratic participation in creating a space where citizens can express themselves, and a place to exchange points of view on social subjects as they relate to the concerns of the quarter. ”
La Goutte d’Or et vous: le projet 
Nicole and Preston got to not only enrich 
their personal lives and to experience something they may not have experienced otherwise, but they also were able to share this experience with each other and an with an entire community here in Paris, and now the Middlebury community.