My LiA is in Paris, with the nonprofit organization, Serve the City. Serve the City Paris (STCP) serves refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, and the unhoused in the city primarily through food distributions and soup kitchens, as well as French and English language and cultural exchanges, school and corporate engagement events, and partnership with other Paris nonprofits.

I learned about STCP through the Laidlaw Network, and reached out to a couple of previous scholars who did their LiAs there. Both of the people I spoke with had great things to say about their experience. I felt that STCP gave me a great opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone while supporting a very important cause. Although the NGO is itself international, and therefore Anglophone, it also gives me an opportunity to practise my French and talk and learn from people I don’t normally get to.

The only real through-line between this summer and my last is that it’s something completely new for me. Besides that, my LiA is entirely unrelated to my research! Last summer, I researched ancient mythology, mostly indoors, solitary, and now I’m constantly interacting with people and travelling around the city. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect coming in, but I’ve found that I’ve been very surprised both by how rewarding it is, as well as how eye opening. (Admittedly, I’m writing from the tail end of my second week, rather than the first.) In addition to being a sort-of intern for the Marketing team, I’m an everyday volunteer, and it’s given me a bit of a sense of how involved and complicated it can be. 

The cover photo for this post is the Église Saint Eustache, a centuries-old church in Les Halles, in the center of Paris. I pass it on one of our food distribution routes, and occasionally on my walks to the café we operate out of.