Hi, my name is Dalia and I’ve just finished my first year at the University of Southampton studying Economics and Business Management. In July, I attended a one-week summer school at Audencia Business School in Nantes, France. The module I decided to study for the week was called Drivers of Sustainability Transition in Business. I decided to participate in a summer school because studying abroad has always been something I’ve really wanted to do.
On the first day, we started with a welcome session where we got to know everyone on the course. This was a great opportunity to make friends and I met people from all around the world. Then, we moved onto the lecture for the day which focused on sustainability in business and society. This lecture really highlighted the need for businesses to act against climate change. After the lecture, we split into groups and worked on an assignment which we would have to present later in the afternoon. In this course, I was getting assessed on the group assignments and a group presentation at the end of the course. I preferred this way of assessment because it allowed me to work closely in a group and get to know them better. It also meant that I didn’t have any homework to do at the end of the day.
The next day, we followed the same schedule as the first day where we started at 9am with a lecture and this time it was about sustainable purpose driven businesses. This was followed by a group assignment about sustainability as a strategy in the financial sector. After the day at school, me and my friend decided to go to the cinema as the tickets were only 4 euros due to the Fête du cinéma.
Similarly, on Wednesday we followed the same schedule as the first two days but this time the lecturer focused on the sustainable business model in start-ups. Personally, this was the lecture that I found most interesting because I liked learning about all the innovative ideas that companies have implemented to fit sustainability as a core strategy. We then had to work in the same group as before to research a start-up of our choice and present our findings to the class.
Then, on Thursday we had a different plan for the day, we started off with our final lecture about regeneration and a climate neutral economy. Our task for the day was to come up with our own positive impact start up and create a 15-minute pitch, which would be ready to present to our classmates the next day. As a group we decided to each take 2 slides to work on and this was more efficient as we got the work done quite quickly.
Finally, we presented our pitch on the last day and received positive feedback from the professor. We finished the day at 12pm and collected our certificates for participating in the summer school. I said goodbye to all the amazing people I had met during the week, and I added them on Instagram so that I can keep in contact with them.
Although I was only there for a week, my experience at Audencia Business School was fascinating. It was a great opportunity to meet new people, explore a new country and learn more about a relevant topic in today’s world. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience university in another country and an opportunity to network with a variety of people.