More than 1,000 Tar Heels have studied abroad in Montpellier, France, over the program's 50-year partnership with the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry. (Submitted photos)
When Julia McDermott ’81 returned to Montpellier, France, in 2015, it felt like coming home. She’d arrived to visit her daughter, Annette McDermott ’17, who was studying abroad in the southern city just as her mother had more than 30 years earlier.
“When she chose to participate in the same program I had loved so much, it was incredibly meaningful to me,” McDermott said. “I felt as though something that had been such an important part of my life was becoming part of hers, too.”
When McDermott navigated France, she used pay phones, paper maps and the kindness of strangers; her daughter had a smart phone. But the heart of their experiences was the same: a city with medieval roots that today thrums with the energy of 70,000 students. “Even though technology has changed a lot, the wonders and treasures of France remain — and so do the history, architecture, food, culture, customs and language,” she reflected.
McDermott was a student in the program’s fourth cohort when she studied abroad from 1979-80. The connection between UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry is Carolina’s longest-running study abroad partnership, and more than 1,000 Tar Heels have participated. Established in 1976, the program celebrates its 50th anniversary this academic year.
On Oct. 29, the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ Romance studies department and the Study Abroad Office are hosting an alumni roundtable and reception to celebrate the half-century of cross-institutional exchange. “One of the greatest benefits of such an enduring partnership is the depth of trust, institutional knowledge and personal relationships that have developed over the decades,” said Rachael Mathis, the Study Abroad Office’s program director for UNC in Montpellier.
Generations of Carolina students have posed for photos in Montpellier's Place de la Comédie, including Julia McDermott ’81, who was a student in the program’s fourth cohort when she studied abroad from 1979-80. (Submitted photo)
The goals of the program include helping students hone their linguistic, academic, cultural and personal competencies. “Students not only gain confidence in their linguistic abilities, but become overall more academically confident,” said Dorothea Heitsch, director of undergraduate studies and undergraduate adviser for French and francophone studies at the College. Heitsch credits UNC in Montpellier’s resident director, Carol Huber, as well as UMPV instructors and host families, for the program’s success.
Huber, who has held the post for 25 years, loves the moment students realize how much they can learn from other cultures. “This moment is most often accompanied by such enthusiasm and eagerness to learn more, to understand better, to experience another way of life. It literally gives me goosebumps,” she said.
McDermott felt that thrill and enthusiasm for immersing herself in French culture for the first time in 1979. “When I went to Montpellier, I had no idea that the experience would still be influencing my life more than 45 years later,” she reflected. After graduating with bachelor’s degrees in economics and French, she later wrote “Make That Deux,” a novel loosely based on her experience in Montpellier.
Its main character, Jenny Miles, is fictional but a lot like McDermott at that age. “By the end of her time in France, she has developed a confidence that she can make her own way in the adult world. That emotional journey is very much something I drew from my own experience,” McDermott said.
“I look back on my year in France as a major life event that helped me develop confidence in myself and in my ability to tackle any future endeavors that might seem daunting at first,” she reflected. “That confidence has carried into other areas of my life, including writing.” McDermott has since published four other books; her latest, the mystery-thriller “The Barbie Killer,” was released earlier this year.
Gabrielle Walton ’23, right, cherishes the memory of her family's visit. After a semester in France, she was able to translate well between her parents, siblings Alexander and Rachel, and her host family. (Submitted photo)
The sense of self-confidence gained during the UNC in Montpellier experience isn’t unique to McDermott. Gabrielle Walton ’23, a Carolina Covenant scholar and an Eleanor Barnes study abroad scholar, spent the spring semester of her junior year in Montpellier.
Despite taking extra precautions, she got COVID-19 right before her departure and flew to France later than her classmates. Upon arrival, she immediately had to navigate the French healthcare system to document her vaccine status.
It was a daunting task for a college student in a new country. While she and Huber worked through the process, restrictions limited where Walton could go. She learned to navigate the city on her own, plan travel and handle a doctor’s visit entirely in French.
“I was pushed out of every routine I knew and came out the other side with a new understanding of my own strength,” Walton said. “I created new opportunities for myself, and that led to wonderful memories. The most important thing that I learned about myself was that I am resilient and have the tools within me to make my own happiness and achieve my dreams.”
Walton carried that self-efficacy forward. Upon returning to Carolina, she saw a need for more student attention to interpersonal violence and led efforts resulting in a donation to the Orange County Rape Crisis Center and the installation of a quilt art piece that still hangs in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union.
“The sense of courage came from my experience in Montpellier where I thought to myself, ‘Stop asking for permission. Stop waiting!’” Walton said.
She put that persistence and resourcefulness to work at her first job as a lobbyist at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and she says that all of these qualities have helped her get to where she is today: a master’s degree candidate and fellow studying urban planning at New York University.
“Studying abroad in Montpellier was a dream come true. Throughout my time abroad, I remember telling myself, ‘Remember this. You are here. This is real life. Take it all in,’” Walton reflected. Because she received a study abroad scholarship, her family had the financial breathing room to afford to visit. Having her own family over to dinner at her host family’s house was her favorite memory from the whole semester. She was able to present her growth by acting as translator and introducing her parents and siblings to the local seafood and typical appetizers that her host mom had prepared. “It truly felt like I had two families.”
Walton said her generation feels a lot of pressure to study the sciences, and receiving the scholarship felt like an endorsement to be curious about the humanities. “Knowing what makes us human, that was why I studied French and psychology, to understand how we think, how we feel in so many different ways,” Walton said. “It was really affirming to receive the scholarship, both for me as a Covenant scholar, but also for me as a person with the types of questions that I had. Our experience as humans means something, and it’s something we carry forward.”
The year Rebecca Earley ’08, left, spent in Montpellier inspired her to move to Paris, where she's lived for more than a decade. Carol Huber has been the program's resident director for 25 years. (Submitted photo)
Exploring and redefining what it means to be a human and a leader in the age of AI is the central tenet of the latest entrepreneurial endeavor of Rebecca Earley ’08, who studied in Montpellier for the 2005-06 academic year. Earley, an executive Master of Business Administration candidate at Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires, has lived and worked in Paris for more than a decade. The decision to live in France was sparked during her time studying in Montpellier.
When she arrived in Paris for work a few years after studying abroad, she didn’t experience the culture shock many of her American colleagues felt because she’d had a year of living in Montpellier previously.
“Montpellier, for me, was one of the best years of my life,” Earley said. Studying abroad was her first time leaving the country. “When I think back, the mood board is pure joy, sunshine and blue skies — just constant learning, making mistakes, laughing about them and trying things again.”
Carolina students experience Montpellier virtually
The University’s partnership with the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry goes beyond study abroad. Since 2021, the two schools have also teamed up to create an annual Collaborative Online International Learning module in which students at both universities are broken into small groups and connected to peers at the other institution to work together virtually. The course was launched with support from a Transatlantic Mobility Grant from the Albertine Foundation as part of a joint effort by the foundation and the embassies of both countries.
Students taking Globalization and the French-Speaking World at Carolina collaborate with French students taking Didactique Interculturelle at UMPV. The eight-week module is one section of each larger course. By participating in the COIL activities, students develop and enhance cross-cultural communication skills and gain experience working in multicultural teams. As one Carolina student wrote in the final class evaluation, “It is one of the most interesting assignments I’ve ever had to do, and it teaches you a lot about another culture, especially if it’s not one you’re familiar with.”