Speaking personally, I was the world’s lousiest student at ACP. I am convinced it was only by applying a huge curve on the final exams, that the college not only passed me but gave me a sufficiently high score that I was able to actually get accepted to a college back in the US thus interrupting my fall back position of volunteering for the Navy. But I know there were some very fine students occupying the same space as I was and I am interested in how they rated their academic experience at ACP. Things like: without a real campus how did they find they were able to study? Were their studies enhanced by doing them in Paris? Did the academic experience in Paris enhance their college experience when they went on to other colleges and universities? Did you also attend courses offered by French establishments? Did you take advantage of the ACP excursions and did they make any difference? Did this experience actually lead you to international studies and careers?
Peter D'Aprix '64-'66
July 26, 2006 at 5:24 pm (Edit)
ReplyDeleteAs for my education at ACP, I suspect I learned more out of the classrooms at the Church and on the streets of Paris. But, heck, I was only 17 and it was my first year of living on my own. I suspect that was normal.
Among the lessons I got from teaching at the school were 1) my idea of becoming an engineer was thrashed, thanks to Prof. Wolfenstein. I still have no idea what Calculus is all about, and 2) All-nighters are not the way to pass final exams. My roommates convinced me an all-nighter would cure my lack of studying during the first quarter and I believed them. I think we even had some pills to help us stay awake. But by the time I got into the classrooms to take the tests, I was a zombie. My grades reflected it. That was my first and last all-nighter.
My credits at ACP easily were transferred to Ohio State University, which was a concern at the time. Paris to Ohio? A friend recently asked, “What did you do, lose brains over there?” Perhaps.
Looking back on it, the quality of teachers I had in Paris was far better than most of what I ran into during the rest of my college years. In Paris, I sometimes thought that if I spent as much time studying as I did wandering the Champs Elysees at night, I’d have been much smarter. But I passed all my courses in Paris and if I had it to do over again, I’d spend even more time wandering the streets in that wonderful city. It was easily the best year of my life and I have AUP in my will to receive the proceeds from the sale of my California house when I head for the big study hall in the sky.
A year or two ago, I attended a Paris alumni gathering in San Francisco. Those of us who attended the 1964-1965 version of ACP were quite on the cutting edge. Nobody at my alumni meeting was that old. I was somewhat disturbed that the new AUP administration has gotten away from what I felt was the original idea behind an American College in Paris. The idea, as I recall was to give American kids a chance to study in Paris by hiring professors who were there for other reasons, i.e. a sabbitical. I think that’s what Dean Delameter had in mind, at least. It’s far from that now. The new AUP administrators seem intent on making AUP a premier college that could be just about anywhere. I guess I can understand that train of thought but I think what we experienced in the first few years of the school’s existence was just as valuable. My only regret is that I left ACP after only one year, when I could have done two. I had been living overseas for two straight years by that time and figured it was time to get back to the states. Alas, wrong again.
I went back to Paris in about 1988 and dropped by the old American Church. I think the same beaten and worn couches were in the basement where we took most of our classes. It looked very familiar and I could easily picture us milling about down there. There was a sign directing me to the new alumni office, in a nearby building. I was warmly welcomed there and when I told them it was the best year of my life, they told me they hear that story all the time.
David Dick '64-'65
Pat Pierard:
ReplyDeleteMay 21, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I thought the educational and cultural experiences were wonderful. I remember especially my English Lit prof, Dr. Spicehandler, a ex-pat writer from New York who’d written a book about his experiences in WWII. He was tough and funny and encouraged many of his to become writers. He convinced me to edit the college literary magazine which turned out to be rather controversial.
As far as the cultural events the college sponsored I particularly remember these:
A trip to Madrid. I was so taken by the city (and a good looking Spanish medical student that I met a la Antonio Banderas)that I returned to spend a couple of months at the University of Madrid the next summer ostensibly learning Spanish. Great summer!
Flamenco at the night clubs in Madrid during the wee hours of the morning
Going to a concert by the great Spanish classical guitarist, Segovia, with some of my ACP classmates in Paris. He invited us to sit on stage to enjoy his concert!
A performance by a Russian dance troupe. I don’t remember the name of the dance but I think it’s a Cossack dance where they practically sit on the floor and do kicks
and other moves.
We had a great art teacher who was passionate about art — unfortunately, I don’t remember his name, but he was a great teacher and I remember spending many Sunday afternoons at the Louvre and the jeu de Palme by myself just enjoying the paintings.
Many more memories, but those our some of them…
Pat Pierard
Pat Pierard says:
ReplyDeleteMay 24, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Please bear with me. This is my first attempt at blogging and I’m trying to figure out the mechanics of it. I’m working on a computer with a bigger screen today and can actually see what I’m typing. Like David Dick I didn’t have any problem transferring two years of ACP credits to a college back in the U.S. I was accepted by San Francisco State College and UC Berkeley and opted for SF State because it seemed like a more interesting place to live. I majored in English Lit, minored in Biology, and worked on the school newspaper. I decided to try to combine the two interests and become a medical writer. Luckily, I was recruited by UC San Francisco Medical Center before graduation to work in the PR department as a writer/editor. It was a great first job and I enjoyed every minute of it for a couple of years before opting to join my college sweetheart in the Seychelles Islands, a diver’s paradise off the coast of Africa, but that’s another story…. While working at UC I lived on Stanyan Street a few blocks up from the Haight Ashbury. I lived and worked in the middle of all that crazy stuff of the late 60s — the hippie invasion, protest marches, the Black Panthers, the takeover of the SF State administration building, Janis Joplin and the Dead at the Avalon and Fillmore ballrooms, colorful Carnaby street clothes, psychedelic art, etc. It was a crazy, colorful time and I’m glad I experienced it. Did Paris prepare me for it ? I’d say so….I don’t know how to go back and review the stuff I just wrote so will hit the send button. ‘Bye now.
Pat Pierard