Alexandria Hartwell Study Abroad in France

Alex, as she likes to be called, is a Summer Search Bay Area college student currently in her fourth year at UC Davis as a managerial economics major.

She is also the star of this video about her university’s Study Abroad program!

Last summer Alex took advantage of the opportunity to spend four weeks in Paris, France studying fashion marketing. She describes it as a “life-changing experience,” adding “going to college was big, but going to France was amazing!”

In the video, she also talks about her time with Summer Search. Alex explains how her trip to Guatemala with Global Leadership Adventures during her junior year of high school sparked her interest in seeing the world, saying “It was when I knew that traveling would be something that I would always want to do.”

To help support her summer abroad in Paris, Alex benefitted from a unique scholarship provided by the Bernard Osher Foundation. For 20 years, The Osher Fund has provided crucial financial assistance to Summer Search college students and alumni in a number of ways. Whether it’s helping cover expenses that fall outside of students’ financial aid packages, or providing stipends for unpaid internships, studying abroad, or any other academic/professional enrichment opportunities that are not always accessible to students from low-income backgrounds, the Fund enables Summer Searchers like Alex to stay on track to college graduation, develop their professional careers, and become advocates for Summer Search and leaders within their communities.

Alex offers up some advice at the end of the video, saying “the world is for everybody, so if you have the opportunity to go somewhere else, do it!”