Meet an Elective Student
This profile introduces Lisa, a recent Elective participant, and offers a glimpse into who she is, how she approaches travel, and what she took away from her time in Montpellier. While every Elective experience is unique, it helps illustrate the kinds of people who enroll—and the depth and variety of what they take away.
Name: Lisa A.
Elective: Art & Art de Vivre in Montpellier, Fall 2025
Home: New York, NY
Profession: Author, Branding Expert
Approach to Travel
When you travel, who do you usually travel with—and how do you typically spend your time?
I usually travel solo or with friends. I've never been big on group travel. That said, I love booking guides so I can learn as much as possible—I want depth, not just surface-level sightseeing. I like to take my time, wander a bit, but always with some direction. I'll ask friends for recommendations so I'm not just drifting. I love art, but I don’t want to spend an entire trip inside museums. I want to learn as much as I can about a place—its feel, its rhythm, its character.
What kind of accommodations and services do you look for?
When I travel, I want comfort—good beds, thoughtfully designed spaces, and to be in a location that makes it easy to experience the city. I don't need luxury for the sake of it, but I want to feel relaxed and taken care of.
What kind of trips or experiences have stuck with you the most?
The ones where I feel like I've made a real connection—meeting people who live there, hearing their stories, getting a better understanding of how the place works. Feeling immersed in local culture. I really don’t like when a guide is just going through the motions, talking at you, or rushing you through. I want to come away with meaningful conversations and potent memories.
A Week With Elective
What made you want to study abroad as an adult, and why did you choose Elective?
At this point in my life, I want more than just checking places off a list. I didn't want to just travel; I wanted something meaningful. If I'm going to invest my time and money and energy, I want it to transform me. Elective gave me the opportunity to actually take a structured course in situ. I missed learning in a focused way, with someone who really knows their stuff, but I didn't want to be stuck in a classroom.
What drew you to Art & Art de Vivre in Montpellier?
I've always been drawn to visual art, but I loved that this course wasn't just about looking at paintings. It was about how we see—and how that connects to how we live. I read the syllabus materials before I left—essays on perception and a few pieces on French visual culture. I wasn't sure how much they'd matter, but they ended up shaping how I saw things once I got there. Studying that in Montpellier, with its layered architecture and vibrant street life, made it all the more powerful.
What was your favorite moment of your Elective?
The first afternoon, I joined a few people from the group to check out some of the modern architecture sites our instructor had suggested. We'd just spent the morning walking through Montpellier's medieval center, and this was like seeing the city's future. The contrast was incredible—and having the time and space to take it in slowly, at our own pace, made all the difference. We got lunch at a little spot our facilitator, Marcelo, had recommended. That day set the tone for the whole week. Another afternoon, I went to a gallery Marcelo had mentioned. I spent a few hours there on my own, really taking it in. That felt like my own seminar.
How much time did you spend with the other members of your cohort outside of the daily field seminar?
I chose to spend a lot of my free time with other members of the group, and really liked that I could do the self-guided study with them. We tended to follow the suggestions from our instructor, Armelle, which were wonderful and led us to discover many parts of the city we never would have seen otherwise. I also had some alone time, too—it was great to have the option to do my own thing when I felt like it. Other people in the group spent more time on their own, which was perfectly fine. Everyone could do what worked for them.
In the evenings, a group of us would usually end up in the courtyard of the château sharing an apéritif, or we'd find a place in town to eat. Everyone in the group had a fascinating background, and those evening conversations were just as rich as what happened during the actual class discussions. We had a lot in common. Everyone was so well traveled. We were very much peers in terms of our experiences. And that added so much to the course.
Did anything from the course stick with you or change how you think now that you're home?
The visit to a local artist's studio really stuck with me. We got to hear her talk about her work, what inspires her, and how she uses art to respond to political and social issues. We also talked about how the city supports artists, how their work is shown and supported by public institutions, and how that shapes the life of the city. When I got home, I started paying attention to how my own city funds and displays public art. I walk past things now that I used to ignore. It's a small shift, but it's changed how I think about art.
What did you think of the instructor and the facilitator?
Armelle knew so much—not just about the subject, but about the city itself. She brought in references that helped me understand what we were looking at in a deeper way. She's deeply, deeply passionate about what she teaches, but she also made it fun because she herself is so passionate and so lively, and the discussions she led were really thought-provoking.
Marcelo was amazing. The lists, the maps, the suggestions—they weren't generic. They felt like they were actually made for us. I ended up discovering places I never would have found on my own, and it made the week feel both easy and full of surprises.
If a friend asked what you got out of your Elective course, what would you tell them?
It was a transformative week. It expanded my thinking. I felt like I got to know a new place more deeply, and met really interesting people—both the people Armelle introduced us to and the other students on the Elective. It was a totally different way to travel—I got to learn but also do my own thing and discover on my own with recommendations from real locals. And I got to do and see things that I would never have been able to do on my own.