Anna Schroeder ’15

I was born in Omaha, Nebraska; moved to London, England when I was 2; then to Houston, Texas when I was 7. I’d been attending international schools for most of my life (from kindergarten in London to Awty International School in Houston), so going to another country for college felt like the obvious choice. I’d been studying French since the age of 8 and after meeting an AUP representative at a college fair, applying, being accepted, and visiting the school, I knew it was where I was meant to be.  

I had initially been drawn to AUP because I wanted to study art history and a city that was overflowing with world-renowned museums seemed like the perfect place to start. My academic advisor encouraged me to explore other areas, and thanks to his efforts, I took a Psychology class (which made me consider minoring in the subject), a wonderful creative writing class, and several film classes (which I so loved that I ended up minoring in it).  

I’ll never forget one evening at the Louvre, right after an Art History lecture: my friend and I walked past the room with the Mona Lisa, which was amazingly, devoid of people. We walked right up to the painting, usually impossible since you’d have to fight the crowds that take up all of the space around it; just being in such close proximity to it and understanding its cultural significance gave that moment a lasting impact.  

I was continually inspired by my peers and classmates: the guy in my Freshman Seminar who’d been cage diving with great white sharks in South Africa; the student who wrote about the intense and violent conflicts that she’d experienced first-hand in her country and her desire to get an education; the girl from China who gifted me with a beautiful work of intricately hand-cut paper to say thank you for tutoring her; and the many others who came to AUP without speaking a word of French or ever having left their hometowns.  

When I arrived at AUP, I thought I’d already experienced a thoroughly international environment but even by those standards, AUP’s diversity was extraordinary. Living in Paris also gave us access to remarkable works of art across the continent, and our study trips to places like Amsterdam and Rome provided us with a new lens through which to understand the works that we’d been exposed to in class.