Jeffrey Mestre ’12

I was born in the French-speaking city of Geneva, Switzerland, before moving to Lutry, a small village next to Lausanne. My father is Cuban and was raised in New York City, while my mother is Norwegian, so I grew up with a combination of American, Norwegian, Cuban, and Swiss influences. That was actually what attracted me to AUP—the mix of so many cultures. I thought it was amazing that over 80% of the students here had the same kind of multicultural and multilingual background that I was familiar with.  

When I first got here, I wanted to study Business but finally went with Entrepreneurship major because I had become interested in its courses, especially the dynamics and trends that they were investigating. I decided to minor in History because living in Paris made me want to dig deeper into the roots of current events. I also minored in Communications to obtain the tools I needed to effectively pitch and sell my ideas.

I would never have had access to this simultaneously international and Parisian experience at any other university and I can honestly say that I found every aspect of my studies and my daily life fascinating. Being here opened the world up to me in a completely different way and I saw people from a huge variety of cultures learning to test new waters when it came to their thinking and their perspectives. I became more ambitious here, as I picked up the skills that I’d need to discover my own path. I’m still in touch with many of my AUP friends and professors and I love running into old classmates in New York City, where I now live.  

I’m currently working in digital advertising at DynAdmic, a video advertising marketplace and will be starting my own company next year. My multicultural upbringing and my time at AUP taught me to bring a more nuanced approach to challenges and projects and has given me greater insight into the goals and motivations of people from all over the world. (It helps that I’m fluent in English, French, and Norwegian!) AUP also gave me a better understanding of how to approach life in the US, both personally and professionally.  

For all future students out there: there is literally no reason that I can think of to not come to AUP. You’ll love every minute of it!