Kelsey Armstrong ’17

I was born in Reno, Nevada. After moving to San Diego, California, I spent a good portion of my childhood in Oahu, Hawaii, before landing in Sarasota, Florida. (I’m all about the tropical locales, clearly.) It was my Advanced Placement French teacher, knowing about my passion for France, who told me about AUP, insisting that it was the only school for me. That piece of advice was one of the best gifts that I’ve ever received.

When I arrived at AUP, I thought I’d major in International Business Administration, only to discover how intrigued I was by Marketing. (Thanks to the articulate Professor Robert Earhart, one of my favorite classroom moments involves learning about marketing insight.) I’m excited to have found ways to combine my academic interests with my extracurricular activities. I founded and am president of the Entrepreneurship Club, which aims to create channels of expression and support for the entrepreneurial spirit that has always been present at AUP. We regularly participate in startup-related activities, including visits to accelerator and incubator sites around Paris, and this past December, we won the Google Startup Convention.

I love living in Paris: not only does it inspire me towards greater creativity and ambition, but it has also enabled me to learn a second language, establish an international network, and gain a deeper understanding of the many different cultures that call this city home. On top of that, our immensely diverse student body infuses any discussion with a complexity of thought and insight that I think would be difficult to find elsewhere. AUP has pushed me to contemplate matters on a much, much bigger scale. Before coming here, I was more closed-minded and feeling slightly jaded about my future but my time here has shown me that anything is possible and I’m capable of whatever I set my mind to.

I now work in digital marketing at Adaptive Bee, where I help a variety of international markets create and manage their social media networks, conduct market research, and pitch to English markets. After graduation, I’ll be moving to Japan, in order to participate in a digital marketing internship while also teaching English. I’d like to take that time to really reflect on what my next project will be, to diversify my life experiences, and to live in a part of the world with which I’m completely unfamiliar, all before officially becoming a grown-up!