The delegation was led by the group's president, Senator Laurence Cohen (Val-de-Marne); Senators Louis-Jean de Nicolaÿ (Sarthe) and Georges Patient (Guyana) were also in attendance. On Friday, July 20, the SKEMA campus in Belo Horizonte hosted the French delegation for a meeting and discussions with Geneviève Poulingue and the students.
The senators were accompanied by Caroline Bachschmidt (Senate administrator), Jean-Paul Guihaumé (French Consul General in Rio de Janeiro), Yannick Samson (Global Affairs counsellor at the French Embassy in Brasilia), Manoel Bernardes (Honorary French Consul in Belo Horizonte) and Philippe Makany (Cultural and Cooperation attaché for the French Embassy in Brazil for the State of Minas Gerais).
This visit from the French delegation made it possible to present SKEMA’s development project in Brazil as well as the upcoming launch of the BBA in Global Business, a double degree programme open to Brazilian students.
This meeting was enriched by the presence of students (Pauline Cheyrouze, Alexandre Jacquet, Elise Bal, Emy Frouté, Julie Halter, Océane Soupey, Grégoire Sol) from SKEMA’s student association Hope. The students were working on the construction site of a school that was being expanded. Today, its demand for spaces is greater than its capacity. Our parliamentarians and the embassy representatives were touched by these young peoples’ energy as well as their big hearts.
Productive discussions were had, enabling everyone to learn from each other. Jean-Paul Guihaumé (French Consul General in Rio de Janeiro) gave students advice about presenting associative projects abroad that could receive funding from the French state (STAFE).
"SKEMA, and its Belo Horizonte campus in particular, was honoured by this visit: we were the only French company visited during this trip. Laurence Cohen and all the visitors were very interested in the progress of the first French business school in Brazil, and in the launch of the double-degree programme", explained Geneviève Poulingue.