Jouy en Josas was close to an hour’s ride past the frenzied traffic and buildings of the city core. Huge trees and wild flowers dotted the fields in the outskirts of Paris. Here and there an occasional herd of cows came into view, amid the plowed fields and patches of vegetation. Along the road were new housing developments as well as huge houses with treed lots one would see in a typical North American suburb.
The HEC Paris School of Management nestles on a 300-acre property on the hills of Jouy en Josas. The international business management school is housed in a complex of low, modern and spare buildings bare of the opulence and intricate facades one would associate with old French architecture. More of Frank Gehry, even more of Corbussier: lean, geometrical, bordering on the austere, befitting its business school agenda. There was a totally relaxed air as Isobel whisked us through their classrooms and lecture halls, the students’ lounge, the various meeting areas where they tossed and bounced off ideas.
Before the graduation ceremonies hosted by their associate dean for HEC MBA, Dr. Valérie Gauthier, MBA candidates, mentors, parents and friends, met and greeted each other over a scrumptious lunch served, buffet-style, on the graduate school grounds. There we met Isobel’s friends and classmates and their parents and relatives. They were a bouncy lot, happy, welcoming and without guile; it was like meeting old friends.
Having spent their one and a half years in HEC Paris together, parting after the ceremonies was a heartbreaker for all graduates. Perhaps they’d meet again, perhaps not. But whatever was in their minds was tossed to the air when they gave their final toss to their caps, to the future, and beyond.
As parents, we felt proud for Isobel and of what she’s accomplished on her own, winning the Forté Foundation Fellowship for women leaders and completing her MBA program with high marks. We prayed she would continue to contribute her talent to causes dear to her heart.
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