Junior Year in Paris

Photo of Dorothy F. Leet and Smith students in a dorm room, New York Sun, April 21, 1948

In Paris, Reid Hall was the center of study-abroad programs and, as director, Dorothy Leet was particularly committed to the idea of promoting French-American transatlantic ties. She encouraged and developed programs that would bring American students in contact with French culture and society. She also strengthened Reid Hall's engagement with international institutions like NATO, UNESCO, and SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe) and organized an annual October trip to their headquarters in the Paris region. A bus from SHAPE would retrieve the students from Reid Hall and take them to the NATO headquarters, where they would enjoy a “briefing” on the strategic situation in Europe. In a 1957 message to students, Leet wrote of this event: “Since the role of [these organizations] is of the utmost importance in the Western World today, this visit is of the greatest interest, and the briefing is of especial value in understanding the present-day situation in Europe and in the Western World” (Report to members, November 1, 1961).

“My Junior Year in France […] has been the most important event of my life to date. Practically speaking, the fact that I was proficient in French helped me to obtain my first job, which was one for which I had aimed […] Although I did not use French a great deal in my work, it was on a number of occasions extremely valuable and contributed to my advancement and subsequent jobs. Since my marriage to a man in the diplomatic service, who now speaks French with some fluency, I have found many occasions where my French has proved useful; it has made contacts which have enriched our lives socially as well as benefited my husband professionally. Thanks to courses in art and literature which I had in France, I have continued to study in these fields with special interest. Even my taste in food bears evidence to a year of eating French cuisine. Nearly twenty years after the fact, I can see, even more clearly than at the time, how much twelve months in France affected my life” (Pace 30).