Smith College Celebrates Centennial of Study Abroad Program

In early June, more than 200 alumnae, students, faculty, and friends of Smith College gathered in Paris to mark a milestone: A Century of Smith in Paris: Bridging Worlds 1925–2025. The three-day celebration honored 100 years of the Junior Year Abroad (JYA) program, the oldest American university study-abroad program in France. Since its founding in 1925, some 2,400 Smith students have passed through the blue doors of Reid Hall in Montparnasse — returning home transformed. 

The anniversary programming unfolded at three of Paris’s most storied institutions: Reid Hall, Sciences Po, and the Union Interalliée. Activities included an alumnae panel, classes with current faculty, thematic city walks, cocktails in historic spaces, and a gala. It was a tribute not only to the program’s longevity but also to its enduring impact: shaping women as intercultural thinkers, global citizens, and lifelong Francophiles.

I received the invitation months ago, but attending held special meaning — the celebration coincided with my own move back to Paris after studying there in the 2006/07 academic year. Walking back into Reid Hall, I felt both the familiarity of the past and the buzz of something new – even beyond the new bathrooms and the fresh coat of paint! 

The opening session began with a warm welcome and reflections from Professor Robert Dorit, a four-time faculty program director, and included a panel of alumnae representing decades of Smith in Paris: Florence Fabricant ’58, Ann Sanford ’75, Emily Farrell ’99, and Danielle Julien Trice ’14. Their stories, spanning generations, shared a common refrain — of arriving in France in search of something new and finding, unexpectedly, themselves. “When you are in another situation,” said Farrell, “you learn who you are.”

The immersive model of the program — a mandatory yearlong stay conducted only in French, classes alongside French students at institutions like the Sorbonne, Sciences Po, and the Institut Catholique, and living with a host family — has remained remarkably consistent. What has evolved is its scope: greater availability of STEM courses and a stronger focus on internships. 

A highlight of the program was Professor Brune Biebuyck’s talk, From Northampton to Montparnasse: A Century of Smith Women in Paris, which explored Reid Hall’s layered history. Biebuyck, who directs the Columbia Global Paris Center, is leading a massive effort to archive the building’s past — a task complicated by the lack of a central archive. Drawing from the collections of the Reid family, Barnard, Columbia, and Smith, she’s begun piecing together the story of this unique academic crossroads.

Her work extends to Atelier, a podcast produced by Columbia Global Paris Center, now in its second season, which captures the intellectual spirit of Reid Hall with guests ranging from artists and scientists to activists and historians. 

In 1934, Smith president William Allen Neilson called the Junior Year Abroad “the most valuable year spent in college… It is an important means of creating understanding of people of another country and so it is part of our campaign for better international relations.” His words still resonate. Over a century, Smith women have come to Paris not just to study, but to grow — emerging more independent, more curious, and more connected to the world. 

For many of us, Smith in Paris wasn’t just a year abroad. It was the beginning of seeing the world — and ourselves — with new eyes.