Each year, after obtaining the baccalaureate, our students access the best universities and higher education schools, whether in France or abroad. They follow very varied courses there, after having matured their orientation project with the support of our guidance counselors, according to their aspirations and their personality. They now form the alumni network of Shanghai French School, rich of professional and life paths that inspire new generations of students.
Every year, several LFS graduates choose to continue their higher education at IE University, a Spanish school of management whose master’s degrees and MBA reach the top of international rankings. Accepting their invitation, we traveled to Spain and were able to meet with several alumni who are currently enjoying the different specialties they are in. Let’s dive in the IE universe and in the lives of our former students!
Bachelor in Business Administration
Inès Poix: My name is Inès Poix, I am 20 and lived in Shanghai from Grade 10 till Grade 12 in 2021. I was in the European Stream (SEA) and studied the Mathematics and Economic & Social Sciences specialties. I arrived on the Segovia campus of IE in September 2021; I have been studying there for almost two years…
Today, we are happy to exchange with Anne Lhopiteau, who graduated from the LFS in 2022 before joining the EPFL, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hello Anne, thanks for taking the time to exchange with us! To begin with, could you introduce yourself in a few words? Tell us your story with the LFS, and your experience.
Hello Anne, thanks for taking the time to exchange with us! To begin with, could you introduce yourself in a few words? Tell us your story with the LFS, and your experience.
Hello, I am Anne Lhopiteau, former LFS student, from the promotion “Shansationnels”. I joined the LFS in Grade 6 and passed the Baccalaureate with the maths and physics & chemistry specialties in 2022…
I’m Emilie Liaud, I’m 19 and I studied at the LFS during High School. I graduated in 2020 and am from the promotion “ShangCeux” (play on words between “Shanghai” and “lucky”).
I joined the LFS in 2017 and the FLSco (French as Language of Instruction) programme. It’s a personalised support in French language provided to non-French speaking students, which was my case. Although my parents are both French, I arrived at the LFS in Grade 10 without knowing how to write nor read in French. The thing is I had done all my previous schooling, from kindergarten to Grade 9 in a Chinese school, in Chinese. The first days at the LFS were hard for me, especially in French, History & Geography, and Biology classes. It was a massive choc at the beginning, I couldn’t even understand the instructions.
FLSco really helped me, firstly with French bridging classes but not only that. I felt supported and was able to build some self-confidence into integrating the French system. I was very lucky to benefit from this programme and I wish to thank the FLSco team. It is mainly thanks to the team that I was able to have a fulfilling and happy education at the LFS, despite my initial language gap.
One of the events that really marked me goes back to Grade 11. With the initiative of my French teacher, we directed and acted on a show about the ‘’art of speaking alone’’, where each of us had to learn a famous monologue and played in front of an audience.
There was a big amount of preparation work to be done but we went with it and it was a success. I do remember this with nostalgia, it was a new type of exercise for me, quite stressful as I still wasn’t fluent in French. In the end, we were all together with my classmates, happy to be working together.
Three words to describe the LFS… Firstly, I would say “Diversity” because the LFS is a school opened to multiculturality which knows how to welcome students with different backgrounds and origins the best way possible, whether culturally or academically.
The second word that comes to mind is “Mutual Aid”. We have a lot of group projects to work on and are encouraged to work together. In fact, the general atmosphere of the school is benevolent, which naturally brings most students to help each other.
Finally, I would choose the word “Excellence” because the LFS has a very good reputation among other French schools abroad. It’s obvious that most teachers and administrative staff are devoted to the school and its students. As a student, it gives us the will to contribute to this high reputation.
I joined the ASC (Sports & Cultural Extracurricular Activities) Badminton every Thursday after class. I was not one of the best sports people, but it was allowing me to have a break in my week, free myself from studies, and practice a sport with my friends.
Why the Lycée Hoche? For several reasons, starting because it’s a school with very good results at competitive exams, but also because it’s a school at human scale, which offers a very nice environment. The buildings, its chapel and museum give the Lycée Hoche some charm, a soul.
I don’t regret this choice, the Lycée Hoche is a pleasant institution to study at and I vividly recommend to future LFS graduates wishing to go back to France to do a CPGE.
The LFS fully responded to my needs and expectations at the end of Grade 9, when I decided to leave the Chinese system to move onto the French system with my parents’ support.
It is clear that the CPGE doesn’t give me much free time which makes that time precious. I try to focus on relaxing and calming activities: essentially going out to enjoy the surroundings as well as the cultural and historical environment we have here in Versailles and Paris, listening to music and reading.
An advise? I think you really need to love the studied subjects (mathematics, physics, and chemistry in my case), and be ready to forget High School because studying methods are different as well as the meaning to give to exams and marks.
Except for the rare people who are extremely talented, you must work hard, way more than in High School. You must accept failures because the main objective of the DS, DM or Kholles is not to validate what you have learnt, but to prepare yourself to competitive exams, to make you understand what your weaknesses are and help you identify the studying axes you must focus on.
You also must develop your time management skills and take care of your health. Even though it is easier said than done, you must enjoy your studies which are sometimes intense and tiring, but when you take a step back, remain very gratifying.
Live each moment to the fullest. Enjoy the quality of life at the LFS, the quality of its teachers, and their engagement. You should not hesitate to ask questions when you are in difficulty or in doubt.
How can the FLSco programme make our students dream big? Hélène Wu, our alumni from the LFS promotion 2017 shares with us her experience at LFS, and how our school helped her build her next steps.
Hi Helene, you graduated from LFS in 2017, can you tell us more about your LFS years?
I was coming from the Chinese education system, life at LFS was a true discovery. The French education system gives importance to a more complete education, and highlights literature and scientific courses equally…
Emilie graduated in 2009 from Shanghai French School. She is now in charge of the new center dedicated to research on the intestinal microbiota at the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai.
Emilie arrived in Shanghai in 1998, an important year which, eleven years later, would have a direct impact on her professional career. Born into a Franco-Chinese family, Émilie grew up with both cultures. She arrived in CP (Grade 1) at Shanghai French School, which was located at the time on Jinhui road in Hongqiao.
Unsurprisingly, Earth and Life science classes particularly attracted her. “The level taught at Shanghai French School is very good, and prepares you to higher education” explains Émilie, “In addition, it is a gateway to internationalization“.
Her career is an illustration of this as she went back to China to join the Pasteur Institute in Shanghai after obtaining her bachelor degree in Biology and Health at the University
of Paris-Sud 11 (today University Paris-Saclay) one of the largest and most prestigious universities in France, particularly in science and mathematics.
Today, Emilie resumes her studies with the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, organizes international courses, coordinates research projects within the international network of Instituts Pasteurs, sets up Franco-Chinese joint supervision between universities, etc. “In my field, China remains very attractive in terms of funding and opportunities. ”
“My studies had a fairly direct impact on my career since I now work in Shanghai. ” It is a city where she feels good and she keeps many beautiful memories of her years spent at Shanghai French School:” The arrival of friends in the morning at the Piazza, the lessons of the most charismatic teachers, breaks in the cafeteria, table football, and of course the Baccalaureate results! ”
On the occasion of the World University Fair on November 16, we are publishing several portraits of alumni. Today, meet Capucine, who obtained her scientific baccalaureate, with international option, in 2015 at Shanghai French School. After engineering studies in materials science at the Imperial College of London, where she obtained a Bachelor in Engineering in 2018 and an Master in Engineering in 2019, she is pursuing a thesis in the field of solar energy and semiconductor materials within the Photovoltaic Institute of Ile-de-France (IPVF) and the Center for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (C2N), in the Paris region.
Capucine, born to a Chinese father and a French mother, arrived in China at the age of two. She studied in Shanghai French School from CM1 (Grade 4) up to Terminale (Grade 12). “My parents wanted my brother and I to have an experience of Chinese school. Then in CM1, I joined the Shanghai French School. At first, I was a little intimidated by my classmates who mastered the French language, but I quickly took the lead”.
Capucine took part in the very first batch of the bilingual French-English stream of Shanghai French School, in Sixième (Grade 6). “I continued my studies in this language stream until I finished middle school, and when I arrived in high school I chose the American international stream (SIA) because I was already
considering moving to an Anglo-Saxon country to continue my higher education there. Combining SIA and a scientific Baccalauréat allowed me to obtain a very complete background with a good balance between science and humanities“.
Extra-curricular activities are an integral part of life at Shanghai French School. Capucine has taken part in numerous sporting and cultural activities, but it is her investment in community service that has particularly marked her. As vice-president of the Campus Chapter of Habitat for Humanity “I helped organize several trips to China with the aim of building houses for the poors. Each experience was unique and enriching, and I was deeply impressed by what high schoolers could build with their own hands in just a few days. ”
Capucine keeps a strong attachment to the Shanghai French School. “Those years have greatly contributed to the formation of my personality and to the various choices that I was able to make afterwards in my path of higher education. The quality of teaching at Shanghai French School is excellent and I consider myself very fortunate to have been in a school where the environment enables both intellectual and personal development. The variety of extracurricular activities I was able to participate in made it very easy for me to fit in wherever I went later. “
“Sport and studies, you can succeed in both at the LFS !”.
I arrived at the Shanghai French School speaking a few words of English and I left with a good C1 level. Looking back, I realize that the language level of LFS is excellent and I think it is very difficult to find a school with such an excellence in this domain. ” His favorite lessons were Chinese lessons. In Grade 3, he joined the Chinese international section (SIC). “We had 4 different Chinese classes : Chinese language, history, geography and mathematics, all taught in Chinese. We spent a lot of time with the Chinese teachers and kept good relationships throughout school. ” Obviously, he knows what a team spirit is, as he was also part of the high school orchestra where he put his piano skills into practice.
From basketball to piano lessons, there is only one step at Shanghai French School. As he is in his first-year after Baccalauréat, Simon is building his professional project and would like to find a job in which he can practice French, English and Chinese, the three languages he speaks after leaving the Shanghai French School, while continuing to live his passion for basketball !
I arrived at the Shanghai French School speaking a few words of English and I left with a good C1 level. Looking back, I realize that the language level of LFS is excellent and I think it is very difficult to find a school with such an excellence in this domain. ” His favorite lessons were Chinese lessons. In Grade 3, he joined the Chinese international section (SIC). “We had 4 different Chinese classes : Chinese language, history, geography and mathematics, all taught in Chinese. We spent a lot of time with the Chinese teachers and kept good relationships throughout school. ” Obviously, he knows what a team spirit is, as he was also part of the high school orchestra where he put his piano skills into practice.
From basketball to piano lessons, there is only one step at Shanghai French School. As he is in his first-year after Baccalauréat, Simon is building his professional project and would like to find a job in which he can practice French, English and Chinese, the three languages he speaks after leaving the Shanghai French School, while continuing to live his passion for basketball !
“It was at the LFS where I built myself. My education, my adolescence and of course the meeting with my wife ”, Guillaume Carlot.
Both graduates of the Shanghai French School in 2004, Anne-Laure and Guillaume were classmates. Married in 2011, they now live in Dubai with their two sons. Anne-Laure is Project Engineer at Emerson, Guillaume is Manager and Digital Product Expert at Amadeus. They share with us their memories of the years spent at Shanghai French School, which is particularly close to their hearts.
“This is at Shanghai French School that I have developed myself. My education, my teen years and, of course, meeting my wife ”, explains Guillaume Carlot. He still remembers his first days in Shanghai in 1998, when the LFS was only three years old! “We were in a class of eight students. At that time, China still had few expatriates” stresses Guillaume. “We were a bit like a small family, and students were seeing each other very often outside class“. Created in 1996 by parents willing to share resources to offer a teaching of quality in Shanghai based on the standards of French education, the school welcomed only 23 students in the first year!
Very quickly, the LFS has been growing. But the school still retains today the spirit that has inhabited it since its creation, an association of parents which runs on a principle of mutuality, at the service of the community. Anne-Laure, who joined our school directly in Terminale (Grade 12), loved the sense of community: “From morning to evening, we were together, staying at each other’s place to revise lessons, or going out in town!“
The teachers, and their unfailing commitment to the success of the students, also left a strong impression on him. Anne-Laure, who joined the LFS with poor scores in earth and life sciences, was able to at the SVT examination of the French Baccalauréat, thanks to the support of her teachers! 2004, the year they passed the Baccalauréat, was a highlight. As the school was not yet an examination center at the time, students went to Beijing take the exam, along with students from other French schools in Asia. “Once the tests were over, we stayed there to wait for the results“. In 2019, 69 students took the exams of the French Baccalauréat at the LFS, with a success rate of 100% and 67% with top honors.
Studies at Shanghai French School instilled in them a taste for travelling, exploring cultures and the world. Not only did they make a lot of friends at our school, but that is where their great love story started too! The city of Shanghai remains a special place in their hearts: “We loved Shanghai, the simplicity of getting around, the security of the city“. As a proof of their attachment to our school, they still keep above their bed the two characters of the word “Shanghai” from the old school sign in Hongqiao. An authentic piece that they kept with them when the school moved to our current Qingpu campus! “And we’ve been sleeping under a lucky star ever since“.
“Shanghai French School introduced me to an international world that I love and, as a result, encouraged me to continue studying abroad.”
Thaïs F., a student in international studies and political sciences – Chinese specialty – at the University of Warwick, graduated in 2018 from the Shanghai French School. She studied there for five years, during which she became involved as the president of the ‘Maison des lycéens’. First impressions Born in the North of France, Thaïs followed her family all along their expatriation in Shanghai and studies at the French high school. “Joining a private institution was a great change for me. “The first day at school was not easy as I arrived late in class and I did not dare to say a word to my new classmates”. But the silence was very quickly broken. “It is an advantage to get small classes, as at Shanghai French School.
It then becomes very easy to know everyone and it is easier to get closer. For example, I met my best friend, Lena, in Grade 8 in History class while we were in completely different language streams: she was in international Chinese stream and I was part of the general stream. “ Quickly, she became accustomed to the daily school bus, the French cheek kissing every morning, the cafeteria break at 10am and extra-curricular activities in the afternoon. The teachers at the LFS have impressed her a lot. She remembers the teacher who “was so engaged in what he said that sometimes he wrote on the whiteboard answering questions at the same time”.
Her long stay in China allowed her to travel a lot. During Chinese classes, in addition to the cultural aspect, she was able to study in-depth social topics such as the children of migrant workers. Commit to your passions ! Passionate about dance, literature, art and diplomacy, she indulged herself in all her talents to devoted herself to the many projects of the school, like “Osons l’opéra“, as the choreographer , or the Asian Basketball and Football competitions in which she was a reporter and, above all, the Model United Nations (MUN) as president.
At first, Thaïs did not have enough confidence in her. When she was spotted by Mr. Malagnoux, coordinator of the English teachers of Grade 9, for the selective club of the MUN, “I had just studied for one year at the Shanghai French School and my level of English was still limited”. She still remembers her first meeting : “I was very shy at that time.”
However, her teacher made her understand that the most important was all her knowledge and ability to think. Once a week, Thaïs was preparing speeches for the Model United Nations program. She became very involved into it and even became the first student at the Shanghai French School to become a Judge of the International Court of Justice. An experience from which she has benefited a lot : “Sometimes we have to defend countries that do not reflect our values, yet we have to understand the interests of the country in question. It also allows reflection on topics that do not affect you everyday but remain important. This gives us an incomparable opening to the world“. A future to prepare Lors d’une autre conférence MUN When the time came to choose a specialization in higher education, she received strong support from the school’s Counselling team : “We had watched together my grades and they had offered me many options all around the world”. She was also able to meet school representatives and real professionals through the World University Fair that the school organizes each year. “I met with a lady working in a large French company and a Belgian diplomat. So it was tailor-made interviews, if I may say so. “ Thaïs could not be better prepared. At the end of her studies, she was able to pass certificates certifying her level in all the languages she mastered now : HSK for Chinese, IELTS for English and DELE for Spanish. “The high school offers many trainings to help us access the universities we want. I participated especially in evening classes to prepare myself. “ A head full of project !
Today, a chapter is ending and a new one begins. Studying in England for a year, at the University of Warwick, she wants to work as a cultural project manager in the French diplomatic network, or to work at the UN in committees focused on culture. For her, being able to keep in her professional and personal life the international vision she has acquired in French high school is essential.
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Created in 2010, the Union-ALFM aims to federate former students of French lycées around the world by strengthening, in France and abroad, the bonds of friendship and solidarity between former students. The association’s missions are to: – Encourage and support the development of alumni associations at local level – Network its members and facilitate the development of professional opportunities – Value the actions and talents of its members – Promote the French educational model and the values associated with it.