Thirteen US university students selected for Villa Albertine’s new urban design internship exchange in Paris

Chicago, June 15 2023 – This summer thirteen students, all currently enrolled at American universities, will travel to Paris for a six-week professional intensive in urban planning and architecture.  

The program is designed to inspire a new generation of students committed to promoting innovation and change in urban making, offering a combination of collective experiences (seminars, conferences, and site visits) and individualized internships in preeminent Parisian firms (Chartier/Dalix, Studio Gang, GRAU, Prost, Institut Paris Région…). Throughout the program participants will also have frequent opportunities to collaborate with French students of architecture and urban design.  

Applications for the City/Cité Cultural and Professional Exchange Program were open to students at American universities regardless of their nationality or language proficiency in French. The selected students represent nine American universities in seven states.  

Encompassing this professional exchange and numerous other events, grants, and exchanges, City/Cité is a program by Villa Albertine that uses the arts to facilitate international dialogue on urban issues. Pairing French and American cities, communities, and institutions, it creates space for artists, students, architects, urban planners, community organizers, political leaders, and more to examine urban issues that impact both sides of the Atlantic (and well beyond). This has taken the form of international conferences, creative exhibitions and publications, professional residencies, decentralized cultural cooperation programs, and mobility programs. 

“It is our true pleasure to welcome this talented cohort of urban thinkers to City/Cité. Over the next five weeks they will engage with some of the most consequential debates and projects in today’s world, and we hope the experience will serve as a launchpad for careers centering impact and global-mindedness,” said Gaëtan Bruel, Director of Villa Albertine.  

The City/Cité Cultural and Professional Exchange Program is pleased to welcome the following students: 

• Jacqueline Au, Washington University in St. Louis 
• Cole Bakley, Texas A&M University 
• Ileana Carbajal, University of Houston 
• Joseph Frate, The Ohio State University 
• Brendan Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology 
• Aleksandrs Jaunzemis, University of Illinois at Chicago 
• Reece Lash, Washington University in St. Louis 
• Brianna Manzor, University of Michigan  
• Nikesha Medard, University of California in Berkeley 
• Brandon Pundamiera, University of California in Berkeley 
• Nellie Shih, University of Michigan 
• Coylin Vargas, University of Houston 
• Mengxi Xin, Washington University in St. Louis 

The City/Cité Cultural and Professional Exchange Program is hosted in partnership with Gustave Eiffel University’s École d’urbanisme de Paris, École des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris – Département de Génie Urbain, and École d’architecture de la Ville et des Territoires Paris-Est. The program is made possible by the invaluable support of Clayco, Lamar Johnson Collaborative and FACE foundation.