Living, loving, and learning abroad

By Lizzie Wilkins Lebienvenu 05 • London, United Kingdom ‚

Asone of SEM’s alumna that grew up nearby, but ended up far away, I was asked to share what the school’s key value of global perspective has meant to me since life at SEM.

When I started at SEM, I arrived with a passion for French, but not much clue about the culture or where speaking the language could take me. But I quickly met brilliant girls and inspiring teachers who would end up teaching me about the world in equal measure.

For the first time, I was being taught by native French speakers, which exposed me to accents that I had never heard and helped train my ear. One of my teachers organized an exchange and I flew to France at 15 years old and lived with a family outside Paris for two weeks. I was in over my depth, but immediately knew I wanted to somehow extend this glimpse, full of foreign sights, sounds and pastries.

I continued studying Advanced French at SEM and although still unsure how to turn it into a career path, secured an internship at the Canadian Consulate with the help of our beloved Mr. Gary Sutton. It was a chance to use and develop my French in Buffalo, and I eventually decided to get my Master’s degree in both French and International Business at Dickinson College and then Canisius College. I was lucky enough to be offered one of two places on an international exchange program that would afford me a dual degree from my home university and l’Ecole de Management de Strasbourg, a business school in France.

It was incredible - I was far from everything familiar, traveling to new countries, making friendships, and using the work ethic I learned at SEM.

I decided I’d continue to study, and luckily found another international dual degree for my postgraduate education. I spent half of it at the business school in the University College Dublin, and half at the Stockholm School of Economics. As part of that degree, I completed a work-study consulting project at Microsoft Sweden, and realized then that I would love a career helping companies solve their challenges. I decided I would go into a specific industry first with the hope of being able to eventually apply that knowledge in consulting, and found myself joining a graduate program at British Telecom in the UK.

During my career as a consultant so far I’ve helped big companies like the BBC, British Airways and GlaxoSmithKline solve tough problems like how to transform their digital operations, how to remain competitive in an ever-changing and post-Covid world and how to reinvent their customer experience. I absolutely love my career and am proud of the path that led me here, which I truly feel started at SEM.

I am still in London, where I live with my French husband (I suppose it was inevitable!) and our two children, Louis and Léa. I’m currently on maternity leave with our baby girl, and writing this article has encouraged me to think about what kind of a life will unfold for her and what education I want to offer her. I hope she also finds in her education what SEM gave to me.

Besides the value of having a global perspective, SEM taught and prepared me for a life I could not even imagine at the time. Every teacher I had was also a mentor, encouraging us to ask questions, unapologetically challenge how things work, and learn everything we could about the world.

SEM also taught me the importance of having strong women in my life that I can rely on; my five bridesmaids were American, Italian, German and Danish, and one of my closest friends is Norwegian, living in Oslo. I have been so fortunate to have formed close friendships with women from very different cultures and backgrounds.

I would love to encourage all of SEM’s current students to be curious and self-assured and to embrace all opportunities offered, especially the daunting ones. •