2026 Sète-Pleasantville Exchange

From April 2–12, 2026, Yasmina Shouery, Marco Schares Suarez and Sarah Trivedi from our Sète-Pleasantville exchange program traveled to Sète, France, for an immersive experience in science, culture, and education.

This was the third exchange supported by the Sète Pleasantville Collaborative and our corresponding group from France. Sèt’Expo Sciences. Living with host families, students stepped directly into French daily life while engaging with the scientific community at the University of Montpellier:  touring the world’s first medical school, exploring its paleontology archives. For one day, they also sat in on classes at the Joliot-Curie high school alongside their French peers. The centerpiece of the trip was Sète Expo Sciences, where students presented their original research projects in French to a panel of judges, alongside young French students presenting their own projects. Beyond the lab and lecture hall, students took part in the Escale à Sète maritime festival and a multicultural, multi-faith Grande Messe that brought together voices from across the Mediterranean and beyond. Through these shared experiences, students built the kind of firsthand understanding and empathy that no classroom alone can teach, forging connections that will shape how they see science, culture, and the world for years to come.