Sports & Culture in France

Live and study in Montpellier, one of France’s fastest growing cities and an emerging cultural and educational center. Within easy reach of both mountains and the Mediterranean, and home to 100,000 university students, it is a young, vibrant city with a centuries-old history of intellectual advances and social tolerance. Montpellier is the ideal place to experience French culture as a study abroad student.

Long known as one of France’s most sporty cities, Montpellier is a great place to learn about French sports culture. This program will cover topics including sports tourism, sports psychology, and sports pedagogy. You will also learn about several European sports, such as pétanque and team handball, and visit several sports-related sites in and around Montpellier.

You will live in an extended stay hotel with other program participants. You are responsible for your own meals.

The program includes excursions to several local sports and recreational facilities. You will participate in local visits, such as hiking in the national park of Cévennes, observing a training session of the Montpellier handball club, and attending a professional handball game.

• Deepen cross-cultural understanding through interaction with faculty and community members
• Gain French, European, and international perspectives on sport
• Increase independence and self-reliance by learning to navigate French society
• Acquire practical knowledge in sports-related professions such as coaching, sport management and kinesiology

Corinne Gorrier Dumas, Academic Director

Corinne Gorrier Dumas is the Academic Director of the University of Minnesota Program in Montpellier. She was born and raised in the Loire Valley of the Center of France. She received an MA in English from the University of Orléans in France and a MA in French and ESL from West Virginia University. Before moving back to France, she studied for 5 years at the University of North Carolina where she was also a teaching assistant in the French department. She completed her course work and passed her PhD exams in Comparative Literature. Her research focuses on Women Writers in the Literature of the Maghreb in the late XXth Century as well as Women Writers of minorities in the United States. She currently teaches the Internship/Community Engagement classes for the program and teaches English for the DU Access at the IUT, Université de Montpellier.

Peggy Retka, Student Life & Administrative Director

Peggy Retka is the Student Life & Administrative Director at the University of Minnesota’s Program Center in Montpellier. She joined the Montpellier based team after 4 years in Minnesota at the Learning Abroad Center (LAC) where she was the Program Director for the study abroad programs in both Montpellier, France and Dakar, Senegal. With almost 20 years of experience in the field of international education—including 5 years in France—at a wide variety of institutions, she understands international programming from both sides of the Atlantic.

Paul Rogers, Academic Adviser

Paul Rogers is the Academic Adviser for the Montpellier programs in Montpellier. He was born and raised in southern Rhode Island. He holds a PhD in medieval French literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been teaching university courses for over twenty years. Currently he teaches in his specialty for the University of Minnesota program and at the Université Paul-Valéry in the Lettres Modernes department. His research focuses on the romans d’antiquité and courtly literature of the 12th -13th centuries. He is a published scholar and enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for his subject with the students on the study abroad program.

Rachele Ceccarelli, Student Life & Administrative Coordinator

Rachele Ceccarelli is the Student Life & Administrative Coordinator at the University of Minnesota's Program in Montpellier. Born in Italy, she studied Visual Arts in Italy and Scotland and holds a PhD in Aesthetics from the University of Aberdeen, where she worked as a Teaching Assistant. She joined the Montpellier team after ten years of living and working in France, with professional experiences in the fields of tourism, administration, and management of cultural projects.

Margherita Orlando, Internship Coordinator

Margherita Orlando is the Internship Coordinator at the University of Minnesota Program Center in Montpellier. She was born and raised in Italy. She received a MA in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Culture from the University of Montpellier. After a decade as an assistant to the director in an architecture agency, she founded a web-based company. Through this experience, she has built a large network in Montpellier’s entrepreneurial community.

Application Open Date: August 1, 2024
Application Deadline: March 15, 2025

May 2025 Cost of Participation

After you submit your application, you will receive an email notification confirming that your application was received. Submitted applications are assigned an application checklist, which will include the following items:

• Application Essay

After your application checklist is complete, your application is reviewed by our program team. You will be notified of an acceptance decision by email. If accepted, you will be assigned a confirmation checklist, which you will complete to confirm your participation in the program. If you decide not to continue with the application process, log into the online application system and submit a Cancel Request.