The Jerome Lohez Foundation honors EPITA
Created in memory of the French victims of the September 11 Twin Tower Attack (New York, USA 2001), the foundation awarded the school for its efforts on the Franco-American exchanges.
The Jerome Lohez Foundation, created in November 2005 in honor of Jerome Robert Lohez (EPITA 1994) who lost his life in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, works in memory of those diverse citizens who perished in the 2001 attacks in New York. The institution’s mission is to foster French and American unity and cultural understanding, by supporting scientific and technological exchanges in higher education. Each year, the Jérôme Lohez Foundation holds a gala to honor the recipients of the Lohez Scholarship to deserving French students who go to study in the United States.
During the 2011 awards ceremony, the cooperation agreement between EPITA and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, United States, was acknowledged. Three promising students, including Alban Pétré (EPITA 2011), currently in exchange with the Stevens Institute of Technology, were awarded scholarships.
From EPITA to the United States
Particularly attracted to New York after a first visit in 2009, the Epitean winner of this year entered Stevens Institute of Technology in Spring 2011. He looks forward to broadening his vision through an American educational experience, and he hopes that his time in the United States will allow him to promote cultural exchange while here and when he returns to France.
Alban worked at Société Générale for the global head of Risk Assessment & Controls. He worked on the creation of a methodology to improve web-browsing control of Société Générale system users and other security-related projects. He was praised by his professors and supervisors for his creativity and attention to details and his team spirit.
“Hundreds of EPITA veterans went through the Stevens Institute of Technology. These students eventually started their careers as managers in consulting and insurance firms in France or in the United States,” says Joël Courtois, EPITA’s Director, who represented the school at the ceremony.
A foundation that is gaining importance
In the early years of its inception, the foundation awarded only one scholarship to a student going on exchange from EPITA to the United States; it is now able to award three grants ranging from €1000 to €2000. It also expanded its laureates by including students from Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, New York University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique, Sciences Po, as well as the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne.
Dening Lohez, wife of Jerome Lohez who created the foundation, explains: “My husband is a French citizen who died for an American cause. To honor his memory, I wanted to encourage exchanges between France and the U.S. to fight against misunderstandings between people and foster a spirit of cultural exchange.” Exchange programs now have the wind in their sails.