Noé Amellal

Since 2000 I can characterize myself as a French Londoner. I grew up in this bleak, dull city where everyone is "business-like", even as the population has grown cosmopolitan. I went to the French lycée, the iconic 102-year-old school of the French Londoners, where the emphasis is mostly (sometimes disproportionately) placed upon the academics. The students are many and the teachers are few. I have no clue how I managed to stand out in such an industrious school, but I eventually conquered my own corner with my own friends who accepted me just as I was.

In the end of my freshman year of high school, through a text of French literature, I discovered the liberal arts education ideal. This discovery did not change my perception of education, but made it crystal clear what I could and could not call an education.

In my senior year, I discovered philosophy. The breadth of its inquiry was the second catalyst for me to study liberal arts as an undergraduate.