BSc Economics and Economic History, 2009
Seminarian, Community of Saint Martin
After graduating in 2009, I did not feel ready for work but felt that I needed to grow as a human being. I started volunteering in India in an AIDS hospital. In the end, I was taken aback by this experience, but not as I expected. Life seemed to make sense as I was giving myself to others, and in the end like many volunteers, I felt I received more than I gave in that experience. I felt that I was closer to who I was. Following this experience, I decided to go back to my home country, France, to be active in politics for the service of others. For safety reasons, I also concentrated some of my energy to apply to consultancies. I learned a lot from my first job in consulting, but it was clear to me quickly that it was not the field in which I wanted to engage. Thus, after one year, I decided I would reapply to political jobs. I am a Christian, and at that stage I also felt a strange feeling to follow God; the more I attempted to escape it, the more it harassed my conscience. I decided to follow this track and entered a Catholic priest seminary (Community of Saint Martin) in France in September 2011. I will become a priest for the service of others in 2018.
I think that the only thing you can really plan is what direction you want to take in life. The finer details are dependent on circumstances. LSE students: you should spend their time getting to know what you want to do in life, to know yourself, to be able to put yourself on the right track as soon as possible. The earlier you start, the more chance you will have of being truly happy. Also, as you can see from my short career path, I took some decisions to fit into an image of success, or to please my family, rather than because I deeply desired it. My advice to you is to take advice from people regarding your career, but then choose what you truly desire. It can take some time to find that out, and little experiences such as internships help us find this out.
I have a seven years training before priesthood, which is different from what I’ll do in the end. The training consists in a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a year as an intern in a Church assisting a priest, and finally a bachelor’s degree in theology. After the daily seven hours of studies, we have about four hours of prayer, consisting of Mass, morning and evening chants, silent prayer, Bible reading and rosary.
I really enjoyed being at LSE because of the people, the location and the studies. I chose Economics and Economic History because it seemed an interesting degree where on the one hand because of the history part, I would do something I really enjoy, and with economics I could use my mathematical side. The LSE brand also helped me get my consulting job. Foremost, I think my background in economics as well as the network I created will help me for all my life.