Living in France is everything Shruti Debburman ’26 dreamed of since she was 9 years old.
In fact, Debburman had been in Clermont-Ferrand on study abroad from Kalamazoo College for only two weeks before she started to feel that the six-month study abroad program—which had seemed overwhelming in advance—would not be long enough.
“I got here at the end of August, and once I was here, time went by so differently,” Debburman said. “Time started to move very quickly, and I knew that in six months I was not going to be ready to leave, and that I would want more time. I am so happy here; I don’t want to leave when there’s so much to do that I’m not going to be able to have done by February. I wouldn’t be fluent enough, and I don’t want to leave not being as fluent as possible. And I thought, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, why not take full advantage of it?”
With the support of program administrators, her parents and her host family, Debburman extended her stay from a February end date into the middle of May.
“I want to make the most of it, to really speak French without giving in to English, to push myself in terms of grammar and vocabulary and speaking correctly,” Debburman said. “I would like to make some more French friends, and I’m excited to travel more.”
Growing up in Lake Bluff, Illinois, as a fan of both reading and baking, Debburman got hooked on France thanks to a French cookbook of her mom’s from Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute.
“It’s really complicated, all the types of doughs you can make, all the types of sauces, all the types of creams,” Debburman said. “I read the thing cover to cover, and I was like, ‘I must learn how to do this. And I need to learn about France, because all of this is so cool, and it must be an interesting country that it comes from.’ I was at a Montessori school and we didn’t have a language class, but what’s incredible about Montessori is that it encourages students to spend time pursuing their interests during the school day, so for example, our assistant teacher had studied French in college, so she was giving me little French lessons on the side.”
K appealed to Debburman based on small class sizes, flexible curriculum and emphasis on study abroad. While her intention to major in French persisted, she took advantage of the ability to explore other areas of interest, considering a second major first in history, then in classics, then music. Currently, she has declared a double major in French and psychology with a minor in music.
For study abroad, Jan Solberg, professor of French and Francophone studies, encouraged Debburman to consider Clermont-Ferrand.
“It’s a very immersive program, but it’s also a small and very supportive program,” Debburman said. “I think she knew it was the right place for me.”
The Clermont-Ferrand program runs during K’s fall and winter terms in partnership with Institution Saint Alyre, an educational establishment that includes primary and secondary schools as well as higher education. Students live with host families and take classes in French language, culture and civilization designed especially for K students as well as classes in French literature and philosophy or modern world history and economy alongside Saint-Alyre students. They complete an Integrative Cultural Project (ICRP) and volunteer at the international short film festival held in Clermont in early February before returning to Kalamazoo for spring term.
An anxious flier, Debburman remembers feeling surprisingly calm while soldiering through the journey to France, including a long flight delay, being met at the airport by the program’s resident director and her host dad, and her host dad driving her to their home. There she met her host mom and a younger daughter who lives on her own but came for dinner and brought her boyfriend—and the travel caught up with her.
“It was such a long day, and I gave everyone the most scatterbrained impression of myself,” Debburman said. “I’m normally pretty put together on the outside, but I was so worried about making a good impression that I kind of forgot how to speak French. My host mom is fluent in English, thankfully, so there were some moments of half English, half French going on, and it was a lot. But everyone was wonderful, incredibly welcoming and kind. I was worried about being an imposition, and they did such a good job making me feel like I was not intruding or an imposition and I felt like part of the family right away.”
Her host family has been a highlight of her time in Clermont. Having grown up as an only child, Debburman relishes the opportunity to experience family dinners, game nights and life with siblings.
She also loves getting to know Clermont-Ferrand, which she finds an interesting city with a manageable size. The city’s population of just under 150,000 is roughly double the population of Kalamazoo, but with a size of about 16 square miles, it covers between half and three quarters as much land as Kalamazoo.
“You can walk most places downtown,” Debburman said. “I have a 10-minute walk most places, because I’m close to the middle. If you’re going somewhere farther out, there is decent public transportation. It’s not super cosmopolitan, so you have to speak French and get good at it quickly.”
Improving French fluency is also necessary in the coursework, which Debburman found challenging at first.
“Classes were more lecture heavy than in my classes at K. In French, especially, and in the rest of the humanities, K classes are mostly discussion based. It also felt fast. The first couple of weeks, I was just writing stuff down as fast as possible, without having a clue what I was writing. But then it got easier. The more I was around the language, I started understanding it better, until it felt like I was actually learning the material in class.”
Learning French literature and economics alongside French students offers an intriguing contrast for Debburman—one class right in her wheelhouse, the other brand new to her, and both with a distinctively French perspective.
In addition, Debburman and (until February) the other two K students studying in Clermont-Ferrand this academic year attend a French language class, a French culture and civilization class, and a time set aside for extra support with the economics teacher, where they review material from class or go deeper on topics that are relevant to their interests.
“Those classes are very flexible,” Debburman said. “It’s what we need to learn or what we want to learn.
Our teachers are absolutely fabulous. They’re so engaging.”
Debburman also takes pipe organ lessons at the Regional Conservatory for music, dance and theatre, and she completed her ICRP at the Conservatory, researching and writing about the history and current state of the pipe organ in France.
For the ICRP, each student chooses a topic or question of interest to him or her and completes 40 hours of work on a site and 10 interviews with professionals in the field, often tied to an internship. Having played piano since she was 5 years old and viola since high school, Debburman grew interested in the academic side of music at K and started pipe organ lessons during her first year.
“I didn’t realize how absolutely in love I would end up with the instrument,” Debburman said. While true mastery of many instruments requires an early start, pipe organists often begin as teenagers, because they need to have achieved their full height and a level of piano competence.
“It’s usually a weird connection—in French, they call it ‘un coup de foudre,’ which is like love at first sight,” Debburman said. “It literally translates to crack of lightning, so it’s like love struck; you hear it or you play it for the first time, and it’s like destiny, you just know it’s your instrument.”
Struggling to find 10 pipe organ professionals in Clermont even with her contacts at the Conservatory, Debburman expanded her interviewees to include students of the pipe organ, which enriched her final product.
“I didn’t think of doing that at first, but I found that the students put a lot of thought into it, they answered very thoroughly, and I feel like some of the insights that I got from them were more creative and out of the box,” Debburman said. “The kids still have that enthusiasm in them, a spark. It was interesting to have the kids explain how they fell in love with it while it’s still fresh for them.”
Debburman did get to meet (and interview) professionals—people who are important in the pipe organ world—and she had the opportunity to play historic instruments in the process.
In her time abroad, Debburman has traveled to many places; Normandy, Florence and London were highlights for her, offering natural beauty, architecture, history and amazing food.
“We went skiing in the Alps,” Debburman said. “I think that would be a collective highlight for all of us. I’d never skied in my life. I was terrified, and it was really fun. It’s the coolest possible place to try it.”
Since the two other K students left Clermont in February, some things have stayed the same for Debburman—her host family was happy to extend her stay; most of her classes remained consistent—while other things have shifted. In addition to adjusting to the absence of her fellow Hornets, Debburman has been thinking about her Senior Integrated Project (something related to medieval feminist literature), started a French book club with her former resident director, and added a Latin class with high school students to her schedule.
“That’s been an interesting experience, because translating Latin to English is one thing, but translating Latin to French, one language that is not my first language to other language that’s not my first language, is complicated,” Debburman said. “It’s also interesting being with high school kids, because they have so much energy. They talk differently, and they’re a lot more willing to test out their English. They ask a lot of questions that tell you a lot about how French people see the U.S.”
Her K-specific classes are now one-on-one, opening opportunities to explore topics of particular interest for Debburman.
“In French, we don’t have much grammar to do, and the teacher has been bringing in documents on all these different French women of interest, like one of the lawyers who was instrumental in legalizing abortion, a female artist, female scientists. I’m focusing on a lot of medieval history with my history teacher. It’s very flexible, very individualized, which is a special opportunity, because that’s not usually how school works. This is unique, and I think it’s valuable to my education.”
Debburman’s experiences in France have improved her fluency, flexibility, communication and confidence.
“Study abroad has changed my life,” she said. “I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened and will happen for the next couple of months. I have a family here for life now, I’ve gotten to see incredible places, I’ve met wonderful people. I’ve gotten to play organs that are 200 years old. I’ve made new friends. I’ve reconnected with old friends from high school, and that’s been lovely as well. It’s very much a dream come true to be here and to be enjoying it so much. I am sure that little me would be so proud and absolutely over the moon.”
She hopes other French students will consider Clermont-Ferrand.
“It’s an extremely special program, and all the people in the program, the teachers, the families, the satellite families you can do activities with, they’re all wonderful,” Debburman said. “There are so many unique opportunities, and you will not regret going there. It was one of the best decisions of my life.”
Connecting Back: From France to Kalamazoo
While reflecting on her study abroad experience in Clermont-Ferrand, Shruti Debburman ’26 also appreciates other opportunities K has offered her, both on and off campus.
“Being part of Kalamazoo Philharmonia, K Phil, has been a big part of my time at K. I did not get in on my first try, but got in on the second try, so it felt very fulfilling. I play viola, and K Phil is mostly community members with a pretty small group of students, which means that we as students get close. Some of the closest friends I have at K are from orchestra.”
Debburman has worked in the Music Department office as well as the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL), through which she also takes part in Interfaith Student Leaders.
“ORSL was another place I made some of my closest friends,” she said. “When I first came to K, I was not sure that K was the right place for me. My second term, I found Interfaith, and it’s been a community that has made my experience at K so wonderful. It’s made me grow and think, and it’s pushed me, and I love that.”
In the ORSL Cavern space, Liz Candido, College chaplain, has proven an important mentor for Debburman.
“She’s been supportive throughout my ups and downs at K, and also so open and encouraging of all the weird questions I throw at her,” Debburman said. “I have a tendency to walk into the Cavern at the start of my shift and have some theological question that I’d been thinking about, and she is so kind and talks me through it. We go into the history and the language, like the Greek, and it’s so interesting. She’s been very encouraging of my interest in theology and helpful whenever I’ve done something in classes that involves something religion-related.”
In the French department, Jan Solberg, professor of French and Francophone studies, has offered invaluable support and connection.
“She was my first French professor at K, and the way she taught French, it made me keep loving the language,” Debburman said. “I had definitely had my moments of hating it; every single year of high school, I said, ‘I’m going to drop French next year.’ She helped me love the language, and she’s been incredibly supportive of me academically; she’s helped me through some of my decisions and classes. In terms of life, she’s been there for me throughout my time at K and has been super supportive. And she’s in orchestra, too, so that’s fun. She’s there in every part of my life.”
During the summers, Debburman has completed an internship at the National Alliance on Mental Illness in their North suburban office of Chicago and research at Rosalind Franklin University in West Chicago.
Returning to Kalamazoo for her last year, Debburman looks forward to returning to Interfaith and collective music making as well as tackling her Senior Integrated Project. Beyond that, she plans to apply for a fellowship or scholarship that would allow her to spend more time abroad post-graduation exploring her interests before settling into a Ph.D. and research path.
