Falcon ’15 awarded David-Weill Scholarship

Eric Falcon ’15 became the first University student to be awarded the Michel David-WeillScholarship, and he will pursue a master’s degree in European affairs at Sciences Po in Paris after graduation.

Every year, the Michel David-Weillaward provides one American student, studying at one of twenty Sciences Po partner institutions, with an $80,000 grant to attend Sciences Po and obtain a master’s degree.Named after Michel David-Weill, the former chairman of the investment bank Lazard Frères, the scholarship is directed by the Michel David-Weill Foundation.

“I was very excited. It’s a huge honor,” Falcon said. “I honestly didn’t expect to get it. I was competing against a lot of qualified students from all across the country.”

The program is competitive and only a maximum of 20 students can even apply, Sciences Po International Affairs Manager Nur Manisalisaid.

David-Weill founded the scholarship to attract more Americans to Sciences Po in France, Executive Director of U.S. Sciences Po FoundationAnneScattolinsaid.

“The world is getting smaller and more globalized, and if ... you can get a different education at some point, meet new people, gather with French people and international students and get a different perspective, you know that will be what a great new leader will be,” Scatollin said.

Falcon is an American born in France who moved back to the U.S. when he was four years old. He later pursued a year-long study abroad program in France in high schooland he interned at theU.S. embassy in Belgium during the summer after his sophomore year at the University.

“In some ways [returning to France] feels like home,” Falcon said.

He is a Wilson School major, andtook a number of classes in the French and Italian Department at the University, including FRE 339: The World in Bandes Dessinees, which in French means “The World in Comic Strips,” in the spring of 2013 and a junior seminar in French studies in the fall of 2014, professor Andre Benhaim, who taught both classes, said.

“He struck me as a bright mind but also embodying the future of the Renaissance man,” Benhaim said of Falcon’s interests in many different disciplines.

Sophie Meunier, an alumna of Sciences Po and Falcon’s junior paper adviser, supported his scholarship nomination.His paper was titled,"The European External Action Service and Foreign Policy Coordination in the European Union."

“We worked very closely because I was supervising his JP as well as teaching his seminar,” Meunier explained.“The things that really struck me about Eric were first of all how genuinely excited he seemed to be about studying European integration.”

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Falcon said his interest in the EU was first sparked by itsability to use coordination and diplomatic action through economic integration to establish peace between many countries that had been in perpetual conflict.

Meunier said thatFalcon embodied much of the collaborative spirit of her class when she had students workshop each other’s JP drafts in the second half of the semester.

“He’s by far the student who took the assignment most to heart,” she said. “He really was helpful to the other students in the seminar in trying to get them to improve their drafts.”

At the University, Falcon has been the technical director and vice president of Triangle Club. In the future,Falcon hopes to one day have a career in government or diplomacy, with a focus on EU-U.S. relations.

“I’m really looking forward to the very diverse exchange of ideas with students and faculty,” he said. “The majority of the students in the program are not French - they come from every country in the EU. I’m interested to meet other young people interested in these issues.”

Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated where Anne Scattolin works. She is the executive director of U.S. Sciences Po Foundation. The 'Prince' regrets the error.