Summer European Academy 2025

Every year CIFE’s Summer European Academy (SEA) takes students from Texas A&M University to multiple European cities to learn about EU institutions and European integration. Under the theme “EU Politics and Transatlantic Relations in Times of Geopolitical Shifts”, the group spent three weeks travelling from Berlin to Brussels to Paris and visiting different institutions every day, thus living the real European experience.

Starting out in Berlin with a historical city tour terminating at Checkpoint Charlie, the students visited numerous important German political institutions including the Federal Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Federal Chancellery, where the students even had the opportunity to enjoy the German Chancellor’s view from his balcony.

Moving on to the European capital Brussels, European institutions such as the Parliament and the Council offered some great insights into their general daily work. Moreover, the group went into more detail with a visit to the European Commission’s AI Office. At the end of the Brussels leg, the students spent a highly interesting half-day at the NATO Headquarters under the expert guidance of Hélène Pilloud, who explained a lot about EU-US relations and answered all questions with never-ending motivation.

Last but not least, the European experience concluded in Paris, where after a dinner cruise evening on the Seine, the participants visited the French National Assembly and Senate, where they were fortunate enough to meet a senator. CIFE's long collaboration with the Robert Schuman Foundation granted us our last highlight of the trip: a visit and lecture at their sites with CIFE Alumna Stephanie Buzmaniuk, whom we would like to thank dearly for ending our American students' European experience on such a high note.