{"id":1636,"date":"2025-07-14T15:36:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/?p=1636"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:38:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:38:23","slug":"how-study-abroad-in-paris-shaped-an-architectural-designers-career-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/2025\/07\/14\/how-study-abroad-in-paris-shaped-an-architectural-designers-career-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"How Study Abroad in Paris Shaped an Architectural Designer\u2019s Career Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karen Wang returned to her beloved Paris for an exciting career in heritage architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n

You could say Karen (Kai-chun) Wang (CAS \u201913) came to BU with a big imagination.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>As someone who identifies as a \u201cthird culture kid,\u201d she experienced cross-cultural transitions early in life, during her formative years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in Taiwan, spent a part of my childhood in Vancouver, then returned to Taiwan for elementary and high school,\u201d Wang says. \u201cThen I enrolled at BU for college.\u201d<\/p>\n

While at BU, she took an active role in building and tailoring her educational experience, taking design classes in the College of Communication and architectural and French classes in the College of Arts & Sciences. Wang spent her years immersed in several subjects that fascinated her. \u201cI even took a book making class,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

On top of that, she studied abroad during her junior year in one of\u00a0<\/span>BU\u2019s Paris programs<\/a>. She chose the program because she had been studying French as a third language, and she wanted to take some classes at a French university.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe split our time between BU in Paris [BU\u2019s Paris Academic Center] and a French University,\u201d Wang says. \u201cI even joined the volleyball team at the French university and managed to communicate well enough with my teammates. I wasn\u2019t used to speaking French all day, and it was still a challenge to understand but you pick up the language so quickly when you\u2019re immersed in it. I was surprised how quickly I came along.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the academic side, she took poetry and architecture classes, among others. She fell in love with architecture while in Paris, enjoying her architecture classes as well as the beautiful and varied architectural styles of the city and its landmarks. The City of Light offers a stunning backdrop for this field of study.<\/p>\n

In the course Paris Architecture and Urbanism, students traced the development of Parisian architecture and urbanism, from the Roman era to the present, focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and emphasizing dynamic relationships among architecture, urban development, and socio-political history.<\/p>\n

Wang credits her study abroad experience in Paris with shaping her academic major and career interests. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the best decisions I made,\u201d she says. \u201cI became an architectural studies major and paired it with CFA and COM.\u201d<\/p>\n

She graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and French Literature. After commencement, Wang moved back to Taiwan to work in an architecture firm and then applied to graduate school in architectural design. She enrolled at Cornell University and spent three and half years there, graduating with her Master of Architecture degree in 2017.<\/p>\n

When she came across the opportunity to return to Paris in late 2019 to work for the architecture firm Guinamard-Casati Laurent she seized it. Previously, she had been working in a global architecture and design company in Shanghai, China.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not be here today had I not studied abroad in Paris,\u201d she says speaking from her apartment in Paris. \u201cDuring my time abroad as an undergrad I had thought to myself I could really live here one day. I had such a positive experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her current position in Paris, Wang leads many different projects and tasks as an architectural designer because it is a small firm and \u201cthere isn\u2019t much hierarchy so you find yourself doing more, which I like,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

The firm focuses on heritage architecture, which specializes in design contributing to heritage, history, and culture. Most projects are within the domain of museums, art galleries, and preservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an artistic point of view here that I\u2019m learning,\u201d she says of her work.<\/p>\n

In addition to gaining a career path and nurturing her ability to think outside the box, studying abroad taught Wang how to \u201cconnect with people and how to have empathy. I also learned how to cope in a new environment and find another way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She talks about her learning experiences \u2013 both domestic and international \u2013 with joy and gratitude. Experiencing joy in learning put her in the driver\u2019s seat early on, capitalizing on opportunities to think across disciplines and study abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry stepping out of your college because you\u2019re not limited to your studies there,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s what you make of it in a lot of ways. You never know how something will help you in the future \u2013 both personally and professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karen Wang returned to her beloved Paris for an exciting career in heritage architecture You could say Karen (Kai-chun) Wang (CAS \u201913) came to BU with a big imagination.\u00a0As someone who identifies as a \u201cthird culture kid,\u201d she experienced cross-cultural transitions early in life, during her formative years. \u201cI was born in Taiwan, spent a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24633,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3456,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1636\/revisions\/3456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/abroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}