This summer, I've been accepted to the Cornell Law–Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Summer Institute, a rigorous academic program held at one of the oldest universities in the Western world.

The program runs June 25 – July 20 in Paris. I'll be taking three courses taught by Cornell Law faculty: Comparative Contract Law in the Age of Automation, Corporate Governance and M&A, and Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice Reform.

These are graduate-level seminars that require serious engagement with French, European, and American legal systems side by side, examining how different societies have answered the same fundamental questions about consent, fairness, punishment, and power.

Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne was founded in 1253. The institution we'll work in sat through the Revolution, the Commune, two world wars, and May '68. Studying comparative law there isn't symbolic. The cultural significance of the institution alone makes studying law there worth doing.

The $5,000 goal breaks down like this: round-trip flights from Atlanta to Paris on Air France, a furnished apartment in central Paris for 35 days within walking distance of campus, and daily living expenses including food, transit, and course materials.

I'm funding the majority of this myself. Anything contributed goes directly toward making the trip financially sustainable. Law school is expensive in ways that don't stop when summer starts, and this program is one of the more meaningful things I'll do during it.

Thank you for the support. It genuinely matters.

— Xavier Means