The Foundation has two offices in Paris. It gives, every year, about thirty scholarships to students in the classes préparatoires (French Higher School Preparatory Classes) Louis-le-Grand, Henri IV, Saint-Louis and Jean-Baptiste Say. Most of them come from high schools in the suburbs or outside Paris, have received exceptional grades during their secondary education and come from modest families. The scholarship holders are selected by the institutions and their grades at the entrance exams for schools of humanities, business or science are often excellent.
The Foundation gives, every year, about three hundred scholarships (renewable twice in high schools and three times in schools) to students from in schools and high schools of art that are part of the Académie de Paris: the schools of les Gobelins, Boulle, Duperré, Estienne, La Fémis, les Arts Déco, Olivier de Serres. Industrial creation, Jean Ferrandi, Guillaume Tirel, Diderot (timepiece making). The scholarship holders are preselected by the institutions and a jury of the Fondation de France, largely made up of former scholarship holders, greenlights the decision almost every time. Helped by his associates Laure Boulard and Espéran Padonou, Odon Vallet has made over 450 visits to schools and high schools of art during the Doors Open Days and the graduation ceremonies. Our scholarship holders’ success rate at their exams is 97%.
These institutions are located in every Parisian borough and neighbourhood, in that Paris of a hundred villages that so much inspired artists. Its aesthetic and poetic center is the Luxembourg Gardens, located between the “Boul’Mich” (Boulevard St Michel) and the Rue Guynemer where the Bossuet Institute is situated, in which the best students receive a boarding subsidy, and which accommodates the Beninese scholarship holders.
The amount of the scholarship in the schools and high schools of art is equal to 500 hours working in a well-known fast-food chain and allows the student to dedicate themselves entirely to their studies. The amount of the scholarship in the public high schools is equal to the boarding fees, plus about 50%. It goes without saying that just as in the schools of art, the scholarship can be combined with the state scholarship, and is increased every year.