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As you all certainly know, AFAM is a non-profit association being able to help our student financially thanks to our donors.
Thanks to of our biggest donors - Louis Magne (An 130) - AFAM was able a few years ago to offer Shasta grants to our students and apprentice students pursuing internships in the United States.
In March AFAM had a pleasure to help five out of our current eleven interns in the United States.
5 students and apprentice students received in March Shasta grants from $1500 up to $4000.
We congratulate our students and wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
Here is what one of our Shasta recipients said:
"I was able to benefit from the support of AFAM as part of my search for an end-of-study internship at Arts et Métiers. I have always dreamed of doing an internship in a country like the United States and this dream has come true thanks to the help received from AFAM.
I am very satisfied with the support received by AFAM, Albina has always been there to inform me, answer my questions, send me offers, give me contacts or even share my CV. My mentor has also always been there to advise me, encourage me and give me feedback on his experiences from the US.
I therefore take this opportunity to thank them once again."
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International Week organized by Arts et Metiers Institute of Technology is taking place this week. There are several workshops and testimonials regarding international mobility, internships and professional experience abroad taking place online.
Our alumnus, Shasta committee member, Robert Stelly (Ch 197) participated in one of the workshops on March 27th: "Gadzarts: l'international comme tremplin vers le monde professionnel".
Albina Patou-Chebykina, AFAM community manager took part in "SFE à l'etranger - faites le grand saut! " workshop to talk about the Shasta program. It happened Tuesday, March 28th.
Pierre Heger (CL 218), Berkeley alumnus, working in Texas today, shared his experience of pursuing an internship in the United States. Besides Pierre and Albina, Foucault de Franclieu and Maël Silbande also talked about their internship experiences in Switzerland and Japan respectively.
More than 60 participants took part in this workshop.
Besides, Albina presented Shasta to Arts et Metiers apprentice students the same day.
To know more about AFAM programs, please visit our website:
Robert Stelly during the workshop ( and the program of the International Week)
Pierre, Albina, Foulcaut and Maël talking to students during the conference
Maël presenting his Japanese experience
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As is customary every three years, we will be holding an election to our board.
Election key dates
- March 17-31: Applications are accepted
- April 16 - May 16: Ballots are collected via a survey monkey; an email with the link will be sent to all eligible voters
- June 05: Results are reviewed and will be officially validated during our June board meeting, to be held on June 5th 2023.
Who can vote
The AFAM board and officers election vote is open to all AFAM donors who donated at least once in the past 3 years. If you have any questions, please reach out to Albina Patou-Chebykina, AFAM community manager.
Current AFAM officers
- CEO - Xavier Wartelle
- CFO - Marc Amblard, with Jean Pommier in the interim
- Secretary - Yarith Phay
Current board directors (non executive)
Aurore Prevot
Eric Benhamou
JB Commans
Jean-Luc Nauleau
Louis Renaux
Thomas Ferré
Current ex-officio board directors
Arts et Metiers Relations Internationales - Audrey Stewart
SOCE West Coast Group - Nicolas Horde
If you have any questions, please contact
A word from our interim CFO Jean Pommier (An 83), AFAM longtime volunteer and friend:
"After having contributed to AFAM these past 10 years, both on the Board and as Chair of our Shasta program and committee, I look forward to serving as CFO, grateful for the outstanding work which Marc Amblard has done these past 5 years in this key role for our organization. In addition to all the hours our volunteers contribute to support our community, ensuring the proper management and allocation of funds is essential to the success of our AFAM mission. The CFO acts as the direct link between the generosity of our donors and the financial needs of the students and alumni we support through our Shasta, Sequoia and Yosemite programs and grants. To allow me to focus on such responsibilities, Nicolas Horde has accepted to take over the leadership of our Shasta initiative, with the support of our active members and mentors, Corentin Lazarus, Robert Stelly and Merwan Benhabib, and along the essential personalized assistance our Community Manager, Albina Patou-Chebykina, provides to each candidate.”
AFAM Board members Marc Amblard, Yarith Phay, Eric Benhamou, Xavier Wartelle and Jean Pommier along with AFAM community manager Albina Patou-Chebykina during March board meeting discussing AFAM elections
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AFAM CEO Xavier Wartelle (Li 82) seemed surprised but (obviously) very pleased when he was awarded in February with SOCE bronze medal.
Thierry Lucotte (Cl 177), la SOCE president, presented the medal to Xavier in Paris on February 10th.
Philippe LEFEVRE (Li 182), Pierre Tarissi (Ai 170) and Valérie Prulhiere (Li 87) congratulated Xavier on this achievement. Xavier has been AFAM CEO since summer 2020 and is successfully leading AFAM in its mission of helping gadz'arts community in the US.
All AFAM team and gadz community in the US joins la SOCE in congratulating Xavier Wartelle.
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Giving back to your community: Interview with Jérémy Berros (Li 206), web 3.0 enthusiast
AFAM: Hello, Jérémy and thank you for your time and for agreeing to talk to us. We invited you to participate in our “Giving back to your community” interview series to talk about your passion and how gadz’arts like you can share things with other members of our community. Last time we talked to you, you were a part of Pellenc Group as Battery Tools Director.
What has changed in your professional life since our last conversation?
Jérémy: Hi Albina. Thank you for having me on this interview series. Many things changed since we last talked. After 5 years creating and developing a new business for my company in California and along the West Coast, I recently relocated to Florida and opened a new branch to start developing the East Coast. Quite a challenge and very exciting at the same time.
AFAM: today you live and work in Florida, did you meet gadz’arts community there?
Jérémy: I have contacted a few gadz in Florida and on the East Coast mostly via LinkedIn and WhatsApp however I didn't get a chance to meet with them yet. I just arrived in Florida a few months ago, so meeting with new gadz online is the first step before getting a critical size to start meeting face to face.
AFAM: you are a part of WEB3.0/blockchain gadz’arts group, please tell me a few words about this group. What are you doing?
Jérémy: "Gadz in Blockchain" is a WhatsApp group of about 23 gadz involved one way or the other in web3 whether it's gadz building applications for industrials, domain names collectors, NFT enthusiasts aso. We are sharing our experience, knowledge and projects we are working on to get feedbacks. This is a new industry with a few tools and a lot to build so sharing in communities like web3 is a great way to learn about web3.
AFAM: as a web 3.0 enthusiast and as a professional “Finding Applications for Innovative technologies” (reading in your linkedin profile), what kind of applications do you see in Web 3.0? Do any of those applications can be helpful for our gadz community in the US?
Jérémy: To start with let's take a step back and give a quick definition of what we are talking about here.
Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a network.
Web3 is the next generation internet built on the blockchain technology.
Cryptocurrencies are fungible digital tokens that provide an economic incentive model for validating transactions that occur on a given blockchain.
Crypto Wallets are applications that provide users with a digital solution for securely storing and managing assets and cryptocurrencies on the blockchain. The obvious bridge between blockchain and traditional industries is applications in Finance. However many other Industries are taking advantage of this new technology from Healthcare to Supply-Chain.
AFAM: some American well-known entrepreneurs, such as Jack Dorsey or Elon Mask argued that Web 3.0. is just a buzzword, a marketing term. What would you say to them?
Jérémy: Well I don't know about that. What I know though is that Jack Dorsey left Twitter to build a Web3 decentralized social media network protocol named Notr.
Regarding Elon Musk, his full tweet from 2021 was "I’m not suggesting web3 is real – it seems more a marketing buzzword than reality right now – just wondering what the future will be like in 10, 20 or 30 years. 2051 sounds crazy futuristic!" which was true back in 2021 and still is work in progress as of today even if there are already web3 applications used in many industries like finance, healthcare, IT. logistics... Elon himself is promoting $DOGE and even accepted at some point cryptocurrency for purchasing Tesla EV cars.
Generally speaking when people don't understand a new technology, they either discard it (think internet in late 90s) or dig deeper to understand what the underlying technology is. That was the case for Web1, Web2 and it is no different with Web3 in that sense.
Another great thing with Web3 is the community. Which feels familiar for a gadz as for the most part web3 community is very welcoming and willing to share experience, knowledge and help you navigate in this new technology.
AFAM: Jérémy, what are the web 3.0 startups you are following and according to you that are revolutionizing the Web right now?
Jérémy: In a nutshell, Web 1.0 is the "read-only Web," Web 2.0 is the "participative social Web," and Web 3.0 is the "read, write, execute Web." Web3 being by definition the latest version of the Web so every company involved is here to revolutionize the space one way or the other with disruptive innovations.
AFAM: do you think finding ways to help the community, being sensible to community issues is something which is learned and taught at Arts et Metiers school? Do you or did you in the past help any non profit organization or projects in the United States or in France?
Jérémy: Over the last 7 years now in the US I've had an average of 5 students / year contacting me directly on various requests related to visas, universities, and job advice. I also helped in various organizations as a gadz including the 4L Trophy to provide supplies to associations like Enfants du desert in Morroco and Red Cross in France. Generally speaking, helping, sharing and supporting others is part of the Gadz DNA and there are a lot of similarities with the Web3 community.
AFAM: thank you, Jérémy
Jérémy: Thank you Albina
More about TOKEN and NFTs 100% gadz
NFT online event will be happening March 8th ( please follow the link if you are interested in participating)
token GadzArt https://app.manifold.xyz/c/gadzchain
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