Fleur de bitume

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With around 150 active members per year, Fleur de Bitume is HEC’s largest humanitarian society. In collaboration with the nation-wide charity of the same name, the society provides tutoring for students in a range of levels of education and gives them the opportunity to discover new horizons, both academic and cultural.

The Mission:

• The main mission at Fleur de Bitume is to improve educational opportunities in France by providing tutors for pupils in schools, colleges and Preparatory Classes in disadvantaged areas. The tutors themselves are current HEC students who give up their spare time to aid young people, both academically and in opening up cultural horizons.

Key Events:

• The society divides itself into several sections in order to best suit the different levels of education. For example,

Primary school-Secondary school- Tutors have weekly sessions with pupils as well as organising trips such as to Paris and Versailles with the Arts Society.

College- Bi-weekly group workshops on campus and at the end of each year they have the chance to take part in a Public-Speaking Competition.

Preparatory Class- This program consists exclusively of tutoring. Tutors and pupils can meet both in-person and online.

Why Join this Society?:

• Many HEC students have been fortunate enough to receive help from their parents to get them where they are today. As a member of Fleur de Bitume, students have the opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of those in their surrounding regions and help them to have the same kind of opportunities as themselves. Seeing the outcome of the projects that the society carries out can be greatly rewarding.
• Members of Fleur de Bitume add to their voluntary work experience, which not only gives an educational insight into the lives of others, but also opens doors to various other areas of work.
• Tutoring pupils does not necessarily take up much of the members’ time. Tutors spend a couple of hours a week with a pupil and as this time can be flexible, it ensures that it does not affect their own academic timetable.

Members:

• With around 150 members each year, Fleur de Bitume is the largest active society on campus.
• All members are students at HEC Paris who give up their time to help others and make a positive impact on the lives of others.

Partnerships/Sponsors:

• HEC’s Fleur de Bitume society is a branch of the nation-wide French humanitarian association of the same name. Therefore, the main charity oversees any actions undertaken by the team at HEC and assigns them specific projects.
• The society also receives help and funding from HEC’s Egalite des Chances office, and from the Fonds Sociale Européen.

The Society’s History:

A group of three preparatory class students created Fleur de Bitume in the early 90s. With the ambition of creating a charitable society in their time at business school, they decided to integrate 3 different schools, HEC Paris, Paris-Dauphine and ESCP. Fleur de Bitume Daupine is structured around three main objectives: Assisting the homeless (‘Pain perdu’), academic support for young people, and tutoring French as a foreign language for non-francophone adults from a diverse range of backgrounds. The HEC branch has taken up the role of providing academic support and now prides itself as the largest body of active students among all the student societies on campus. The ESCP society on the other hand, provides academic support for children, materials and moral support for the homeless, and organises events and missions for students.