There is a version of Eloïse Vernier‘s story that begins with fashion moodboards and dreams of becoming a stylist. There is another version that starts on a plane to London, an 18-year-old leaving home for the first time. And then there is the version she is living right now: a freshly graduated alumna of ESCP’s Bachelor in Management (BSc) who flew 13 hours from Singapore to attend her own graduation ceremony, because she had decided that some experiences are simply not negotiable.
All three versions are true. And together, they tell a story about what happens when you choose curiosity over comfort, and keep choosing it, year after year.
Fashion, Management, and the Art of Keeping Options Open
Eloïse grew up in Paris with a clear instinct for aesthetics and a dream that felt just as clear: fashion.
Styling, modelling, the creative world of image and identity. But somewhere in her final years of high school, a quieter question began to surface. « I kind of realised that maybe it wasn’t for me, » she says. « So I thought I should look for something where I could still support the fashion creative division, but in a different way. »
That reorientation led her towards management. Not because she had found a definitive answer, but precisely because she hadn’t. The BSc in Management at ESCP appealed to her for a specific reason: it was a space to explore. « I wasn’t sure which division in business I wanted to work in, and I thought it was the opportunity to just discover many subjects and different paths, and then see which one would be the one for me. »
It is the kind of reasoning that is easy to underestimate, and important not to. Choosing a programme because you are genuinely uncertain requires a certain intellectual honesty. It also, as it turned out, required courage.
London: The Unknown That Felt Just Right
When Eloïse was deciding where to apply, she had options that many students would envy. She was accepted to ESSEC’s BBA programme in Singapore. She had offers from other prestigious institutions. But at 18, Singapore felt too far, too sudden, too much all at once. « I was too scared at that time to go that far by myself, » she admits. « So I thought ESCP was perfect for me. It’s close to home, but still a gateway to the unknown I was looking for. »
As her first stop in the journey, she chose the London Campus. And London delivered everything a first campus should: the disorientation of navigating a new city, the particular exhaustion of thinking and studying in a second language for the first time, and the unexpected warmth of building a community from scratch.
The language adjustment was real. « I’ve only been in French schools before. So even though I speak English and I’ve taken English courses, it’s still a big difference. At the beginning, it was particularly hard remembering information, because I could understand everything, but that was already so much work. I couldn’t remember everything I was being told. » It was tiring. It was also formative.
Turin: The City That Surprised Her
Moving from one of the world’s most iconic cities to Turin felt, on paper, like a step down. Eloïse was nervous. « I had never been to Turin before. I was kind of nervous because, of course, London is a big city with so many things to do. Which is why I was so scared that moving to Turin, I was going to be bored. »
What she found instead was something she had not quite expected: closeness. « Turin got us closer to people than London. In Turin, it’s really more about friends and the people we hang out with, which was really nice. » The city, quieter and more intimate than London, had a way of drawing people together. It was, in her words, a good surprise.
During her time in Turin, she also gained valuable hands-on professional experience through the Collective Project, an initiative that paired student groups with local SMEs. Partnered with laBalocchina, she spent a full semester diving into market analysis and developing entry strategies for new markets. It was a tangible step from classroom to boardroom, and it felt like the beginning of a career she could actually see herself in.
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The Paris Year: Weight, Work, and a Thesis on the Future
The third year brought her back to Paris, but not the carefree version of the city she had grown up in. It was the apprenticeship year, demanding on every front: a thesis to write, a work placement to balance, specialisation courses pulling in different directions. « It was a very heavy year, » she says frankly. « I got less time to hang out with the people I was studying with. Everyone’s a bit tired. So there was less hanging out, and it felt like a heavier year in general. »
But within that heaviness, there was a choice that would define much of what followed. For her thesis, Eloïse decided to write about artificial intelligence in marketing. « AI is the hot topic of the moment, » she explains. « With a thesis, you usually want to go with something new, or something that hasn’t been said or explored before. And marketing, because that was what I was interested in. I thought it was interesting for me as a future marketer to know more about how they are currently using AI in their day-to-day. »
She conducted ten expert interviews. What she found painted a picture that was less about revolution and more about careful, uncertain adoption. Companies were cautious, protective of their data, unsure of the boundaries. Training was almost nonexistent. « People are all learning by themselves, trying things. And some people are scared of it, maybe that it’s going to take their job or reduce their creativity. » Yet the competitive pressure was already palpable, particularly in the agency world, where AI-powered competitors were moving faster and charging less.
It was research that felt timely. It still does.
The Weight of a Reputation
There is a moment in Eloïse’s story that says something quietly significant about the value of the ESCP Bachelor. When she applied for her master’s programme at ESSEC, there was no interview. The decision was made entirely on the strength of her CV. « I realised that the ESCP name is actually really, really strong for the master’s, » she says. The website had noted that an interview would be required if the admissions team needed further clarification. They did not.
This was not luck. It was the cumulative weight of three years of international study, multilingual work environments, internships across London, Turin and Paris, and a thesis that demonstrated genuine intellectual engagement with a fast-moving field. The ESCP Bachelor in Management (BSc) had built a profile that needed no further explanation.
Singapore, Revisited
And so the city that once felt impossibly far is now home. Eloïse is currently in Singapore, studying for a Master in Marketing Management and Digital (MMD) at ESSEC Business School, and managing communications for the ESSEC Merch Club, where she oversees Instagram and TikTok content for a student community she is actively helping to build.
“Singapore is so far away, but I think the Bachelor gave me the experience I needed to face this challenge. I know how to live by myself in a foreign country.”
The 18-year-old who chose London over Singapore because Singapore felt too frightening is now the same person who books a 13-hour flight back to Europe for her graduation. Not because it was convenient, but because she had decided it mattered. « If I don’t go, I’m just going to regret that. Graduating is a once in a lifetime as well. I want to do it. I want to experience it. »
What She Would Tell the Undecided
Eloïse is not yet sure whether luxury or FMCG will be her long-term home. She knows she values creative freedom. Also, that rigid guidelines and fixed aesthetics are not where she does her best thinking. She is still exploring, still choosing, still following what she calls the logic of what feels right. « A lot of people say it’s about passion. You have to like what you do. So I think for now I’m more focused on that. »
There is something worth sitting with in that answer. Eloïse did not arrive at ESCP with a plan. She arrived curious, slightly uncertain, and willing to find out. Three years and three cities later, she has an internationally recognised degree, a master’s place she earned with her strong CV, professional experience across four industries, and the lived knowledge that comfort zones are only worth keeping until they stop serving you.
« The Bachelor gave me the confidence to say: I’ve done this before. » And in the end, that quiet confidence may be the most transferable skill of all.
Ready to explore where your own path might lead? Find out more about the Bachelor in Management (BSc) at ESCP Business School.
