Praised as invaluable partner to Chicago Public Schools

“The opportunity to learn about the French speaking world directly from people who actually come from France, and even from Senegal, is an experience I never imagined could happen right here in Chicago”
This is how one student participating in the Alliance’s “Award Towards Excellence Program” reacted to a Francophonie Festival activity in which a Senegalese professor talked with the students about “francophonie” in Africa and throughout the world. Then the students were given an after-hours tour of the Field Museum’s permanent exhibit on Senegal and Africa, the dramatic finale which replicates a slave ship leaving Dakar for America. Our students received a vivid experience of cultural links between Africa and America with the intermediary of French language; an excellent example of what this program is all about.
For the past eight years, the “Award Towards Excellence Program”, which is overseen by the Alliance Educational Outreach Committee, has brought students from Chicago public high schools to the Alliance twice a week for two hours of total immersion in French. Starting with selected students from four schools, the program has expanded to six with this year’s addition of King College Prep High School. Not only do the students have the opportunity to expand their knowledge of French language and culture outside their classrooms, they also get to know other students from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods using French as the common medium.

Two energetic French teachers from the Alliance concentrate on improving the students’ oral skills. They use role-playing, movies, music, guest speakers, field trips and the popular “goûter” of French snacks to expand the experiences of the students. Who would have expected a group of Chicago teenagers to be so enthusiastic about a huge tray of eight different French cheeses that a volunteer brought?!
The program has received the attention of Arne Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, who says of it: “This program enriches what the students learn at school by offering a ‘beyond the classroom’ learning experience, increasing their mastery of French and positively impacting their overall academic achievement.”

As in past years, selected students who have demonstrated outstanding progress in the program will be awarded a two week, all expense paid scholarship trip to France with one of the Alliance teachers. Described by one participant as “one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I have ever had”, the scholarships are entirely funded by donors and the fundraising efforts of the Woman’s Board of the Alliance. The benefits of these scholarship trips are multiplied when these students realize they must represent America while in France, and come back to their schools in the fall to share their experiences of France and French people with their classmates.

“Our students play a vital role as ambassadors from France to their home school classmates as well as ambassadors from the United States and Chicago to France,” says Francine Saltoun, Chair of the Educational Outreach Committee.

The benefits of this program — indeed, the benefits to all Alliance students from the study of French language — was summed up at last year’s awards ceremony by Armando Almendarez, CPS Deputy Chief Education Officer: “When students learn another language, it is more than conjugations and tenses that they study. It is learning a culture. Embrace this opportunity. Let it be the beginning of many journeys and awakening to many cultures. Seize it, run with it, and embrace it.” That is certainly what the young woman quoted at the beginning of this article is doing — but there is a message in it for us all.