For more than half a century, the Alliance Française de Chicago’s McCormick Award For Excellence Scholarship has stood as one of the Alliance’s most profound commitments to education, cultural exchange, and global citizenship.
Each year, two exceptional young scholars are selected through a rigorous nationwide process rooted in Le Grand Concours (the National French Contest). As recipients of the AF de Chicago McCormick Scholarship, they embark on a fully funded, month-long immersion in Paris. An experience that transforms their academic journeys and deepens their understanding of the world and their place within it.
Created in memory of Roger McCormick, a devoted Francophile and former President of the Alliance Française de Chicago, the scholarship reflects a founding belief that excellence in language learning should open doors to the world, to understanding, and to possibility.
The AF McCormick Scholarship goes far beyond a traditional study-abroad program. it is is a fully funded, cultural immersion designed to foster confidence, curiosity, and advanced language acquisition. It invites students to step into daily life in Paris, form new connections, and experience French as a living language.
Each laureate receives:
Fully funded and deeply immersive, the experience encourages students to become more confident, curious, and independent. For many, it marks a powerful shift: French is no longer simply a subject they study, but a language, and a world, they can call their own.
Each year’s McCormick Laureates join a growing lineage of alumni shaped by this experience.
In 2025, a public celebration at the Alliance recognized the more than 100 laureates drawn from Chicago area schools.
Across generations, AF McCormick Scholars return with sharpened language skills and with something harder to measure: a lasting connection to French culture and to the Alliance itself. Many continue as students, active community members, participants in professional groups, and contributors to Alliance committees and leadership.
For many scholars, the AF McCormick experience becomes not a single chapter but a lifelong relationship with language, culture, and community.
Every day, I learned something new in my classroom and in the streets of Paris. I learned about the history of Paris and France, and I developed a new appreciation for art. I have much more confidence in myself, and that is the best thing I could have hoped for. Thank you again for this incredible opportunity. It was the best month of my life.
It’s important to learn a new language because until you do, you don’t realize how much of the world is closed off to you.
It was just incredible. I learned so much about the language, the culture, and myself. I feel more independent and much more confident in myself when speaking French. I now have friends from other countries, with whom I continue to learn even more.
The AF McCormick Scholarship embodies the Alliance’s core purpose: to champion French language and culture while cultivating future cultural ambassadors.
Scholars carry their experiences back into classrooms, institutions, and communities, strengthening Chicago’s role as an internationally engaged city.
In an era that demands understanding across differences, the scholarship invests in individuals prepared to listen, speak, and move between cultures with care.
The McCormick Scholarship endures through the dedication of the Alliance Française de Chicago and the leadership of those who have safeguarded its mission over time, including the many donors who, from the beginning, believed in the power of language to shape lives.
The scholarship is stewarded by the Alliance’s community of leaders, educators, alumni, and supporters including
As the Alliance Française de Chicago looks ahead, the AF McCormick Scholarship stands as a reminder that legacy is not static. It is renewed each time a student is entrusted with this experience, and each time a donor chooses to sustain it.
Supporting the AF McCormick Scholarship means investing in excellence, access, and the future of global understanding.
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