Students from Lyons Township High School in La Grange, Ill., were special guests of the Department of French and Italian on Oct. 30.

The busload of approximately 50 students was initially divided into groups to complete a scavenger hunt en français, under the supervision of Prof. Clay and Prof. Maroun. The scavenger hunt consisted of simple, but fun tasks using the campus environment, such as ‘interview a French-speaking person’, ‘take a photo with some art work’, ‘take a photo with your French instructor’ at UIUC, and so on.

From there, the students were divided into three groups and in one-hour shifts participated in the following activities:

• Tour of the UI library, guided by Paula Carns
• Attended a French course at the entry point of the major (intro to grammar, cultural analysis, or oral expression) with one of the department’s graduate teaching assistants;
• While attending lunch catered for the occasion by Bevier Café, viewed a presentation on the French major and minor by Prof. Mroz, listened to the testimony of several senior or graduate French majors (Ashton Carter, Christine Pallon, Emilee McArdle, Marshall Janevicius), and discovered the myriad of employment opportunities that are available, post-graduation.

Winners of the scavenger hunt received a copy of “M. Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran,” an award-winning novel by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, originally published in French, in 2001.