Prior to the pandemic, the French program had organized more than one visit of our French classrooms from local high schools in he area. However, our first visit, post-pandemic, with 26 high schoolers from Mount Zion, IL on Wednesday, October 11 was special in many ways. First of all, the sheer number of participants who wished to visit beginner and advanced French classes was impressive and presented a bit of a logistical challenge given our small language classrooms. Second, the students also had their own ideas of what else they wanted to see on campus, which made it difficult to fit many events into a short visit. But we did it!
With help from our office manager, Mrs. Anne Olmstead, Professor Jude Kurshnowski (FLTE), and Professors Amy Clay and Dan Maroun from FRIT (on the picture with a small group of students), we put together an interesting program that started with orientation and donuts (!) in the morning in Lucy Ellis Lounge and continued with 101, 102, and 103 class visits, a short campus tour, box lunches, and free time for the students afterwards. Students who didn't fit into our classrooms in the morning, could tour campus in the morning and sat in class in the afternoon. Based on reliable sources, the Paris Super Crepe restaurant on 601 S 6th St Ste 106, near Green Street in Champaign, was a particularly popular destination!
Thanks to the Head teacher, Mr. Evens Sanon, and two chaperones from the school, nobody had gone missing and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the visit. We hope to see some students back on campus in our BA in French and French Language Teaching programs in the near future!