The College of LAS has awarded a $6,000 Inclusive Excellence funding to Prof. Mroz for her innovative public engagement project titled French Around The Corner.
"The Office of Inclusive Excellence is delighted to partner with the Dean Augoustakis [Associate Dean for Humanities and Interdisciplinary Programs] and support this (...) exciting project (...). Thank you for your leadership in this important public engagement effort." -- Alejandro Lleras (Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence).
French Around the Corner is a wide-reaching, community-engaged initiative designed to address questions of equity and access in language learning through community-based language learning (CBLL). The initiative responds to the exponential growth of the French-speaking population in Champaign-Urbana over the last decade, which includes heritage speakers, recent immigrant and refugee families, and a broader Francophile/Francophone public. While this multilingual vitality is undeniable, institutional pathways for French learning and literacy remain fragile: local dual-immersion programs end at the elementary level, the public library system carries limited French language resources, and the university French program has faced enrollment issues. French Around the Corner intervenes at these multiple pressure points by operating as a rhizomatic network of mutually beneficial outreach projects that revitalize, maintain, and develop French across community sites while strengthening university outcomes. Anchored in a CBLL course offering at the University of Illinois, the project links university students with community partners in sustained, reciprocal collaborations. These collaborations materialize through initiatives such as the Cercle Francophone (literacy and cultural activities at the public library for children ages 3-11, extending support for both heritage and second-language learners), the Francophone Film Festival (screenings for children and adults that valorize French as a global cultural language, with a focus on non-Eurocentric cinema), the Bourse Publique du Livre Francophone (expanding French-language children’s and young adult holdings at the public libraries). Beyond these flagship programs, French Around the Corner branches into schools and community organizations in multiple ways: supporting classrooms through teaching assistantships, tutoring francophone students, assisting school counselors with French-speaking families, translating for community events to ensure accessibility, and supporting refugees. Together, these initiatives create multiple points of access to maintain and grow French in the community, while simultaneously offering students meaningful experiential opportunities to apply their skills in justice-oriented contexts. The overall goal is to foster language justice, security, and pride, while building a continuum of French-language education across community and university settings. In turn, the community benefits from expanded cultural programming and literacy support, and the university program gains renewed relevance, visibility, and recruitment potential.
This project directly advances the LAS DEI strategic plan by fostering equitable access to language learning for historically underserved groups, including heritage speakers, immigrant and refugee families, and francophone students in local schools. By embedding university students in reciprocal collaborations with community partners, French Around the Corner creates inclusive spaces that value multilingualism as an asset rather than a barrier. Initiatives such as the Cercle Francophone, the Francophone Film Festival, and the Bourse Publique du Livre Francophone expand representation of non-Eurocentric voices and cultural practices while providing resources that have been scarce in Champaign-Urbana. In turn, these efforts cultivate language justice, cultural pride, and visibility for diverse francophone communities while strengthening student learning outcomes in justice-oriented, globally relevant contexts. Together, these outcomes embody the college’s DEI priorities of civic engagement, globalization, and immigrant inclusion.