By Ashley Cohen
Staff Writer
Senior Sarah Kennedy said “au revior” to America and “bonjour” to France this summer while participating in the Tufts University Summit program in Talloires, a small village in southeast France.
Applicants had to write three essays and turn in a transcript and two letters of recommendation from teachers, one of which had to be written by a French teacher. Around 30 high school students around the world who have studied at least two years of French were selected.
“I got to meet students my age from different countries all over the world, like Spain, Germany and the United States,” Kennedy said. “I’m still in touch with many of them, and I made lifelong friendships.”
Kennedy stayed for 27 days in Talloires with a host family of a mother, who spoke no English, and two daughters. One of the daughters, a year older than Kennedy, had studied for a year in Kansas and was fluent in English. She helped Kennedy adapt to the culture.
“Studying abroad and living with French families are the kinds of things that allow us to make connections with people we would have never met otherwise,” Advanced Placement French teacher Lauri Gonalons said.
Kennedy took college-level courses in international relations and French language in a renovated 13th century monastery that had been turned into a satellite school. After class, she ate lunch with local French students, hiked in the Alps, went to the lakeside beach, and performed skits with her classmates.
“I wanted to experience the culture because when you visit France with other Americans, it’s hard to understand what it’s really like to live there,” Kennedy said. “I had the opportunity to live there, go to school, and do things that any normal French teenager would.”
On the weekends, the program would travel to various towns along Lake Annecy, which, according to Kennedy, allowed her to be immersed in the French culture.
“I got there and was forced to speak French with the local people 24/7. I was thrown into all of these strange situations I wasn’t used to,” Kennedy said. “It was a hard but cool experience for me that allowed me to get out of my comfort zone.”
Kennedy has taken French for five years and went on the Costa France trip last April. She hopes to study abroad in France during college.
“I’m really proud of Sarah because she has taken all of the skills that she has learned in my class and used them in the real world,” Gonalons said. “I’m glad that she has been able to realize her love of the French language and culture, and it just further confirms my purpose as a teacher.”
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