On March 9, the St. Dominic community sent off eight French students and French teacher Mr. Kevan Morshed along with his wife to France for a two week stay. There, the group will better learn the language and immerse themselves in the unique culture.

The trip is boasting quite the busy schedule. SDHS students will begin in Paris and soak up the best of the city at the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Art Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral and dinner at French restaurants. The first few days will be more on the tourist side. After that, the group will stay in a town called Le Mans, and it is here where they will attend classes and live with host families to experience day-to-day life of French citizens. Some other activities they will do include visiting Normandy and the D-Day beaches, visiting some famous castles and taking trips to traditional bakeries and chocolate factories. This trip will lay down the foundation for a foreign exchange student program in the future.

“The hope is to create an exchange, because it is a language based trip. So the hope is to go there and the French come here, because I think it’s valuable to all of our students to interact with people from other countries, and for their students to practice English,” said Mr. Morshed.

Mr. Morshed has a few things he is looking forward to during this trip, and a reason for bringing this amazing opportunity to St. Dominic in the first place.

“I am looking forward to seeing these guys’ faces, eyes and expressions when they first get off the plane in a new country. Some of them have never even been on a plane, and most have never been aboard, so I am just kind of curious to see. I guess I want to experience what I experienced the first time when I travelled abroad. My teaching is almost useless if my students don’t actually use the language, so I need the trip to make what I do effective and of use, really,” said Mr. Morshed.

One of the students going has previously travelled to France, but not on a trip like this. Senior Clayton Arnold has visited France twice for pure tourism. However, this trip will be a new experience for sure, with the focus being more on the people and the language. Arnold does however, have one fear about the trip.

“I definitely don’t know as much French as I could, I am not fluent yet. One thing I am little bit afraid of is saying something in French and having it mean something completely wrong, but thinking it’s right. We would have a total disconnect, in what I’m thinking and what they’re understanding, but it’s not that big of a deal, because most French people understand and speak English as children, so when you can both speak both languages, you can figure it out,” said Arnold.

The French trip for our school is a big step in the right direction, opening doors to the rest of the world. Hopefully this time next year, we will be talking about the French students taking classes here. Safe travels to our St. Dominic students and teacher on this incredible trip!