Students from the Foothills School Division are taking full advantage of a unique trade deal with France.
Nicole Zacaruk, a Grade 12 student at Foothills Composite High School, was one of 17 students from the division who took off for France on Saturday as part of a partnership with Académie de Nancy-Metz.
“I have always wanted to travel to France and Europe to see the culture and I was super excited when I got this opportunity,” Zacaruk said. “I want to improve my French and see the world.”
The Foothills School Division signed an education agreement with Academy of Nancy-Metz in France last spring to share education expertise as well as participating in teacher and/or student exchanges.
The students won’t have to resort to talking loud and using hand gestures to communicate, they have been part of French Immersion since kindergarten. As well, through the partnership, they hosted French students earlier this school year, which will be reciprocated when the Foothills students land in France.
“We got along pretty well, her English was very good,” said Ireland McAnally. “We have continued to communicate, she’s (Juliette) been telling me what we are going to do and she complained about her classes – all the normal stuff.”
McAnally said she will take German, Spanish and world studies classes while in France.
Meanwhile, Zacaruk will be engrossed in plenty of math and science classes. Although those subjects are her forte, she hasn’t had to take them in French since being at Okotoks Junior High School.
That doesn’t worry her, at least when it comes to math.
“I think a lot of the language and stuff for math are pretty straight forward, pretty transferable,” she said. “It’s more the bio, chemistry, physics that I am more worried about because they have more specific vocabulary.”
Although their French counterparts all stayed in the Foothills during their visit in the fall, the Okotoks-area students will visit different parts of the Nancy-Metz area, which is near the German border.
McAnally said her billets have planned trips to Amsterdam and Milano as well as seeing France. As part of her exchange, she took Juliette to Edmonton. To Canadians, Amsterdam for Edmonton might seem like a raw deal, but it turns out Juliette loved Alberta.
“She was like ‘it took four hours to get there’ – Alberta is bigger than France,” McAnally said. “She found it amazing on one trip that we were in the prairies and suddenly we were in the mountains.”
The benefits of the trip could pay off immediately, according to student Lindsay Aitken.
“We have an exam for French Language when we get back and I feel like this will help us,”
Zacaruk said the trip is just another bonus to a decision she and her family made 12 years ago when she opted for French Immersion as a kindergartner.
“I was quite pleased when my mom decided to put me in this,” Zacaruk said. “We’ve (Aitken, McAnally) been in the same class since kindergarten so we have become really close. I think it is awesome learning a new language.”
Foothills Comp French Immersion teacher Christie Jensen and Highwood’s Shelley Zorn are also heading to France in a few weeks as part of the exchange with Nancy-Metz.
There were 15 students from Foothills Composite and two from Highwood heading to France from the division.
