Members from the French classes departed for their ten-day trip to Europe on March 16.

The class takes a French-related trip every other year. The group of 22 traveled to Belgium, France, Monaco, and Switzerland along with chaperones Kacey Scholtz, Michelle Bunyard, and Kelley Mignerone. 

The trip gave students the opportunity to improve their French education. Junior Mackenzie McClanahan feels not just her speaking improved but also her French listening. 

“Listening to the language helped; I was able to pick up more and learn more lingo that they use instead of just sticking to the basics and what we learn in class,” McClanahan said. 

Junior Willow Powell feels being around French-speaking people helped her learn the language more. 

 “I think it helped me a lot to always be around French-speaking people and hear how fast and differently they speak than what we’re used to,” Powell said. 

Outside of learning French, Sophomore Josie Ventimiglia feels students also learned about other cultures. 

“It taught me how other people live outside of America and helped me practice conversation-making in French” Ventimiglia said.

Being surrounded by different cultures helped students gain exposure to the French language, Junior Lana Hamed feels.

“It helped me learn to pay more attention to my surroundings because every country has its own culture and way of living. Especially since my French was limited going into it, I had to learn how to communicate with people in new ways and definitely came home knowing more French than before,” Hamed said.

McClanahan said the trip inspired her to study abroad in the future. 

“It made me realize that I want to travel abroad later in life and study French,” McClanahan 

said. 

Sophomore Mia Sutton said the experience helped her gain more independence.

“[The trip] definitely taught me how to be more independent. I think I had more responsibilities over this trip than usual,” Sutton said.

McClanahan, who had gone on the French trip her freshman year, said that this French trip was very different from the other one she went on. 

“This one we got to go to different countries where last time we stayed all in France. We went up north in France last time but this trip we went to southern France and we got to experience the warmer weather,” McClanahan said. 

McClanahan said both trips were great but she liked this one better because she was with her friends. 

“[I liked] this one better because I had my actual friends on it that I could talk to,” McClanahan said.