French Exchange Comes to An End

The French Exchange has been a tradition at SHS for over twenty years. Every other year, 40 students from our sister city, Sucy-en-Brie, a town just outside Paris, are matched up with 40 students from Scituate and Cohasset high schools. At Scituate, the exchange is only open for juniors and seniors, but in Cohasset, the exchange is open for sophomores, juniors, and seniors. In the fall, the French students come to stay at their American correspondent’s home for two weeks. It’s the chance for these students to live the “American dream” while practicing their English and hitting all the hot tourist attractions on the South Shore and New York City. The following winter, 40 Americans from both schools get a chance to experience a true French teenage lifestyle.

Having a homestay family has been the best way for students to immerse in the culture and “bring to life” the monuments they have been studying for so long. Friendships from this exchange can last a lifetime. This past summer, a group of students from the 2014-2015 exchange came back to America and stayed at their correspondents’ homes, arranging it completely on their own.

In the future, the format of the French Exchange will be changing for multiple reasons. On January 7, 2015, the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French magazine, were the target of a terrorist attack. This brutality occurred only 31 days before the  students and teachers from Scituate and Cohasset were supposed to travel to France. With the trip only a month away, teachers were forced to change the itinerary that had been set in stone for so many years. A national security rule limited school groups and their travel around Paris.

Following multiple attacks in Paris on November 13th, next year’s French exchange has been cancelled. News broke to the SHS school system the following week that the teachers in France decided not to participate in the exchange for the 2016-2017 academic year. Despite the ongoing threat of international terrorism, Scituate High School hoped to continue the exchange program.

Since the current SHS juniors will be missing out on the exchange, French teacher Mr. Kovach and Patricia Jacquart, former Dept. Chair of Foreign Languages, have been working hard to plan a “one-direction” trip to replace the exchange next year. There may be a trip in the spring of 2017 without a “home-stay.” Students could visit France or another French-speaking area, such as Martinique or Quebec City in Canada. Jacquart also runs a program that facilitates a summer exchange for French and American students. Normally, there are not enough Americans to participate in the summer exchange; however, with the cancellation of the school exchange, some American students may want to participate in a summer exchange.