There has been word spreading around about a possible French foreign exchange program. French teacher Lisa Finnegan is currently exploring the idea of starting an exchange between a school in the U.S. and a high school in France. 

Most schools are looking for fifteen to twenty students for this exchange. Mrs. Finnegan is currently finding people who are interested in hosting a French exchange student, ages fifteen to seventeen, at their home for a week. The French exchange student would go to school with their host family student for that week. During the week, there would be a series of group outings and activities. 

As part of the exchange program, the students who take French have an opportunity to travel to France and stay with French families. Anyone can participate in any aspect of the exchange program. This means that students could host but not travel, or if they cannot host, students could still travel to France.

Back in 2017 and 2019, Morgan held a French exchange where french students came to Morgan, but morgan students haven’t had the opportunity to go over to France. Mrs. Finnegan ran a very successful exchange for seven years while she taught in Westbrook.

Two students in Mrs. Finnegan’s French III Honors class shared their opinions about this possible exchange program. Sophomore, Lizbeth Ambuludi says, “I think it’s cool we have the opportunity to go to France, especially because we weren’t able to experience this for a couple of years.” Lizbeth explains how she is looking forward to this exchange and how it is a great opportunity.

Another sophomore, Ava Ruotolo says, “I really wanna host a student at my house. I think it’d be really fun, and I’m not

sure if I would go to France to do the exchange there, but it sounds like it would be really exciting.” Ava explains how she is very excited for this program, more so the hosting aspect overall. These two students express their excitement for this exchange and look forward to make this possible.

Going into an exchange, there is a lot of planning involved. Mrs. Finnegan is looking for students who are committed to participate in this exchange program. This program is still in the exploratory stage, but she would need to know how many people are able to participate or are interested in this exchange. This is a very exciting opportunity.

Because this is still in the works, there’s not that much information available. There is still a need for more host families to be able to host for the French students coming to The Morgan School.