French

Coalition Language Representative

  Marine Havel, President of FLAM USA, has lived in the United States for 15 years and is well aware of the growing needs of local French and Francophone families to provide education in French for FLAM children (Francais LAngue Maternelle) who go to school in the U.S. system. Located in 55 U.S. cities, the FLAMs offer quality courses at an affordable price to more than 3,500 French-speaking students, from kindergarten to high school, with a team of 300 amazing teachers and assistants. They are experiencing success, since 100% of the students pass their exams: Bac de français, International Baccalaurate, and DELF B2 (Diplôme d'études en langue française, Diploma in French Language Studies). Sharing and mutual aid are at the heart of the FLAM USA mission, and Marine works tirelessly with all FLAM educational and administrative teams in the United States and around the world to develop this program and allow all children to keep their language and their francophone identity!
   

Fabrice Jaumont is the author of several books, including The Bilingual Revolution: The Future of Education is in Two Languages, which provides practical advice for parents and educators who want to create a dual-language program in their own school. A native of France, Fabrice Jaumont moved to the United States in 1997. After serving as an education liaison for the French Consulate in Boston and then as a director of the International School of Boston, he moved to New York in 2001. He is currently a Program Director for FACE Foundation and Education Attaché for the Embassy of France to the United States, where he co-founded the French Heritage Language Program with Jane Ross. He is also a Senior Fellow at Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris, and holds a Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from New York University. In recognition of his various involvements in education and culture, he was honored with several awards including the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie's Cultural Diversity Award; the French Ministry of Education's Academic Palms; and the U.S. Committee of French Societies' Medal of Honor. His work has received the accolades of various news media. For more information, please visit http://www.fabricejaumont.net

Jane Ross, Ph.D., is an educator with over 40 years' experience in the field of international education, including a long career at the Lycée Français de New York. She is the Founder and President of the French Heritage Language Program, an organization that provides French language instruction and support to Francophone immigrants in the United States. She received her BA from Swarthmore College in 1973, majoring in history and French, her MA from Hunter College in 1980 in English, and her PhD from New York University's Steinhardt School. Her doctoral research focuses on the history of French schools abroad in the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly in the United States. She is the co-author of a number of scholarly papers and book chapters concerning the development of French Heritage Language programs, bilingual and dual language initiatives.

 Language representative photo

Agnès Tounkara, who was born and raised in Senegal, studied Economics in France and moved to the U.S. for family reasons in 2000. Ever since, her career path has been driven by her passion for French and Francophone cultures. At the Alliance Française of Boston, she led the Education Department and helped launch one of the first Heritage Language Programs in Boston serving a large Haitian community in several elementary schools in the Boston area. She then moved to New York and joined the French American School of New York, where she oversaw the extracurricular activities, promoting the French language through many programs to parents but also to the Westchester community at large. As a francophone parent raising children in the U.S., Agnès is extremely excited about her new role as coordinator of the French Heritage Language Program (FHLP) and looks forward to strengthening and growing a program which is very close to her heart. For the past 14 years, the French Heritage Language Program has been helping francophone immigrants and young Americans with francophone background to maintain their linguistic and cultural heritage. Today, the program is present in 4 of New York City’s 5 boroughs, and offers workshops in 10 schools within the Internationals Network for Public Schools, in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. More than 200 NYC students now partake in the FHLP activities every year. Moreover, the program’s success in New York has led to expanding classes in other states including Boston, Maine, Miami, and Philadelphia.

    
 


 

Published: Tuesday, October 8, 2019