During spring break, from March 7–19, eighteen Groton students traveled to Paris and Angers in France as part of a Global Education Opportunity (GEO)—the biggest group that had ever gone to the France GEO in Groton’s history.
After a few days exploring Paris, the GEO took a train to Angers, a small city in France, where Groton students stayed with host families from the Saint Benoit School for a week and fully immersed themselves into the French culture of their homes. Even prior to the trip, Groton students built close ties with their host families, exchanging letters with their assigned French students for several weeks leading up to the trip.
French teacher Rebecca Stanton, who accompanied the GEO, expressed her satisfaction with the success of the French GEO. “The students were amazing, they were so eager to learn and discover Paris,” she said. In Paris and Angers, the students were encouraged to converse in French with locals as often as possible. Madame Stanton explained that the GEO was the optimal way for Groton students to learn French by emerging from the classroom and immersing themselves in “a whole country and group of people out there who speak the language.”
“I tried my best to speak French as much as I could when I was around my friends in my host family,” Isabel Holcomb ’26 said. She acknowledged that speaking French to locals not only improved her speaking ability but also allowed her to truly experience French culture in a way that transcended seeing France in the classroom and in films.
On April 16, eighteen French students who had hosted Groton students during their French GEO arrived on Groton’s campus. While they had all been exposed to the English language and culture in various ways, some had been to the United States before and others hadn’t. The French students all entered as Fourth Formers at Groton.
Prior to the French students’ visit, Madame Stanton said, “I’m most excited for Groton students to see the correspondence, and for the student body to see real French students, and not just seeing them through movies, computers.” She wanted the exchange students to have first-hand experience with the Groton classroom setting and to build strong relationships with the current students and teachers.
For the most authentic Groton experience during their brief one week visit, they lived with their original “buddies” in their dorm rooms, some in Upper School and others in Lower School dorms. Lise, another French student, reflected on this experience with gratitude and said she was pleased with the way “my host was very welcoming and included me into her community.”
In respect to schoolwork, Madame Stanton accommodated the interests of these exchange students and placed them into classes they were most interested in. Through her experiences being immersed in Groton’s classrooms, exchange student Lily was most impressed by the closeness of the academic community: “I have never seen students and teachers so close before,” she said.
On April 17 and 18, the French students left Groton to continue their immersion into American culture and explore Boston. They attended a baseball game, went shopping on Newbury Street, and visited museums and historical landmarks in Boston. The students returned to Boston to participate in Groton’s Surprise Holiday on April 22. Lily highlighted that she would never forget this day.
While most French students departed Groton on April 23 for New York City, Gabriel will stay at Groton until the end of the spring term. The French students are grateful to have spent their spring holidays at Groton, and the Circle is sad to bid them a fond adieu.
