High Marks for French Students

Breck French students participated in the A Vous la Parole French competition at the University of Minnesota on April 21. This year marked the highest level of participation among Breck students at the event, which welcomed about 800 contestants from around the metro area. Breck students competed in several categories, including theatre, poetry recitation, and extemporaneous speaking. Judges were university professors and other distinguished members of the  Twin Cities French-speaking community.

The following Breck students took home blue medals, the highest prize awarded at the competition:

Elizabeth Zehren (8th), Andi Farley Shimota (9th), Tori Goldstein (9th), Halle Gustafson (9th), Sarah Mevissen (9th), Hayley Rosenfield (9th), Heather Balenger (10th), Madeline Hogg (11th), and Daphne Tu (12th) won for their original adaptation of  a scene from Romeo and Juliette.

Gaia Ramsdell (9th), Kristina Tester (11th), Annalisa Tester (11th), Clementine Sarteau (11th) and Madeleine Wolf (11th) all won for solo recitations of classic French prose or poetry.

Jorge Flautero (12th) and Mary Goetz (12th) won for acting out a situation which was assigned by the judges at the competition.

Red ribbons went to the following.

French 1:- Three students wrote and performed a comedy scene called, “Les Belles-soeurs”: Isabella Berlin, Jenna Hegedus, and Emma Quirk-Durban. Seven students wrote and performed a superhero’s adaptation of The Incredibles called “Les Incroyables”: Wes Bond, Alex Brown, Willie Christiansen, Saeed Hakim-Hashemi, Jake Hoehne, Justin Lee, and Dylan Schwartz. And Achinth Murali performed a solo recitation of a Victor Hugo poem.

French 2: Ben Reul performed a solo recitation of a classic French poem. Five students sang the beautiful, “Partir Là-bas”: Adriana Goldenberg, Jayda Koland, Hannah Schaefer, Camilla Sweeney, and Eva Wallack.

French 3: Isaac Skelton transcribed and directed a French scene from Finding Nemo with five actors: Curtis MacKenzie, Sam Maddaus, Felix Mettke, David Parrin, and Ben Wilkinson. And nine students sang and danced (with their original choreography) the French song, “Dans ma fusée”: Paige Burgeson, Alexandra Gougeon, Cara Kowalchyk, Carissa Martin, Milica McMillen, Jasmine Riley, Mikala Skelton, Rebessa Soutern, and Nailah Taman.

In other French Department news, Alexandra Gougeon placed nationally in this year’s National French Exam, le Grand concours.  She came in 8th nationally and 4th in the state.  Several other Breck students were recognized at the state level for their high scores in their respective class levels.

• 8th grader Sarah Koop, 8th place
• 9th grader Milica McMillen, 8th place
• 11th grader Madeleine Wolf, 8th place
• 12th grader Jorge Flautero, 7th place
• 12th grader Mary Goetz, 8th place