Francophone Studies Program Concludes Successfully First Year of Dual Enrollment at Benjamin Franklin High School

Loyola University New Orleans’ Francophone Studies Program completed a successful Dual Enrollment school year with students at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, the first high school in Louisiana and one of the leaders in the country. In the fall of 2025, BFHS’s students, coming from immersion–each one of them endowed with intercultural curiosity and linguistic and analytical skills–had the opportunity to watch and discuss with Dr. Leo Tablante more than 16 French/Francophone films and highlight their characteristics and importance in contemporary culture. Right in the spring, Professor Berenguer Becat took over the same class with a survey of Francophone Global Culture, in which the students not only discussed, researched, and elaborated ideas about the geographies, demographics, and politics of the Francophone world, but also explained Francophone culture’s global influence, diversity, and scope, including in their Louisiana surroundings, where they interviewed members of our Francophone community. They designed and produced an end-of-year magazine that compiled their semester’s work. This is just the beginning of Loyola’s Francophone Studies Program project with BFHS aimed at enhancing these students’ proficiency in French by exposing them to higher-level discussion and honing their speaking and writing accuracy and eloquence. En avant !