Bolles upper school students taking French 4, French 4 Honors and AP French spoke with Senegal-based tour guide Alioune Dramé via video conference February 20 to discuss the Island of Gorée and the transatlantic slave trade.

Bolles upper school French teacher Sara Phillips-Bourass led the discussions conducted entirely in French in the Chahlavi Center for Global Learning & Engagement. She encouraged students to ask Dramé questions based on their unit about Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley as they learned more about Senegal’s history and how it shaped the country today.

Bolles upper and middle school French teacher Danielle Jones’ French 2 class also dropped in to get the experience of watching an interview entirely in French. Phillips-Bourass arranged the dicussions through Vive l’expérience, the company she traveled with during her Ottenstroer Fellowship last summer. She said she visited Senegal to bring back a deeper knowledge and more variety of engaging materials to use in the French language program.

“Africa is already home to more speakers of French than Europe, and predictions show that the future of French as a global language lies with Africa,” Phillips-Bourass wrote regarding the purpose of her fellowship.  

Thank you to Dramé for taking the time to speak with our students! #BollesGlobal