French Virtual villagers will learn language, culture and global perspectives through their counselors who hail from all corners of the globe. Villagers experience small group and one-on-one learning, allowing their individuality to shine and creating opportunities to create global friendships.
Click on your program of choice in the Program section below to learn more.
At a French Virtual Village session, you may learn to make a traditional-style omelette, discuss cinema français or create les bracelets.
Activities are based in francophone cultures and facilitated in French to help Villagers develop their language proficiency.
In order to best take advantage of this interactive experience, you will need the resources necessary for e-learning (reliable internet access, a device per villager with a webcam and microphone) and any individual adaptive devices needed; headphones are recommended but not required. Use of Chromebooks is not recommended as villagers cannot access all the features of the Virtual Village platform. As a program of Concordia College, we are coordinating our efforts with the college so that all virtual platforms will have the necessary and appropriate security features to protect the privacy of users, including compliance with FERPA and COPPA.
Cliff Benoît Schwartz is the Dean of Lac du Bois-Bemidji (first half). He has worked in the summer program at Lac du Bois in multiple roles for 17 years. This is his fifth year as dean. Benoît earned his bachelor’s degree in French education and theatre education from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. He has studied at Université Rennes 2 and has studied abroad with the Indiana University Honor’s Program in Foreign Languages for High School Students in Brest, France. Benoît is a French teacher at Edina High School in Edina, Minn., teaching French courses in both the traditional and immersion programs and has traveled with students to Quebec several times.
