Learning a second language is one of the hardest things to do in life. No wonder the Global Language Industry is worth $82.6 billion. But a student at Vandegrift has proven that with hard work and dedication you can pick up any language.

Senior Alex Iacobucci was awarded the Outstanding Senior in French Award by the American Association of Teachers of French. French teacher Kelly Simon nominated Iacobucci for the award.  

“You have to have a passion for French to receive this award,” Iacobucci said. “I enjoy learning the language especially since I have cousins who live in France.”

The Outstanding Senior in French Award is an award given to one exceptional French student each year.

“I actually didn’t just choose Alex,” French teacher Kelly Simon said. “They’re all so amazing that I put their names in a jar and drew from there.”

Along with speaking the language really well, the student must have maintained other requirements throughout their years of taking the language class.

“They have to do four years of French and have an A average,” Simon said. “They also have to be in French Club and be in National Honor Society.”
According to the Effective Language Learning website, French is ranked one of the hardest languages to learn because of the duration of time it takes to teach the language which is 575-600 hours.

“The grammatical stuff is really difficult,” Iacobucci said. “It doesn’t lineup with English a lot of the times which makes it harder to learn.”

Receiving this award is not an easy one, but that makes winning this award so special.

“There’s so many people that could have been given this award,” Iacobucci said. “We have all just progressed so much and I just really appreciate her choosing me for the award.”