Whiz Kid: Charlotte Morse Earns Foreign Language Award

Winters Mill High School graduate Charlotte Morse is the recipent of the Angela A. Saxton Foreign Language award, a specality award at Winters Mill honoring advancement and dedication to a particular foreign language. Morse talked with Patch about the multitude of Advanced Placement courses she took, as well as her desire to advance her French-language skills in college.

Patch: What kind of academics and clubs did you focus on in school?

Morse: I did drama club, French club, and NHS (National Honor Society), as well as serving as co-president for two years in the creative writing club, Inklings. Academics-wise, I was best at the language arts and miserable when it came to math. My junior and senior years, I took APs such as Psychology, French, World History, English Literature, and English Language. 

Patch: What is your experience with foreign languages?

Morse: I've taken five years of French, starting at East Middle in eighth grade and continuing through the end of high school. My senior year, I had AP French the first semester and an independent study the second where Nimet, the German exchange student, and I learned French using a curriculum my French teacher Mrs. Zavandro helped us devise.

I read a book written at probably a fourth grade reading level, similar to our Dear America novels, and we did a lot of film study to help with listening comprehension. Next year I'll be starting in an upper level French class that includes a weekly conversation lab with a native speaker. I'd like to study abroad in Paris or some such French city during college, and then afterward use the language I've learned to spend time doing aid work in one of the French-speaking African countries - Senegal, Algeria, etc. 

Patch: What are your plans for college?

Morse: I'll be attending Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts this Fall. I plan on going for an English degree and probably a French minor. At the very least, I want to spend a semester abroad in a French speaking country.

English speakers are lucky in some ways because the rest of the world wants to know our language, but unlucky because since our language already dominates, a lot of the time we don't make the effort to understand other languages. But my teacher Mrs. Zavandro, who's fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Malagase, and my cousin Laura, who's fluent in English, French, and Arabic have really inspired me to broaden my language base.