French Honor Society

Société Honoraire de Français

Every year, our highest achieving French students in levels 4, 5 and AP French are invited to become members of the Société Honoraire de Français, a nationally-recognized honor society sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French.  A yearly initiation ceremony takes place in the fall in Town Hall at Wakefield High School, complete with a candle ceremony, organizational banner, and over 50 flags from French countries from around the world.  All new inductees and returning members are required to attend this formal ceremony.  Each year, an honored guest addresses the group.  Last year’s guest speaker was the Education Attaché from the Embassy of France in Washington D.C.  Our chapter follows the national constitution and its by-laws.

Membership in SHF includes responsibilities to maintain excellent scholarship, service and attendance.  SHF members offer peer tutoring in French on a weekly basis.  Meetings typically take place on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month, after school.  We hold a yearly service project where we invite all current French students from Kenmore, Jefferson and Gunston to Wakefield for a Saturday morning in the winter to participate in cultural and language workshops.  Our members plan the workshops in small groups and share in leading the activities.  This year, our students hope to plan a service project to sponsor a young student’s educational costs in the Dakar, Senegal suburbs.  Additional activities include team-building games and projects such as cooking, playing boules, dance parties and movies for National French Week, Mois de la Francophonie and for Wakefield’s Heritage Week.

Membership in SHF also provides opportunities for students to win the SHF Travel Award.  Two Wakefield students have won this $1000 award in the past, Grace Coldren (Class of 2017) and Natalia Uro-DeLeón (Class of 2020).  SHF also sponsors a Creative Writing Contest at the national level.   All of our SHF members participate in the National French Contest, with many of them winning medals or honorable mentions.

Contact sponsors Katy Wheelock ([email protected]) and Susan Haley ([email protected]) with any questions.