Paul Platz / SPPSJennifer Porter, a junior interdisciplinary studies major, watches as a student from Harding Avenue Elementary, works on basic French from a worksheet.

John Welch, a junior international studies major, created an early foreign language program at a nearby elementary school in honor of his late French teacher, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, who was killed while teaching during the April attacks.

"I wanted to create something that would last for a long time and do it in her honor and in her memory," Welch said.

Welch and a half a dozen other French students have pledged their time to teach introductory French at Harding Avenue Elementary to fifty students grades K-5 once a week. "Teach for Madame," the official name of the program, held its second class of a 13-week curriculum on Wednesday. The classrooms held smiling, enthusiastic students practicing their newly honed French adjective skills while belting out the occasional "bonjour" to anyone who entered the room.

Welch is hopeful that "Teach for Madame" will continue long after he graduates and that the program will filter into other elementary schools throughout the community and nationwide.

"We're trying to be a national model for early foreign language education in schools," Welch said.

All teaching materials, including lesson plans and curriculum ideas, were donated by Early Advantage, a publishing partner of the British Broadcasting Corporation that specializes in early foreign language education in children.

"Our goal is to support John and Virginia Tech in this effort and to bring the excitement and fun and benefits of language learning to young children in support of those goals that Madame and John both share," said Lynn Jeffery, director of school and library programs for Early Advantage.

"We can't think of Madame's vision being in any better hands than in John's," Jeffery said. "The excitement that he and his student volunteers bring to the classroom is tremendous.

Welch enlisted the help of Sharon Johnson, associate professor of foreign languages, to help get "Teach for Madame" off the ground. Johnson enthusiastically agreed to do whatever she could to help Welch and his team of French student volunteers.

"I understand the power of the relationships that develop in the classroom, and so that's going to be happening with them now, getting the children excited about language," Johnson said. "They are giving them many gifts and they will be getting those gifts back in enthusiasm. It's one of the most beautiful facets of education."

The driving force behind "Teach for Madame" is to carry on the joy and enthusiasm of the French language and culture that the students absorbed from Couture-Nowak.

"She was a strong, strong maternal fire force of passion and goodness and giving, so I am moved by John wanting to carry on her legacy," Johnson said.