May 19, 2017

SVSU student awarded national honor as Outstanding Senior in French

Recent Saginaw Valley State University graduate Tory Thompson has received a national honor. The American Association of Teachers of French selected him to receive a 2017 Outstanding Senior in French Award.

Students are nominated for the award by faculty members based on academic excellence and an exceptional commitment to the study of French.  Students are required to have completed at least three years of French study at the time of graduation and be non-native speakers of French.

A French major from Saginaw, Thompson began studying French at SVSU at an advanced 300 level while still enrolled at Clio High School as part of the dual-enrollment program. He worked as a French language lab assistant and French tutor during the winter 2016 semester. That same year, Thompson studied French at Université Lyon in Lyon, France for a semester in the fall.

Thompson was also a member of Alpha Mu Gamma, the national foreign language honor society as well as  La Société Française, SVSU's French club.

The AATF was founded in 1927 and is the largest national professional association of French teachers in the world with nearly 10,000 members.  Its mission is to promote the study of the French language and French-speaking cultures and literature.

Thompson plans to pursue graduate school in linguistics.