Suffolk native off to France for postgraduate work

Published 12:36 am Saturday, August 6, 2022

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CRAWFORDSVILLE, Indiana – Suffolk native Kwaku Sarpong is one of three Wabash College students to earn placements in the Teaching Assistant Program in France.

Sarpong, a French major with minors in political science and chemistry, was involved in Wabash Christian Men, the African Students Association and the Indoor Soccer Group. Previously, he studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, during the fall 2021 semester, and in the spring of 2019, took an immersion trip to Paris and Caen, France, with Dr. Karen Quandt’s “Heroic Exploits in Normandy” class. He earned the Annie Crim Leavenworth French Prize and the David W. Peck Medal and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

“I’m excited to be going back,” said Sarpong, who graduated in May. “I had such a great time when I was in France last semester and on my immersion trip in 2019. I learned a lot about life and made many great friends, and I look forward to the adventure that lies ahead with TAPIF.”

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Sarpong will be based in the Montpellier region in southern France.

The Teaching Assistant Program offers the opportunity to work in France for seven months, teaching English to French students of all ages. Each year, over 1,500 American citizens and permanent residents teach in public schools across all regions of metropolitan France and in the overseas departments of France like French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion. The American cohort is part of the larger Assistants de langue en France program, which recruits 4,500 young educators from 60 countries to teach 15 languages annually in France.