Quality - French

The Seaver College French program takes an interdisciplinary approach to the language, culture, literature, and history of France and other French-speaking regions throughout the world, preparing students for speaking, understanding, reading, and writing the French language.

Besides developing a high level of proficiency in the spoken and written language, our French majors gain a critical understanding of French-speaking peoples, civilizations, and their global influence, both past and present. The French major prepares students for careers and graduate-level study in a variety of fields and is an ideal complement to majors such as international studies, international business, political science, communication, and art history, while also equipping students for work in nonprofit organizations that serve francophone regions. (From : https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/international-studies-and-languages/undergraduate/french/) 

The Seaver College French Program includes a variety of ways at the curricular and co-curricular levels to involve students in the French program in French and Francophone cultures and language as well as to provide opportunities for students to move to higher levels of expression: French-language internships, French speaker series, French film nights, French-intensive program abroad (with host families), French chapel, and the Pi Delta Phi Honor Society.

French Speaker Series

At least once per academic year, the French program hosts a speaker. The speaker series is open to the university community as well, and students in French classes are highly encouraged to attend.  

French Film Nights

French Film Nights offer an opportunity for students to discover a selection of French and Francophone movies. With multiple screenings per academic year, movies are shown with English subtitles to encourage all levels of French students, and snacks and refreshments are served.

French Chapel

French Chapel is offered during long semesters every other Tuesday at 4pm in the Stauffer Chapel. French Chapel is sponsored by the Convocation program which is dedicated to help Pepperdine students build Christian faith, affirm Christian values, and address the moral and ethical dimensions of current issues. Dr. Kelle Marshall leads chapel in French, inviting students to practice their faith through readings, scripture, and song, as well as leading the prayers in French.

French Immersion Abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland: Homestays & Internships

The French Intensive Homestay program runs in Lausanne, Switzerland, every other summer and provides students the opportunity to live with a host family for two months while taking upper-division French courses for credit towards their French Studies major or minor. Students sign a language pledge before arriving in Switzerland, pledging they will speak only in French for the duration of the program.

In 2018, in partnership with the Lausanne International Program’s administration, French-language internships were introduced. Interns are vetted by the Lausanne program manager, who then finds internships tailored to students’ interests. Student interns have worked in a wide variety of sectors in the Lausanne-Geneva corridor. The internships are highly competitive and tailored for those students who strongly desire to use the French language in their professional careers. The student interns are supported by a course in advanced spoken French at the Lausanne campus, tailored to support them in the particular skills and vocabulary needed to successfully accomplish the work required in their internship.

Pi Delta Phi Honor Society, the French National Honors Society

Pi Delta Phi’s purpose is 1) to recognize outstanding scholarship in the French language and Francophone literatures 2) to increase the knowledge and appreciation of Americans for the cultural contributions of the French-speaking world and 3) to stimulate and to encourage French and francophone cultural activities. Pi Delta Phi is for undergraduate and graduate students at accredited public and private colleges and universities in the United States.

Pepperdine University’s Eta Phi Chapter of Pi Delta Phi inducts new members every year and hosts events, including French conversation meetups, group outings to French cafés in Malibu or the valley, and other events that the members organize for themselves.

French Program Photos