Posters depicting French pastries adorn French teacher Ashley Strouse’s classroom. Influenced by the images and their curriculum, her students began to ask if they could enjoy some of the treats together.

“My students always ask if we can have parties with food, if they can bring in croissants, macarons or different things,” Strouse said. “I wanted to find a way that we could have a fun experience together other than just bringing stuff into the building.”

So, Strouse decided to take the students’ requests to the next level. She organized an opportunity for them to not just enjoy traditional pastries, but to immerse themselves in French culture and learn how to make desserts from scratch.

Strawberry Bakery in Malvern, where the students will be heading, is owned and operated by chef Jean Pierre Bournazel. He was born and raised in a suburb of Paris. Sopho- more Yumna Tayea, one of Strouse’s students, has been familiar with the bakery because her dad often buys desserts there.

“I told (Madame Strouse) (that) there was a bakery run by a French family. I love their pastries. My dad gets them because he’s supporting the small business, and it’s fresh and delicious,” Tayea said. “She told me (that) she already knew about it, and she heard that they had pastry classes. She mentioned to the class one day that she was able to get us a field trip.”

During the approximately two-hour visit, Bournazel will teach the students how to make different pastries, from the well-known croissant to the lesser known charlottes (bread pudding) and petit gâteaux (cupcakes).

“The owner is going to present himself and talk a little bit about each dessert that the kids will be making. They’re going to make four different pastries, and then they get to take them home with them,” Strouse said.

Strouse got so much interest for the trip that she was forced to adopt a lottery system to determine which students could attend. She was able to include 40 students, split into groups of 20 over the dates of March 7 and March 14. Sophomore Shreya Venkatesan, one of the students who was chosen, is looking forward to the day.

“I am really excited for the trip. I love desserts and I love to bake, so I am very excited to go to the bakery and take lessons from the chef. I think it’s going to be a fun and educational trip with my friends,” Venkatesan said.

Both Venkatesan and Tayea are also hoping to connect the experience back to their current French knowledge. Along with learning about French culture, they will advance their speaking and listening skills by conversing with Bournazel.

“The one thing that I think helps the most with learning and understanding language is being around people who speak it. So, just hearing (French) is going to give us more exposure to the language,” Tayea said. “He doesn’t even know what we know so he’s just going to say what he would normally say, and it’s kind of our job to put the pieces together. I think that’s going to overall help learning and comprehension.”

This exposure to French culture was one of Strouse’s main goals when organizing the trip. She has noticed that students have a tendency to think that the language they are learning is not real nor something they can see in their own community.

“I love that this bakery is so close to school because it’s owned by a pastry chef from France who speaks fluent French and brings French culture to the United States,” Strouse said. “Of course, French is spoken in other countries, and if you travel there, you’ll be surrounded by French. I want students to get that those opportunities exist here as well.”

Due to the level of interest and benefits of such experiences, Strouse hopes to continue incorporating them into the language curriculum. She wants students to recognize that although the content of a language course may seem simpler than other classes, there are many cultures attached to that language.

“Seeing how excited my kids were about the bakery and being able to do this pastry class made me excited to offer it and go with them,” Strouse said. “So I am hoping that it turns out really well and then, potentially, it’s something we can add as a yearly trip.”