Madeline Fong

Luca Klyachko (11) picks up the winner of the pumpkin painting competition. The pumpkin was painted by Maya Varadachari (12). “It’s a fun social event to come in and see other people who also enjoy French culture,” Klyachko said. “In addition to a lot of snacks, [it] makes for a pretty good time.”

French Honor Society held its third meeting of the school year, Oct. 8. The club focuses on French culture and language as well as engaging in cultural activities with other language honor societies.

The meeting started off with a short lesson of La Toussaint led by President Luca Klyachko (11), Vice President Hotaru Murashita (11) and Secretary Arlo Ziolkowski (11) and ended with a pumpkin painting competition. 

“We meet up a couple times a month, and the idea is to have social events where we can commemorate and learn about different French cultures,” Klyachko said. “Today, we’re focusing on La Toussaint, which is a Halloween themed cultural activity that’s done in France a lot, [and] is important to a lot of people to commemorate the dead.”

Students had 20 minutes to paint their miniature pumpkins, which each had to relate to La Toussaint and French culture. They were then judged by Klyachko, Murashita and Ziolkowski. 

“I think the pumpkin painting is really engaging,” member Tracy Wu (11) said. “​​Without French Honor Society, I wouldn’t have known about a lot of the holidays that [the French] celebrate and the traditions that they have. I feel like in French class, you only really learn about the language, but in French Honor Society, you really get into the culture.”

In the future, French Honor Society plans to have more meetings with other language honor societies. The club’s goal is to broaden cultural acceptance in school and in the overall Ladue community. 

“We’re trying to do a mix of both cultural activities and some competitive aspects,” Klyachko said. “We do a lot of mixing with other language societies to kind of enhance the amount of people that show up, and get more people to care about these things, because it is a pretty big part of our Ladue spirit, to be culturally inclusive and to really want to learn about other cultures.”

To join French Honor Society, students must pass French II and maintain an A in their current French class. The next meeting will be held Oct. 22 in Milford’s room, where members will be taste testing different French sweets and playing a kahoot about French cultural foods. 

“If you’re interested in French culture, if you want to learn more about the French language, the French people, French activities, and everything along those lines, then it’s really the place to be,” Klyachko said.