Verl Going To Saumur, France!

Hello! My name is Verl Burton, and I’m a sophomore in an Indiana high-school. I’m an honor roll student who’s been taking French for three years. My journey through the language started off as a chore - just another class I had to take in order to graduate, but slowly, over the course of the past two years, I fell in love with the language. I didn’t realize how much it really meant to me until my French teacher handed out flyers for an overseas language immersion program over the summer. I was hesitant at first, until I told my parents about it and we attended a conference where people described their experiences with the program, and I realized that it was an opportunity of a lifetime. A couple weeks later, I learned that I was accepted, and would be spending my summer in Saumur, France! (pronounced sah-mur for English speakers, and sue-myeur for French ones).

The Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Language (abbreviated to IUHPFL) is a six-week study abroad program in which students are fully immersed in a target language. They give up access to their devices and are only allowed to speak the native language of the country in which they’re residing, only being allowed to message their friends and family back home for one hour out of every week. It’s an opportunity to not only make massive strides in my comprehension of the French language, but also to grow as an individual and become more independent as I function in a foreign environment without my usual support networks. The only issue is, as I’m sure you’re aware by the fact that you’re reading this on a GoFundMe page, it isn’t cheap. It will enable me to make strides in understanding both the world at large and the values I truly hold close to my heart, but it will be difficult to achieve this without the assistance of loved ones, both friends and family. Even if you only can contribute five or ten dollars, every cent gets me a little closer to this extraordinary adventure!