Junior French club president Ava Martinsen said she, along with the other leaders of the club, came into their roles by chance.

“It started one day when (Ian McIntyre and I) were working in the hallway during lunch and one of the french teachers came over, and asked us ‘can one of you guys sign this saying that you are the president of the french club?’,” Martinsen said. “I was like ‘OK I’ll do it’, so I put my name down, and then we started joking about starting a French club, and then were like, why not, that would be really fun.”

French teacher Julie Conrad said this year is different because the club will be led primarily by students.

“This time, Ava and Ian decided that they wanted to run it, because we want the kids to run it,” Conrad said.

Martinsen said students involved in the club will learn more than just language skills. “We are going to be teaching people about French culture, history, politics and teaching French then doing some cooking things and maybe some crafts,” Martinsen said.

According to Martinsen, there are no prerequisites required to join the club.

“Anyone can join, so if there is anyone who wants to do it, they can just come to any of the meetings, and be there,” Martinsen said. “You don’t have to speak French, you don’t have to be in French class, you don’t have to go on the trip.”

According to Conrad, learning from other students can be a beneficial way to continue advancing education on the subject, particularly for students already enrolled in a language class.

“If they have already studied a language, they can pick up on the French more easily, and learning from their classmates and their peers in a fun situation is a great way to learn,” Conrad said. “All three (leaders), Ava, Ian and Zoë (Weinmann) are really good teachers.”

Martinsen said joining the club will give students a chance to explore other cultures.

“I think it will give people another look into another culture. If you take Spanish or German, you learn a lot about those cultures, but it would be nice to learn about another culture, another point of view,” Martinsen said.

According to Martinsen, students can get involved in French club by attending a meeting.

“They can just show up to the meetings,” Martinsen said. “They can come whenever. We are going to have an open door policy, so you don’t have to be at every single meeting, you can come to just one or two.”

The next meeting will be at 3:30 in B230.