It seems like only yesterday that our wonderful students left for the summer vacation, their faces beaming after a year of learning at the Lycée Français de New York. Yet several weeks have since transpired and an extraordinary amount of personal growth will have shaped them over the past two months. In July and August, many will have read a few thousand pages of unforgettable literature, not to mention that they are likely to have crafted their own stories too. Others will have hiked on mountain trails and canoed down remote rivers; still more will have programmed computers, built websites and blogged about what matters most to them in the world at large; and the list of what our remarkable students will have accomplished during the long break goes on.
As they return to school this coming Tuesday, with a bounce in their step from the deserved rest they will have enjoyed and the countless adventures they will have experienced, we can count on our unusually talented and dedicated faculty and staff to welcome them with the greatest possible enthusiasm. All of us who have the privilege and the pleasure of working at the Lycée Français are deeply committed to upholding the three essential principles of our educational mission: academic excellence; personal and social development; and global citizenship. For each and every member of our 250-strong personnel, there is nothing more inspiring and noble.
This September, we are particularly delighted to know that 236 new students will be joining the school, from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. A heartfelt “bienvenue” to them all. We hope and trust that they will flourish in our midst and that their lives at the Lycée Français de New York will be fulfilling in every imaginable way. As our newest families will soon discover, our educational community is an exceptionally multicultural, inclusive and dynamic one, bringing together people from around the planet, all of whom are passionately and tirelessly devoted to the best of the French and American educational traditions.
Dear students and parents of the Lycée Français, on behalf of our entire faculty and staff, please allow me to express how very much I look forward to seeing you again next week and above all else to embarking together on another school year. As the brilliant French scientist Marie Curie once affirmed: “In life, there is nothing to fear and everything to understand.” May our students always be without fear and full of joy in our care. And may we always be able to nurture their understanding of and sense of harmony with the world!
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.