By Jessica Dunn
On November 14, 2024, the University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience (ECE) Program Office along with UConn ECE French Faculty Coordinator, Dr. Florence Marsal, hosted the annual 
French Immersion Day & Quiz Bowl on the UConn Storrs Campus. This year’s event had over 120 students attend representing nine different UConn ECE partner high schools across Connecticut. We welcomed students from Coventry High School, Daniel Hand High School, Glastonbury High School, Lewis S. Mills High School, New Fairfield High School, Wilton High School, Bristol Eastern High School, Jonathan Law High School, and Norwich Free Academy.
Students started the day in the Student Union Theatre where they heard from OECP Executive Director, Christopher Todd; the Literatures, 
Cultures, and Languages Department Head, Dr. Jennifer Terni; and the UConn ECE French Faculty Coordinator and host, Dr. Florence Marsal. Chris welcomed students and instructors to Storrs with a brief commentary on the intertwined histories of the United States and France, particularly the shared revolutionary ideals of the late 18th Century, and the significant cultural, political, and intellectual exchanges which have shaped their paths as modern democracies. Dr. Terni spoke about Technopole, the UConn dual degree in French and engineering that offers great opportunities to travel and internship in France, while Dr. Marsal individually welcomed each participating high school, and provided them with guidance on how the event would unfold. Students were encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to interact with the UConn French Teaching Assistants during the morning immersion sessions, to collaborate with their peers from across the state, and to bring their best to the afternoon’s Quiz Bowl competition.
It was evident students were excited to be at the event, and to share their passion for learning the French language. After the morning immersion sessions where students discussed a wide variety of 
topics, such as comedy, paintings, BookTubers, European travel, the Breton regional identity, and fairy tales, they mentally prepared themselves for the jeopardy-style Quiz Bowl Competition in the afternoon. To accommodate the higher number of teams who entered the competition than in years past, Dr. Marsal shifted the format of the competition. Instead of single elimination rounds, each team competed a minimum of two times this year. The teams who achieved the highest number of correct answers advanced to the next round.
This format allowed all teams to be on stage and in the spotlight at least twice, which was a great improvement from years past, but it did create very close competition! After the first rounds, five teams were tied for the most correct answers and one team with over double that number of correct answers. Norwich Free Academy was deemed the Champion with the most correct answers after the first rounds. The competition then continued with single representatives from each of the five high schools coming to center stage to battle for second and third place.
Teams were eliminated one by one as rounds progressed, leaving Bristol Eastern High School and Glastonbury High School battling for their positions. In the last minutes of the competition, Bristol Eastern came out on top, taking home 2nd place and Glastonbury High School took home 3rd place.
