French Alliance of Southern Nevada Scholarship

Dr. Marie-France Hilgar was a driving force behind the French Alliance of Southern Nevada. As President of the organization, she opened her home to all members for special occasions, meetings, French lessons and cultural events. She taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 1971 until she retired in 2000 as a Distinguished Professor and was chair of the Department of Foreign Languages from 1975 to 1978. She was well respected and beloved by her students. During her tenure at UNLV, she received numerous awards for teaching and scholarships including the “Palmes academiques” from the French government.

Under the guidance of the Federation of Alliances Fancaises U.S. A., a new chapter of the French Alliance opened in Nevada in 1969, ’The French Alliance of Southern Nevada". Our mission has always been to enhance the knowledges and appreciate of the French language and francophone cultures and encourage interaction among French and Americans through programs in education and the arts. To meet this goal, we offered French classes to elementary school students every Saturday morning. As we grew as an organization we added class offerings for adults and began giving scholarship to young high school students who wanted to improve their French by sending them, all expenses paid, to France for three weeks.