Senior Samford University English and French double-major Lauren Laughlin has earned the Turan Future Educator Scholarship, one of three $4,000 scholarships awarded annually by the American Society of the French Academic Palms (ASFAP).

The scholarship–the first for a Samford student–will help fund Laughlin’s participation in the Samford in France program at the Université Grenoble Alpes this summer. After completing that program, Laughlin hopes to join the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) working in a French K-12 public school as an English language assistant during the 2022-2023 school year. She then hopes to earn a master’s degree in education with teaching certification in French and English.

Samford professor Heather A. West said the scholarship nominations are usually restricted to college sophomores and juniors, but were expanded to include seniors this year if their study abroad plans for the last two summers were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as was the case for Laughlin.

West noted that Laughlin has managed two majors, participation in the University Fellows program and various jobs on and off campus, including a year of language education support as a lab assistant for French 101 and 102 classes. “The Department of World Languages and Cultures is grateful for her service and is proud to have Lauren as Samford’s first winner of an ASFAP scholarship,” West said.