Each year the Department of French awards the following prizes:

• The Willis C. Behoteguy Prize, to the major student who has the highest standing in French at the end of the junior year; and


• The John W. Olthouse Prize, to the major student who has the highest standing in French at the end of the senior year.

Students of French are also eligible for a number of other prizes and scholarships, including:

• The Mary Sanborn Allen Prize, to a student majoring in a foreign language who has benefited most from study outside the United States;


• The Frances Guille-Secor Memorial Fund, providing scholarship income for a student with financial need who has demonstrated high competence in French language, literature, and civilization, as well as in other studies; and


• The G. Pauline Ihrig Fund in French, awarded annually to a student who has demonstrated both academic achievement and financial need. First preference is to be given to a student who is studying French and who has demonstrated outstanding scholarship in the language.

Qualified students of French are invited to join Phi Sigma Iota, the International Foreign Language Honor Society.

In each of the past eight years a French student from the College of Wooster has won a major prize in the Annual French Contest of the Maison Française de Cleveland (affiliated with the international Alliance Française). Recent winners of the concours from Wooster include Signe Helgeson ('01), Dana Schrum ('02), Chris Liao ('02), Arete Moodey ('03),  Noel Hollinger ('05), Sarah Thomas ('05), Lara Tellis ('05), Elisabeth Bennett ('07), and Caitlin Oliver-Olsen ('07).