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One Central High School senior has been studying French her whole life, and this year she will have a chance to use it.

Alexandria Gonzales, 16, of Upper Marlboro is spending her senior year at Maurice Utrillo, a school near Paris. She has been preparing for the trip since kindergarten, when she joined the Prince George's County schools' French Immersion program, where many classes are taught exclusively in French.

"I'm excited and nervous at the same time," Gonzales said Tuesday. She left for France on Wednesday morning.

In kindergarten, Gonzales joined the program at John Hanson French Immersion School in Oxon Hill. English was not used in classes, announcements or even private conversations, she said. Graduates from the preschool through ninth-grade programs at John Hanson and Robert Goddard French Immersion School in Seabrook apply for high school classes at Central High, which hosts the county's only high school French Immersion program.

At Central High, participating students spend half of each day in French-speaking classes, such as literature and social studies, and the other half of the day with the rest of the school. The program has been operating for years, with its first graduating class in 1987.

Gonzales said her parents initially had to push her into the program, but now she's glad they did because she feels it is important to speak a second language. She said her parents, who are Hispanic, used to seek out French speakers and encourage their daughter to talk to them.

"It's funny," she said. "I'm a Mexican that speaks French but not Spanish."

Usha Ahluwalia, the county's French Immersion coordinator, said most students eventually leave the program. There are currently 700 students participating at the kindergarten level and only 45 who are high school seniors. But the program bears fruit for those who remain in it, Ahluwalia said.

Every Central High valedictorian since 2000 has been in the French Immersion program, she said, and most of the students have grade point averages near 4.0. She credited this toward the program's non-traditional approach to teaching, where textbooks are not used and classes center around student discussion.

"[Lessons] would be from experiences and things that we've been through, and analyzing it from there," Gonzales said. "In high school, basically all my learning was from a textbook. In French Immersion, we tell stories."

But it was Gonzales' initiative that is making this trip happen. She said her family and her friend's family each hosted an exchange student last year, and when Ahluwalia suggested she take part in a similar program, she jumped at the opportunity. She arranged the trip through an organization called Youth for Understanding.

When Gonzales graduates, she will receive high school diplomas from Maurice Utrillo and Central High, Ahluwalia said. Gonzales said she wants to become a make-up artist after she graduates—but not before travelling some more. The bilingual student said she plans to study in Japan before living in France for a while.

E-mail Greg Holzheimer at gholzheimer@gazette.net.