French teacher Yves Conseant has joined the SLUH faculty, filling a mid-year vacancy.

Conseant has lived all over the world. He grew up on the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, where he lived until 2013. Upon leaving Haiti, Conseant moved to New Orleans and began teaching at a wildlife school.

Conseant made his way to St. Louis in 2017 to earn his master’s degree, and soon began teaching at the St. Louis Language Immersion School, where he taught American kindergarteners in both French and English. However, with the school switching to online learning in the spring of 2020 due to the pandemic, teaching young children in a virtual setting became too difficult for Conseant, so he decided to take a break from teaching at the end of the school year.

This hiatus for Conseant lasted until the beginning of this current semester, where he has stepped in to replace former French teacher Kevan Morshed, who moved to Atlanta after his wife took a job there.

Conseant’s first encounter with SLUH was during his time at the St. Louis Language Immersion School, where he had several seniors working on their Senior Projects in his classroom.

“I had two students from (SLUH) volunteering in my class, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, these students are amazing.’ I knew I wanted to come to SLUH,” said Conseant.

“I had two students from (SLUH) volunteering in my class, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh, these students are amazing.’ I knew I wanted to come to SLUH."

Yves Conseant

Conseant is also a practicing Catholic, so when he saw a job opening for a French teacher at SLUH, he jumped at the opportunity and quickly applied. 

While it is surely difficult to start teaching in the middle of a school year, Conseant quickly jumped in and has not missed a beat, bringing an exciting teaching style focused heavily on students’ pronunciation.

“I think he will be a very good teacher,” said sophomore Thomas Bock, “He seems like he knows how to engage the class well, and I am interested to see how the semester plays out. His class is very energetic and I’ve already learned a lot of new French.”

Growing up in majority-French speaking nation, Conseant also brings the advantage of being a native speaker to the classroom.

“You have to know both what the students want to learn and also what it will take for them to be successful in the language,” said Conseant, “Sometimes, when you are not a native speaker, you will not pick up on some of that.”

Conseant attributes his desire to teach others as a consequence of the effect his teachers had on him.

“My teachers were amazing, helping me realize who I am and figuring out my life situation. Teachers are the most amazing people,” said Conseant.