Immersed in the Language of Volunteerism

“I saw my trip as a French experience more than anything else,” Laney said of her time volunteering with Global Works, a leadership and service program that combines community service with cultural immersion. “We would only communicate in French, mostly really poor French, but I was able to learn a lot from it. It was an amazing experience.”

Laney planned the trip as a means of refining her French skills while also giving back to those in need by assisting with hiking trail maintenance high in the Alps.

Based in Grenoble, she spent the first portion of her stay working eight-hour days some 14,000 feet above the tree line clearing brush and rebuilding stone walls — designed to prevent erosion and keep hikers on course. Laney recalled one occasion high on a mountainside when, pickaxes in hand, she and her peers were forced to evacuate due to a wildfire on an adjacent ridgeline.

“We could see the mountain across from us on fire, and ash started falling from the sky,” she remembered. “We got out of there pretty quick.”

Laney and her 22 Global Works peers then relocated to the medieval city of Carcassonne, where their mission was to clear the remnants of wildfires that had recently devastated the mountainside. The team used chainsaws to cut down dead trees and formed an assembly line to send charred timbers down the trail.

As if wildfires didn’t bring enough heat, Laney’s stay also coincided with a record heat wave that brought with it temperatures consistently in the triple digits.

“It was very, very hot,” Laney recalled. “It was very different [than the U.S.] — you'd go into a building or a house and there'd be no air conditioning, so you'd learn to adapt; leave your windows open, drink a ton of water.”

Hardships aside, Laney said she was thrilled for the opportunity to further study the language she loves alongside native speakers. While she first fell in love with the French language in the fourth grade, her passion grew exponentially under the tutelage of former KUA World Languages Department Chair Scribner Fauver P’09, ’12. She enjoyed his engaging teaching style so much, in fact, that she quickly set her sights on one day becoming a teacher herself.

“I want to teach English as a second language and Mr. Fauver is a big reason why,” Laney said of Fauver, who retired in 2025. “He was a big inspiration, especially because of his interest in creating an engaging classroom environment. I can't fully explain why I love it so much, but his classes really helped. It just clicked for me.”

Looking ahead to college, Laney said she plans to major in education and minor in French. She admitted she’s in no rush to see her days as a KUA student come to an end just yet. And with a schedule as jam packed as hers, it’s not hard to understand why.

A varsity goaltender for both the school’s field hockey and ice hockey teams and a member of several clubs — including the Outing Club and French Club — Laney has a reputation for trying, and thriving at, just about anything.