A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is collecting book donations to raise money for UA Little Rock students hoping to attend a summer language program in France. 

The Department of World Languages will host a book sale in April to raise scholarship funds for students who wish to travel abroad this summer.

To assist with the book sale, the department welcomes donations until Wednesday, March 28. Donors can drop books off at the department office in Stabler Hall Room 301 or contact Zac Hagins, assistant professor of French, at zrhagins@ualr.edu to schedule a time to have the books picked up.

“As an undergraduate I was fortunate enough to study abroad in France and Japan, so I know the transformative power of the study abroad adventure,” Hagins said. “Every student who wants to experience life in another culture should have that chance.”

With students juggling family, work, and school, Hagins knows that meeting the financial obligations of studying abroad can be tough. Having led the summer French program, he also knows the importance of students being able to travel and experience another culture first-hand.

“Many dream of having the opportunity, but they worry about taking out loans or working extra hours to save enough money to participate,” he said. “The book sale allows us to help at least one student offset the costs of realizing his or her dream. With any luck, the book sale will continue to grow, and we will be able to help even more students in the future.”

With the funds raised from the book sale, Hagins will provide a scholarship to a student participating in the World Languages Department Summer Language Program in Orléans, France, who demonstrates a financial need. In 2017, the UA Little Rock community donated 40 boxes of books for the first World Languages Department book sale and raised $400.

Rebekah Duke, a French major who graduated in August 2017, received the first Department of World Languages Octave Uzanne Scholarship for Summer Study Abroad in France. The scholarship helped Duke attend a faculty-led summer language program to Paris and Orleans, France.

The scholarship is named in honor of Octave Uzanne, a French writer, journalist, and book publisher who founded the Société des Bibliophiles Contemporaines and served as its first president. Noted for his literary research on 18th-century authors, Uzanne also researched fashion and femininity and wrote novels and fantasy books.