A Dover native soon will be eating baguettes, strolling past the Eiffel Tower and teaching French children how to communicate in English as part of the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship.

    “As a student, I took classes and lived with a host family in Paris,” said Adrienne Carey, who graduated this May from Cornell University. “But I’m expecting this to be more of an adult experience. I’ll be working and actually experiencing a different side of the city.”

    Carey studied French literature and linguistics at the Parisian schools Sorbonne and Paris 7 during the spring semester of her junior year.

    As part of the Fulbright program, Carey said she will be one of the only English instructors in a school for underprivileged students between the ages of 16 and 19 in one of Paris’s northeastern suburbs.

    Carey said she likely will be leading conversations and helping with the pronunciations of words, but many of the details, such as where she will reside, remain unknown.

    “It’ll probably be easier to decide once I get there,” Carey said, noting that she has looked at some residences online but intends to wait to secure an apartment once she arrives in the French capital.

    The Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarship is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. Approximately 1,500 U.S. citizens are traveling abroad this year as part of the program, which is meant to promote the exchange of ideas and cultural values.

    In high school, Carey said she became drawn to the beauty of the French language and fascinated by French culture during her foreign language classes at Tower Hill School in Wilmington.

    Harry Baetjer, associate headmaster at Tower Hill School, said he could not remember another Tower Hill student that had been granted a Fulbright Scholarship and added that he remembered Carey as a very quiet student that shared her love of music by giving violin lessons to children.

     “I can’t imagine someone who deserved [the Fulbright] more,” Baetjer said. “She is a great person.”

    In May, Carey received two Bachelor of Art degrees in French and comparative literature, and completed her studies at Cornell with a 3.89 cumulative GPA.  

    Approximately 200 people applied for the 25 grants available for U.S. residents to go to France as part of the 2009-2010 program, according to Fulbright’s website.

    Carey said she is familiar with Paris but has not traveled to other locations, such as Nice or the French Riviera.

    “I just really want to see France,” she said, adding that she can receive a discounted rail pass that allows young people to travel on high-speed trains throughout the country.

    On Sept. 20, Carey will leave for Paris and will not return to the United States until May.

    She hasn’t started packing her suitcases, but Carey said that she definitely is taking her violin and planning on packing light.

    “I’d like to play as part of a small jazz group or do some gypsy violin,” she said. “But that will be easier to find once I get there.”

Email Elaine Hughes at elaine.hughes@doverpost.com