Jones AP French students took a trip on Jan. 30th to the Haitian American Museum of Chicago, engaging in a variety of activities.

“We will be taking a visit to the Haitian American Museum of Chicago, which is a guided visit of the museum, and talking about Haitian culture,” said French teacher Tory Waterman. “We’ll see what we know before and then after the visit, learn about Haiti, see a performance, and then have a Haitian-style lunch.” 

Before going on the trip, feelings of excitement flourished throughout the community.

“I am most excited to see my students’ reactions, because that’s always what I’m most excited about whenever I take them anywhere,” said Waterman. “I just like seeing people really get immersed in a culture and experience something outside of the classroom that has to do with French.” 

There’s so much to learn about Haitian culture both past and present, making a museum like this a vital resource. 

“Haiti is a very vibrant country, and it is also a very complex country, historical wise, but also today, there’s a lot of complexities that are still happening in Haiti,” said Director of Programs and Museum Practice, Carlos Bossard.

The museum brings together people with and without Haitian heritage, allowing all to learn about Haitian culture.  

“I am not Haitian myself, so it’s been a very interesting experience to become a Haitian community leader, but I’m very proud to be so,” said Bossard “I hope that today, whether you’re Haitian or not, that you’ll see connections to your culture, to the art, the artifacts and the things that we’ll be talking about here at the museum.”

The museum came a long way from what it is today, beginning in a space of just 500 square feet. 

“So in 2022 we moved here. Now we have 2500 square feet. So we grew five times in size, we’ve been able to expand tours,” said Bossard. “It’s really amazing to have this brand new space, to call it our own, to be able to build it out the way that we did.” 

However,  the museum’s offerings stretch beyond fun activities into a broader goal to help the community.

“As of 2022, we are the 11th agency in this program in the city of Chicago called the legal protection fund. We are able to provide legal immigration resources to Haitian and non-Haitian migrants,” said Bossard 

As the trip came to an end many students got to reflect on all they experienced and learned at the museum. 

“I liked learning actual Haitian Creole and not just French. I think it’s important to talk about both languages even though Haitian Creole only became an official language recently even though it was spoken every day,” said Noel Jones ‘25. “Learning phrases like the greeting “Sak pase,  n’ap boule” or other songs we sang together.”

Having the ability to learn interesting and valuable information like this pushes students to dream of more field trips of the same liking. 

“I do hope for more field trips in the future because despite its small size, we were able to see, do, and learn so much. I like the idea of field trips that have to do with learning and appreciating history and cultures, especially ones that are vilified in the media,” said Hanan Mohamed ‘25.