A native of St. Paul, Ms. Hopen, better known as Madame, earned her
B.Sc. in French and Social Studies Education and her M.A. in World
Language Education and Psychological Foundations from the University of
Minnesota (Minneapolis) where she has continued with 60 credits
towards a PhD. She has studied at the Université d'Angers in Angers,
France and at the Université de Nantes in Nantes, France.
Ms. Hopen began her teaching at Humboldt in 1969. In addition to
teaching at Humboldt she is a Dean of the French Credit Abroad program
for Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) and teaches advanced World
Language methods for St. Mary's University Masters in Instruction
program (Minneapolis, MN). She is the co-author of the nationally
recognized French instructional materials C'est à toi! (EMC-Paradigm,
Inc) and is a regional and national consultant for the nationally
recognized instructional materials Discovering French Nouveau (McDougal
Littel). She has presented at the ACTFL (American Council of Teachers
of Foreign Language) in Chicago and San Francisco and has been a
semi-finalist and finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. In 1989
she received the St.Paul Rotary Club Educator of the Year Award and in
1991 the University of Minnesota's Gordon M. A. Mork Outstanding
Educator Award. She served on the Royal Family of the St. Paul Winter
Carnival in 1996 and continued as an educational consultant until 1999.
She has traveled extensively in and out of the US. In the US in
addition to traveling around our state of Minnesota Madame has traveled
in and around Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Boston, St. Louis,
Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, Savannah, New Orleans, Houston, San
Antonio, Las Vegas (Grand Canyon), San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Scottsbluff, Denver, Boulder, and Great Falls.
Just outside the US she has been to Manitoba and Quebec in Canada
and to Jamaica in the Caribbean. Madame's travels in Europe include
over 100 trips to France (50 of them as a chaperone for student trips)
plus several personal trips to England, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain.
Ms. Hopen enjoys decorating, French cooking and entertaining, writing, tennis, skiing, biking, and traveling.
"Humboldt's students and community are like family to me. Every
year brings new and familiar faces to my classroom and I am energized
by my students' curiosity, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. Being
able to
share what I know about French, history and life in
general continue to draw me into the classroom. There is no greater
gift than the gift of knowledge."
"L'important est invisible aux yeux." (Le Petit Prince, St. Exupéry) (One's essence is invisible to the eyes.)
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