Advisory Board Member in Legion of Honor

Francophile Jane Robert receives France’s highest honor

Jane Robert was decorated in Paris by Jacques Viot, Ambassadeur de France. Photo credit: Mark Lewis, First Tee

For most of her life, Jane Marie Robert ('69) has spread the word about the beauty and significance of French language and culture. Now the state of France is paying its thanks.

This month Robert, a member of the Advisory Board for Webster’s College of Arts & Sciences, received knighthood in the Legion of Honor. The Legion of Honor signifies many things to many people, but one description is unavoidable: It is the highest honor bestowed by France.

How a teacher from St. Louis attracted such respect normally afforded to French citizens is a tale 40 years in the making. Naturally, it takes off at Webster.

As a junior in high school, Robert and several friends switched from Latin to French classes. Upon exploring her first French textbook, Robert was hooked.

“I immediately fell in love with all the clichés you can think of,” she says. “Descriptions of the cities, of Paris, the art, the cafés, the music.”

Robert then decided to continue studying French at what was then Webster College. The more she studied, the deeper in love she fell.

“I had some wonderful professors at Webster, and they encouraged me to apply for a scholarship so I could study abroad my junior year,” she says. “I really wanted to go and learn and share, but I couldn’t afford it without the scholarship.”

“Part of the application process involved going to a woman’s house in St. Louis for a formal tea, where I was terribly nervous,” she recalls. “But to this day I think what clinched the scholarship was how excited I was to learn more and share French culture with others.”

Spreading appreciation for French culture throughout the U.S.

After college Robert began a career of teaching French at several levels around St. Louis, building knowledge and taking “zillions of kids to France” on cultural trips. In 1998 her work in French cultural education earned her knighthood in the Order of French Academic Palms (l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques), a high French civil honor.

But Robert’s work has gone far beyond the traditional classroom.

For the past six years she was president of Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, a federation of cultural and learning centers in 125 cities. As president, she helped grow the organization and coordinate efforts nationally to help each center build valuable education and appreciation for French culture.

“Why people come to the centers and why they stay is often two different things,” she says. “One thing I have learned about French students in America is the desire comes from within. You don’t convince anyone to love French; they come up with the interest on their own. They stay for the depth of the experience: the culture, the politics, the language, the art, the history.”

Robert and the Alliances board led the organization to establish a rich Web site that includes an extensive guidebook of best practices on how to teach French and how to open an Alliance site so that people keep coming back.

“We’ve really crystallized and formalized things for the organization,” she says. The cohesive work includes newsletters, regular conferences where members can meet face-to-face, and a major project and grant program to help fund Alliance school development and other programs.

Through her work and related trips to France, Robert has met her share of dignitaries.

“One of our great supporters over the years was the French ambassador, Jean-David Levitte.” When Sarkozy was elected, he selected Levitte to be his diplomatic adviser, so he was pulled from Washington to serve at Sarkozy’s side. But while he was here he was wonderful. He came to St. Louis and really listened to people’s voices and in turn helped them appreciate France.”

'Waging Peace' from Saint Louis to Lyon

Currently, Robert is president of Saint Louis-Lyon Sister Cities. “It’s more focused on St. Louis than my national work,” she says.

A signature project is Waging Peace, a funded knowledge exchange program focused on integration of minorities in inner city neighborhoods.  Both Lyon and St. Louis have similar problems and therefore they are seeking to share ideas on effective solutions.

Waging Peace brings leaders from American cities and their French sister city counterparts together in a program to share best practices about addressing integration issues.

“We’ve brought people from Lyon to see how we work with immigrants and disadvantaged,” Robert says. “And we were just in Lyon in December to learn from their successful programs.”

Robert in September with her son, Patrick, and her husband, Bruce, at the Growing Global Awards by the World Trade Center – Saint Louis.

In St. Louis, the program partners with World Trade Center St. Louis, with funding assistance from Sigma-Aldrich, the Deaconess Foundation, Commerce Bank, the French company bioMérieux, and private donors.

This and all of her work has unleashed a year of accolades for Robert. In September she received the Global Ambassador award from World Trade Center St. Louis for bringing international attention to the city and the Charbonnier Award from the Federation of Alliances Françaises for her work with those cultural and linguistic centers.

But before all that, being a Webster alumna with the pull to bring the French ambassador to St. Louis is what caught the attention of College of Arts & Sciences dean David Carl Wilson, who approached her about joining the College’s advisory board.

“We both share an interest in the international aspects of Webster,” Robert says. “Of course the Geneva campus is of interest to me. But we agree about the importance of encouraging adults and students to study a second or a third language – particularly through a university as international as Webster.”

But about that Legion of Honor. Robert now holds a rank established by Napoleon, in a tradition that even has a precursor aptly named L’Ordre de Saint-Louis, which goes back to Louis XIV in 1693. She appeared in Paris this month to receive the honor.

How does one find out an award like that is coming?

“Well, I received a call last April from French Ambassador Levitte in Washington, and he simply said: ‘Jane, I am very pleased to announce to you that the President of France has signed the decree declaring that you have been named a Knight in the Legion of Honor.’

“I cried,” she said. “It was really a 40-year journey, just teaching French and spreading knowledge and appreciation of French culture. At first I was simply stunned. And then, I was very deeply moved.”

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