Mr. Fabrice Paradis-Béland
Title(s): Assistant Head of School/Program Grades 4-8
Fabrice Paradis-Béland joined the French International School of Philadelphia in 2011. After many years teaching Middle School Social Studies and Latin and serving as Middle School Coordinator, he now serves as Assistant Head of the Upper School, where he oversees academic programming and student life while continuing to teach Latin.
Before joining FISP, Mr. Paradis-Béland taught political science and the humanities at Villanova University and was a research scholar at both Villanova and Princeton Universities.
His academic journey has taken him across North America and Europe. He earned a bachelor's degree from Laval University in Québec City and a master's degree from the University of Ottawa before pursuing advanced studies in France at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris and in Germany at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He studied philosophy, history, political science, Latin, and German. Mr. Paradis-Béland is currently completing his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Strasbourg, where his research focuses on twentieth-century German philosophy.
Mr. Paradis-Béland is the recipient of Villanova University's Jack Miller Fellowship Award.
He believes that bilingual education is one of the greatest gifts a school can offer its students. "In an increasingly interconnected world," he says, "the ability to think, learn, and communicate in more than one language opens doors—not only professionally, but intellectually and culturally."
What makes the French International School of Philadelphia truly exceptional, in his view, is the opportunity for students to receive a rigorous education grounded in both the French and American educational traditions. "Our students learn to move comfortably between languages, cultures, and ways of thinking," he explains. "Combined with our small class sizes and close-knit community, this allows every child to be known, challenged, and supported as an individual."