Maria Kurt is the founder and director of the French School and the French Institute. Having taught French for the past twenty years in Paris, San Francisco and the Chicago suburbs, Maria is passionate about second language acquisition, particularly bilingualism in young children. She has shared her enthusiasm and expertise as a speaker for the American Association of Teachers of French and at national and state conferences for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Her works have been published by Scott Foreman and Teacher's Discovery. She was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Foreign Language Fellowship and was awarded the Prix d'Excellence from the Northern Illinois chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French.