Alumni

Nick De Toustain received his undergraduate degree at CU in French with a double major in Math in 1993. He continued on for his graduate MBA plus M.A. at BU in International Relations, then in 1997 worked in Paris for Valtech, a French IT consulting company. He then moved to London and finaly New York City with the same company.

"I have literally put my French degree to work as an employee of now 3 different French companies. It's interesting because some of those three companies are unabashedly French, whereas others (e.g. my current one) prefer to downplay it or not bring it up at all. French origin: asset or liability? In any case, being able to communicate in the language of Moliere both verbally and in writing with my French managers has served me well. It not only helped me get the job in the first place but added to the value I'm able to deliver to the company.

I will always be grateful to my CU French professors who taught me, challenged me, and yes, entertained me. Ever hear Prof. Braider's rendering of the "tarte à la crème" passage from l'Ecole des femmes? No? You're missing out!"

"I will always be grateful for my time in the Department of French & Italian at CU-Boulder. I was accepted to several excellent graduate programs, but the deciding factor for me was hearing from other students about how closely they worked with their professors. When I arrived in Boulder, I quickly discovered that in addition to being excellent scholars and fine teachers, my professors were kind people. I enjoyed a great deal of support beginning in my first semester in the M.A. program and extending all the way through my time on the job market. Now that I am a professor myself, I am all the more cognizant of the excellent mentorship that I received as a student, and I’m thankful for the friendships and professional relationships that continue to the present day."

Sam Teets is a Ph.D candidate in the English Department at USC Dornsife.

With a BA in French and anthropology from Dartmouth and two years served in the Peace Corps, I came to CU to sharpen my French skills to use in international work and to gain a deeper, more nuanced grasp of the language. I had the opportunity to study at CU from 2014-2015 in the Master’s program, teaching an undergraduate French course and honing my French skills while being exposed to ideas and authors that opened up my mind. I’ll never forget discovering Proust with Professor Bloomfield or the joys of extreme contemporary literature with Professor Motte!

My French study has opened doors for me to a unique and international career. After CU I had the opportunity to spend a year in Paris, where I interned at UNESCO’s headquarters and had a chance to combine my passions for language, culture, and the environment. While there, I drew on my French to collaborate in cofounding an international nonprofit focusing on cultural heritage protection in developing states threatened by climate change, and become a contributor and translator for a book published at UNESCO. Since then, for the past three years, I have worked in the nonprofit sector using my French as a program manager of international development projects across Africa.  

Jasmine Vojdani is a writer, editor, and teacher. She pursued the 5-year BA/MA track in French, where she benefited from close support from excellent faculty members and had the opportunity to teach her first class. Since graduating, she has gone on to teach language in France, held a management position at a bilingual non-profit, and completed an MFA in Columbia University’s creative writing program. She currently teaches nonfiction writing in Columbia’s summer program and works as an editor at New York Magazine. 

Since graduating in 2015 with a degree in French, I have been fortunate to have exciting careers in business development, fundraising, and public policy. I attribute much of that good fortune to the rigorous training I received from the faculty in the Department of French and Italian. The French major equipped me first and foremost to be a critical thinker and a precise communicator, skills that are truly invaluable to employers. I am excited to continue to draw on these skills as an incoming Juris Doctorate candidate at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in the fall of 2022. 

Maiji Castro graduated summa cum laude in Art History with a minor in Italian in the fall of 2016. She is currently pursuing her MA in Art and Museum Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and working with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to create a non-profit foundation to support national historic preservation efforts. Next year she will be continuing her studies in London at Sotheby’s Auction House.

"My name is Marlene Aramburo and I graduated from CU Boulder in August 2017. I declared a Humanities major the day of freshman orientation- having no idea what that meant- after looking at the degree audit for an Integrative physiology major. How did I chose to study Italian? To begin with, my freshman advisor told me I had not taken enough language courses in high school and thus had to take three semesters of a language of my choice at CU. Annoyed at the already-confusing university curriculum, as my advisor read the endless language possibilities, I stopped her at Italian. Three semesters quickly flew by and I realized that my Italian classes gave me a thrill that no other class gave me. I asked about a minor- then soon after, a major. I simply did not want to stop taking Italian classes.

Four years later, I am using my Italian major more than I ever imagined. I studied abroad in Ferrara during fall semester of 2016, where I lived with a host family and took classes at the local university. By May of 2017, three months before my official graduation, I had a job waiting for me in Milan- lacittà metropolitana. As you can imagine, summer was filled with prospect. Forward to now and I use my Italian every single day.

If it had not been for the Italian department always procuring not only my academic but also my professional life, I would not be nearly as happy as I am today. More than a “department”, I learned to view everyone as la mia famiglia. Out of a mass of 30,000 students trying to make it into the “real world,” the staff in the Italian department truly sought out my potential and provided me with a plethora of resources that enabled me to thrive with my Italian major. Studying Italian at CU Boulder was an unforgettable experience that created life-long bonds and passions."

Currently Marlene is working at the Univerity of Colorado Boulder as a Transfer Admissions Counselor in the Admissions Office.

Ciao! 

Serafina Paladino is now a Master of Letters candidate at St. Andrews in Scotland.

After graduating with my BA in Economics (international emphasis), I started working for Sompo International in the New York City office.  I am an underwriter for their US Commercial Management Liability division. Sompo International Holdings, Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, headquartered in Bermuda. Sompo International companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Sompo Holdings, Inc., whose core business encompasses one of the largest property and casualty insurance groups in the Japanese domestic market. Sompo International is a company driven by its core values, a carrier that holds promise, trust and the commitment to protect at the center of everything it does.

Kelton Jay Hevelone graduated with a major in Linguistics, German, and International Affairs. In September, 2021, he will be starting as an English Language Assistant and Tutor in English, in an Italian school in Brescia (near Milan).

Gabriel Ramos graduated from CU Boulder in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in music performance and a minor in the French language. He is currently pursuing a masters degree in Ohio at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has recently joined the substitute roster for the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida.

Learning another language is an incredibly poetic process for an individual to undertake. In doing so one literally expands the platform through which they communicate and interact with the world around them. With another language, comes a whole new capacity to understand art, history, culture and by extension the human experience as we know it. It gives us a glimpse of where we came from, and perhaps even where we will go. 

 

For me, the French program at CU presented a significant opportunity to learn more about a language and other cultures that would have otherwise been unknown to me. Many of my classmates carry the same sentiment, and we think fondly on our experience with the superstar faculty lineup at CU in the Department of French & Italian.

After finishing her PhD, Danica Petrovska left the mountains for the beach.

She teaches French language at the Windsor School in the Bahamas to prepare students to make a difference in the world. While she enjoys marine activities and turquoise blue waters, she dearly misses the Colorado mountains and skiing.

Windsor School is one of the leading private and boarding schools in the Caribbean, bringing international education to the region.