I grew up in Westerly, RI - you sports students aren't too fond of that! Yes, I graduated from WHS, but you know I've become a rebel at heart!
URI (undergraduate studies)
I am a 1998 graduate of URI with a double major - Italian and Secondary Education - and one minor - Spanish. I did my student teaching at Narragansett High School.
Study abroad!
During my junior year at URI, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to study in Italy and spend the spring semester in Florence - la più bella città del mondo! There are many study-abroad programs. I went with UConn. I recommend studying abroad to all of my students if at all possible while in college. It was an enriching experience on many levels.
My heritage
I have pride in my Italian background and I am very connected to my roots thanks to my genitori. They both came from Calabria (marked in nero), a southern region of Italy, at the ages of 19 and 25, to get married and raise a family nel paese dell'opportunità : gli Stati Uniti. Four years after having gotten married, and two other children later, they had me. Imagine that! I could have been born in Italy if they just got married at an even younger age! Just kidding... I'll be okay... Anyway, as a result of the exposure to the Italian culture, traditions, and one of its many different dialects and having a great love for learning more about all those things, I not only speak the standard Italian language (the Tuscan dialect), I am also fluent in the Calabrese dialect; it's pretty much another language! I expose students to some of the fun phrases of that dialect at the fourth level of Italian studies.
Here at SKHS
I began teaching at SKHS in the spring of 1999 as a long-term substitute teacher for one semester for Signora Coutcher. Fortunately, I was able to come back to teach full-time in 2001 and have been here since!
MA from Middlebury College, VT
In 2003, I spent my first summer of three in Middlebury, Vermont at Middlebury College to earn my Masters Degree in Italian Studies: I graduated in August 2005. Now, that was the most amazing experience in my life. I spent each of those three summers only speaking Italian to others while in class, outside of class, participating in cultural events, at all meals, in the dorms... everywhere and at all times for 6 weeks! It was a very challenging and intense program, but I loved every minute of it! Check out their website to see what it's like; I'm in it too! Here is the link to the PDF file to the 2009-2010 handbook with more information about my experience... By the way, they quoted me on pg. 16!
RITI Secretary
I have been the Secretary of the Rhode Island Teachers of Italian since 2003. I, along with a group of very dedicated Executive Board Members (middle school, high school, and university Italian teachers from around the state), spend much time throughout the year organizing many cultural events and dinners, scholarships and field trips for Italian students, administration of the National Italian Exam, and much more.