Skip to main content

Department of
French and Italian

wide shot of Cinque Terre, many colorful houses on a hilltop by the ocean

Career Outcomes

Your Success Story Is Waiting… Opportunities for those who study French or Italian are diverse. From law, to government, to teaching, to human resources, to tourism, the career possibilities are truly unlimited.

Alumni Stories

Anna Caruso, BA’18

French minor

After graduation, Anna went to work at Goldman Sachs in the private wealth management division.

 

 

 

Veronica Fulton, BA’16

headshot of Vernoica FultonFrench, Economics, and Political Science major

After graduation, Veronica participated in the State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship for Korean in Gwangju, South Korea, and then began legal studies at Harvard Law School. While at Vanderbilt, she served as a teaching assistant and was involved in organizations like the Journal of Law and Technology, the Women’s Law Association, and the Federalist Society. Veronica for a legal career in corporate law, with a particular interest in AI & technology.

 

Ana Luquerna, BA’16

Ana Luquerna headshotPolitical Science and Human and Organizational Development major, French minor

Ana was granted a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship after graduation, allowing her to live in Perpignan, France, teaching English to high school students. In her spare time in France, Ana volunteered at La Cimade as a refugee and immigration case assistant. She visited Calais, France, to meet with refugees participating in integration programs, and she also helped translate a video with refugee narratives from the camp.

After her Fulbright, Ana became an SEO fellow and worked at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City. Ana gained insight into corporate law and focused on the Latin America practice group. Ana then earned a master’s degree in refugee and forced migration studies from the University of Oxford for, and then a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

Stephen Zakwewicz, BA’16

headshot of Stephen ZakwiwiczFollowing graduation, Stephen spent two years working as an English teaching assistant in a high school in Linz, Austria.

“It’s a tremendous amount of fun trying to make English class interesting, relevant, and enjoyable for all my students, who are so interested in American culture, society, politics, and the language. There, the more apt you are in English and the more aware of the goings-on in the English-speaking world, the cooler you are! So, it’s never hard to keep the students interested and motivated. It’s especially enriching to be a sort of cultural ambassador, above all during a political year that had all eyes on America. Besides enjoying and acclimating to Austrian culture, I’ve also come to learn a lot about my own country and the people we are, having to reflect on and present it constantly. And of course, I love exploring my Alpine backyard and the rest of Europe in my spare time.”

Elisabeth Bloom, BA’15

headshot of Elisabeth BloomCello Performance and French Language and Literature major

Following graduation, Elisabeth taught high school French at the Greenwich, Connecticut branch of Fusion Academy, a private alternative school with campuses throughout the U.S., where all classes are one-on-one. During this time, she assisted Professor Lynn Ramey with research and translation work for her book on medieval French poet Jean Bodel. Elisabeth also continued to work actively as a musician, performing in concerts for The Schubert Club of Fairfield County, playing at weekly Sunday services, and teaching cello in the Greenwich community.

Elisabeth earned a Ph.D. in French at Princeton University. In her dissertation work, she combined her passions for French literature and music by researching 19th- and 20th-century French opera and ballet; specifically, she plans to examine the scores and libretti of works united by the theme of animate toys and dolls (Debussy’s La Boite à joujoux, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, Respighi’s La boutique fantasque, and Delibes’s Coppélia).