Julia “Jules” Ashworth (class of 2026) fell in love with the French language at an early age, when she took her first French class in the third grade. She continued to study French up until middle school, when she was required to take Spanish, but then re-enrolled in French as soon as she got to high school.
During her senior year of high school, she decided to embark on a yearlong study abroad program living with a host family in Rennes, France. This experience deepened her passion even more.
“I really grew to appreciate French culture, especially the focus on work-life balance, the depth of the language, and the importance placed on family and community—it exceeded my expectations,” Ashworth said. “My time in France really expanded my worldview, and I wanted to maintain my French language so I would be able to communicate effectively with francophone countries. My hope to stay connected to the international French speaking community is what has kept me motivated and passionate about my French studies.”
While living in France during her senior year, Ashworth explored both U.S. and European universities. After being accepted to Vanderbilt, she was drawn to its academic rigor and supportive community, recognizing it as the ideal place to pursue her goals.
“Vanderbilt brings together incredibly hardworking, humble, and diverse students who constantly expand my way of seeing the world,” she said. “At the same time, the professors create an environment that is both intellectually challenging and deeply supportive. When choosing where to attend college, strong relationships with professors were very important to me. In the College of Arts and Science, I have found faculty who genuinely invest in their students’ growth and curiosity in ways that have exceeded my expectations.”
Ashworth’s curiosity and wide-ranging interests led her to triple major in philosophy, communication studies, and French. She chose philosophy after taking an ethics course her freshman year that she loved; communication studies to support her interests in persuasion, rhetoric, and public discourse; and French to keep her passion for the language and culture alive.
“Together, these three fields have given me different ways to understand how people think, communicate, and shape ideas,” Ashworth said. “Philosophy taught me how to reason and analyze complex problems, French allowed me to engage with culture and literature in another language, and communication studies helped me understand how ideas are conveyed and interpreted in society. Rather than choosing just one perspective, I realized that studying all three allowed me to approach problems in a more thoughtful and interdisciplinary way.”
Ashworth has immersed herself fully throughout her four years in Arts and Science. She has been the director of philanthropy for her sorority; president of the Vanderbilt Pre-Law Society; a member of the College of Arts and Science Dean’s Undergraduate Advisory Board; and a participant in the LeaDORES Certificate Program, a five-week leadership development experience that equips Vanderbilt students with essential leadership skills. She has also forged deep connections with the broader Nashville community through Vanderbilt’s Project Outdoors, where Vanderbilt students bring outdoor educational lessons to Metro Nashville Public School classrooms, and through Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), which advocates for children in the Nashville foster care system.
Throughout her undergraduate experience, her desire to remain connected to the international French community never wavered.
Ashworth planned to write an article about French Impressionism for the online peer-reviewed journal,
AmeriQuests, founded and edited by Professor of French and Comparative Literature Robert Barsky. At Ashworth’s request, Barsky obtained a copy of the book Paris 1874: The Impressionist Movement, edited by Sylvie Patry and Anne Robbins. The book had an impact on Ashworth, leading her and Barsky to develop an Immersion Vanderbilt project culminating in a written comparative analysis of the book with Emile Zola’s The Masterpiece. Ashworth traveled to France—visiting Paris, Nice, and Aix-en-Provence—for four days to explore the locations that inspired some of the most famous paintings in the world.
“This experience allowed me to engage with art, literature, and history in the places where many of these works were created, which made the research especially meaningful,” Ashworth said. “I went to Palais Garnier to see Degas and Cassatt, Gare Saint-Lazare for Monet, and Musee de Montmartre for Renoir, to name a few. I also went to the incredible Musée D’Orsay, Musée de L’Orangerie, and Le Petit Palais to see these works in person. I learned so much about Emile Zola, his inspiration for his novels, how the French impressionist movement came to be, and who these artists were.”
As her Vanderbilt journey comes to an end, Ashworth is looking forward to pursuing a career in law, having accepted a position in the two-year Business Services Trainee program at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York. She credits her Arts and Science education with providing her the necessary critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills that are essential in the legal profession.
“Courses across my majors have encouraged me to approach problems from multiple perspectives and to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively to different audiences,” Ashworth said. “Vanderbilt truly is what you make of it. The university offers extraordinary academic opportunities, but some of the most meaningful moments come from the experiences and relationships you build along the way. I’ve always been someone who likes to plan out my life, but Vanderbilt has taught me to loosen that grip and let new opportunities guide me. The four years go by quickly, so it’s important to appreciate both the big accomplishments and the small, everyday moments that make the experience so special.”