I came to Maine for college (Bates) and recently returned for retirement.
Within that passing period of time, I had varied professional experiences:
I was responsible for the Educational Support and eventually all of the Client Services for a startup software company. I resigned from that position to focus on my young family and raise our two boys. During those years, I pursued two opportunities concurrently: for the public schools, I taught English to Cambodian refugee children and for the community, I spear-headed the effort to purchase a defunct church hall and transition it to an arts center (that just celebrated its 25th anniversary). My final career was teaching German in our public Middle School.
Upon returning to Maine in retirement, I used my ESL certification and experience to teach English to new Mainers at the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center. This rekindled my interest to improve my French, the language of my French-Canadian heritage, which led me to Alliance Française du Maine.
The defining thread in my work is education and languages. My passion for learning foreign languages has been fueled and supported by the rich program of courses and cultural events offered by Alliance Française! (I even joined Alliance Française Charlottesville to take a course and travel to Lyon to take a week of classes at the Alliance Française in Lyon.) But here in Portland, through attending Alliance Française du Maine conversation tables, accessing Culturethèque and taking the French film course every semester, I have found a wonderful community of francophones and francophiles with similar passions and interests in my new hometown. I now look forward to volunteering my time to work alongside the other board members and help perpetuate the successes of the Alliance Française du Maine.