Nicholas Aro is a high school teacher and dancer from Boston. He currently teaches French and English as a second language at Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, where he lives with his cat Erica and husband Brandon. Nicholas has a great passion for travel, languages, human relations and dance. He is bilingual in French and English, is learning Italian and …
Willy Tshibangu
I did my primary and secondary studies in Kinshasa in Catholic schools where I obtained my baccalaureate in math-physics in 2005 and the university, at the Protestant where I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in finance, banking, and insurance, in 2010 in Kinshasa. I had to work for 5 years in the banking sector and then I immigrated to the United …
Mary Okin
Mary lived in France and attended a French lycée as a teenager and more recently lived in Quebec City for two years. She has a B.A. and an M.A. in French literature and completed her PhD in Canadian History with a focus on French Canada. In the past, she has taught French courses at the University of Maine and at …
Chantal Joubi
Chantal grew up in the suburbs of Paris. After graduating from high school with a Baccalaureate in Science, she started university in Paris XII, then moved to Boston, MA, where she finished her education at Bentley College with a Bachelor’s in Accountancy. Chantal also studied yoga and became a certified yoga teacher in Cambridge, MA in 2005. She worked several …
Charlie Hicks
I am delighted to be a teacher for the Alliance Française. I have been a student and life-long learner of French since 1984, when I spent the Academic Year 1984-85 in Rennes, France attending L’Université de Haute Bretagne. I lived with a French family for that year and to say that the experience impacted my life would be a gross …
Karen Girondel
Karen Girondel has been teaching French her entire adult life. After 38 years with teenagers in the Lexington Public Schools, she has gone on to share her love of French language and culture among former teenagers, aka adults, through Lexington Community Education where it’s ok to make mistakes as long as we are communicating in the language of Tintin, Catherine …
Nina Schmir
A New England native with a French father and American mother, Nina studied French at the University of Maine, then moved to Southwestern France to further her education at the University of Toulouse. While living in France she fell in love with the language and culture and began sharing her passion with students upon settling in Portland, Maine in 2009. …