I was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. My mother Gabriella is a retired lawyer, my father Gordon is a scientist who works for the Florida Department of Agriculture, and my younger brother Geoffrey is a university student and future financial planner. Starting at age 4, I attended a French elementary school (K-8); in other words, I grew up bilingually. Here's an interesting fact about me: I have dual citizenship; I am Canadian and American.
At age 13, I left my home in Canada and attended Interlochen Arts Academy, a private boarding high school in Interlochen, Michigan focused on the arts and college preparatory education. There, I majored in visual arts and studied photography and weaving. I graduated from high school in 1994 and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I double majored in French and German Linguistics. I studied abroad in Freiburg, Germany in 1996-1997, and I graduated from university in 1998.
After university, I worked at a translation company The GEO Group in Madison, Wisconsin.
After realizing that translation was not my calling in life, I decided to go to graduate school. I went to the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California where I received my Master's degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 2001.
After receiving my MA, I taught ESL full-time at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan from 2001-2003 and taught EFL at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Nisshin, Japan from 2003-2007 and at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya, Japan from 2007-2009. I am currently teaching at Nanzan University in the Department of British and American Studies. I have been teaching ESL/EFL part-time and full-time for over 14 years! I truly enjoy teaching English to non-native speakers. I especially enjoy teaching at the university and college levels.
Last updated: March 16, 2009