Julie Rudd Coulombe was a lifelong ESL teacher in Ithaca and an advocate for people learning English. She became fluent in Thai while an exchange student in Thailand, and in Spanish while teaching in Ecuador. Her masters in Adult Education gave her lots of ideas for teaching that she shared freely while she was the Coordinator of the BOCES Adult ESL Program. Julie remembered everyone’s name, both in the ESL program and going back to her first years of teaching! She loved to sing and laugh and sew and garden. Many people lived with her family over the years, and she made all of us feel that we were members of her family. Julie died in March 2019, and the teachers here (at Open Doors English: The Julie Rudd Coulombe Language Program) miss her deeply.

Our name “Open Doors English” comes from a story that Julie told often. A student many years ago told her that living in Ithaca without knowing English is like living in a house with windows but no doors. You can see out, but you cannot go out and participate in life outside your house. We want you to know English that opens doors for you.