Current Officers

Nathalie is a native French speaker, originally from Normandy, but she was born and grew up until the age of 11 in Ivory Coast. After graduating from the University of Angers in the Pays de Loire region of France with her Master’s degree in Applied Languages to International Business and spending her final year studying in Ireland with the Erasmus program, Nathalie was hired by the University of Maine system to come be a teaching assistant for one year. She ended up meeting her future husband and continued teaching at UMM for five years. Nathalie’s first experience teaching had been while in Limerick, Ireland, at the local Alliance Française. Nathalie has now been living in Maine for the past 26 years and has also taught at UMA, as well as at the elementary and secondary school levels, more recently at Mt. Ararat HS in Topsham. Nathalie is also the French translator for the African newspaper for the new Mainers, Amjambo Africa! She is passionate about teaching and sharing her native language, and the Francophone cultures. An avid reader and traveler, the mother of 2 grown up sons and the grandmother of an 8 year-old little girl , Nathalie lives in Edgecomb with her husband and her cats.

Cindy Matthews grew up in Cumberland, Maine.  Her family’s origins are strictly from the British Isles, but she has always had a fascination with French and began to study French as an 8th grader at Waynflete school.  She continued her studies at Tufts University, spending her Junior Year Abroad in Paris, taking courses at l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) et la Sorbonne.  Pendant cette année, elle a fait un stage comme Assistante dans la classe d’anglais comme langue étrangère, et elle a su qu’elle voulait enseigner.  Après avoir obtenu son diplôme en Relations Internationales de Tufts, elle a passé trois ans au Japon comme Assistante Anglaise.  Un an après, elle est revenue dans le Maine, elle a suivi les cours pour devenir enseignante à USM et elle a reçu sa Maîtrise en 2000.  En juin, elle a participé dans son premier Institut Acadien avec Maine Geographic Alliance: The St. John River Valley, Maine and New Brunswick.  Elle est devenue passionnée des études Acadiennes et Franco-Américaines, et a participé aux Instituts qui suivent:  Atlantic Canada and Northern Maine en 2001, et la Louisiane en 2002.  En 2013, elle a assisté au dernier Institut de Ray Pelletier:  Exploring the Acadian Peninsula from Fort Kent, to Caraquet and Bouctouche, New Brunswick, Canada.  Et en 2014, elle a fait des études intensives dans le Maine avec National Endowment for the Humanities/Maine Humanities Council Summer Institute, Borders and Borderlands: The Acadian Experience in Maine.  Cindy enseigne depuis 24 ans au niveau secondaire, 21 ans à Sacopee Valley High School, les deux dernières années à Lewiston High School et présentement, à Massabesic High School.  Elle est devenue Vice Présidente d’AATF-Maine en 2019. 

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 understatement.

Since then I have done my best to surround myself with the French Language and Culture. To that end, I transferred to the University of Maine at Fort Kent where I took part in “The Northeast Expedition”. This travel study program had its participants camping our way from the north shore of the Saint Laurence to the Berkshires of Massachusetts, for one semester as we learned about the ecology, agriculture, natural history and culture of our region. After my two years in Fort Kent I went back to France where I studied for one year at L’Université François Rabelais in Tours.

Having lived in Fort Kent, France and on my frequent trips to Québec I have been exposed to many of the regional variants of the French Language and have learned a great deal of the variety of French Culture. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with the Alliance Française community.

RSU 2

Darcy grew up in western Maine and is proud of her Acadian and French-Canadian roots. She majored in Linguistics at USM after participating in the French Immersion Program at UMF. She taught English as a Second Language before transitioning to teaching French.  She has taught French pre-k through adults. Darcy has visited Montreal and Quebec, Canada and Paris, Le Mans, Agen, Bordeaux, Lyon and Vichy, France.