Embedded Files
Reflecting on three Engaged Learning experiences that set me apart in my undergraduate career, my graduate school applications, and the job market.
FSA PRESIDENT
FSA PRESIDENT
2023-2025 President of the Francophone Student Association at IU Indianapolis.
Study Abroad
Study Abroad
2025 Spring Semester Study Abroad - l'Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada.
MCPO (HONORS)
MCPO (HONORS)
2025 Spring Semester Court Interpreting Intern at the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
reflection
reflection
What each of these Engaged Learning experiences entailed and what I gained from them.
FSA President
FSA President
I took on the role of FSA President in Fall 2023 when the previous president retired to focus on finishing out her senior year. From starting as the only member of the club and executive board to building up the club through hard work, relentlessness and passion, I have developed resilience and leadership skills that will last a lifetime.
I restructured the club from the top down to ensure its longevity and success through actions such as:
-finding members to fill the exec board;
-making a Google Drive full of resources for future exec members;
-revamping the Instagram aesthetic appeal to students and activity;
-redesigning our logo;
-planning each month's big event and each week's French conversation table (and curating vocabulary sheets for each week's theme so that students can learn new words and keep practicing after they leave);
-serving as the USG Representative and LASC Representative while also being president;
-creating our semester budgets and handling financial aid requests;
-submitting all of our event requests, designing posters myself and putting them up around campus;
-doing outreach to other IUI clubs and around the community;
-planning free excursions for students such as seeing Les Mis at IU Bloomington and attending an international film festival where we met a French film creator and spoke to him after his film's showing;
-and more.
Of all that I've done with FSA, the fruits of my French capstone (making French connections in Indianapolis) have led to the most significant accomplishment yet: I created a series of presentations and tutoring events for high school students in French classes across Indiana to teach why studying French is important, show what we have to offer at IU Indy French, and illustrate different career paths with the French language.
FSA Secretary Rianna VanHook and FSA Co-Vice President Kayla Williams have joined me in this project to showcase our three unique French-related career aspirations to Southport, Herron, Herron-Riverside, Greencastle, and Noblesville High Schools. I cannot help but burst with pride for VanHook and Williams' hard work, as they've been eager to give their all to spreading their love for French even when it means getting up at 5:30 AM with me to drive an hour away for an early-morning presentation at a rural high school. From doing everything -- and I mean everything -- by myself to building an eager exec board who will keep this club thriving long after I've left IU Indy, I have come a long way with FSA and learned how strong we can be as a team.
I cannot imagine a more meaningful way to close out my time as FSA President and my undergraduate career at IU Indy as a whole.
Presenting IU Indy French at Greencastle High School on February 21st, 2025
Presenting IU Indy French at Greencastle High School on February 21st, 2025
Study Abroad
I studied abroad at l'Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada in Spring 2024, where I lived in a 100% French-speaking city and took classes completely in French. I went skiing for the first time, spent Spring Break in Québec Cité (where I fell in love with French 8 years prior), and made amazing friends from Costa Rica, Belgium, Iran, Congo, Morocco, France, Mexico, Venezuela, and so many more places.
I was able to explore many dialects of French, learn how to overcome challenges while being on my own, and navigate a culture that is very different from my own. It may have been a pain to carry my two giant reusable bags full of heavy groceries on an hour-long bus ride from the store and through three feet of snow for the fifteen-minute walk back to my dorm, but it taught me patience, flexibility, open-mindedness, sustainable living, and how to build arm muscle without going to the gym. :)
Amongst my classes, ranging from Québecois culture and French grammar to a Spanish class taught completely in French, was FLS071 French Language. In this course, each student chose a book from a collection of short academic titles from the "Que sais-je?" ("What do I know?") literary collection to read throughout the semester. We took detailed notes and presented on our books once a week leading up to the final presentation, which was a critical synthesis of the book.
I chose to read "Santé et Environnement" ("Health and Environment") by William Dab and ultimately, in my final critical synthesis, broke down the academic content into easily digestible information and proved why I believe that the book is unfit for its title. Dab spoke of the difference between risks and dangers and how public health should be managed by governments.
In my opinion, the title of the book did not indicate that this niche-r topic would be the book's focus, making it a denser, more scientific, and more math-involved read that the typical reader would have gleaned from the title. Through my studies and adventures in Québec, I mastered both Spanish and French, practiced a sustainable lifestyle, and kept an open mind to soak in new cultures and overcome challenges, which ultimately made me the dynamic person I am today.
synthese finale.pdfFinal Critical Synthesis presentation in FLS071 French Language on "Santé and Environnement" by William Dab from my Spring 2024 Semester Exchange in Québec
Final Critical Synthesis presentation in FLS071 French Language on "Santé and Environnement" by William Dab from my Spring 2024 Semester Exchange in Québec
MCPO Internship
As a Court Interpreting Intern at the Prosecutor's Office, I figured that I would just be translating jail calls for attorneys to analyze and shadowing the interpreters in the courtroom -- but my role is much more than that. Not only do I translate jail calls, but it's me who analyzes them for key evidence. Not only do I shadow interpreters in court, but I also court prep with victims and stay with them while they're waiting to testify, explaining court proceedings and answering questions about the process.
Recently, my supervisors have made me the head interpreter in depositions with the defense, my role being to ensure that the defense's interpreter is translating accurately (which, more often than you'd think, they're not). I translate between the prosecutor and victim on phone calls and in meetings, reach out to the victim with key info and trial dates, and ultimately, serve as their advocate and wealth of knowledge and valuable resources.
My goal as an interpreter is to be a neutral party that exists solely as the voice of the attorney to the victim and vice versa, rather than as myself. However, what I've learned with MCPO is that I am also an advocate for the victim, serving not only as their voice but helping them feel comfortable and safe in telling their story. I also connect them to relocation/rent assistance, therapy, immigration status support, and more. In finding court interpreting, I've found a path to my dream career: helping people find strength, healing and confidence in some of the worst moments of their lives.
I plan to take a gap year to continue with court interpreting before going on to law school to take the passion I've found in this work to the next level.
Headshot taken at the beginning of my Spring 2025 Semester Court Interpreting Internship at the Marion County Prosecutor's Office
Headshot taken at the beginning of my Spring 2025 Semester Court Interpreting Internship at the Marion County Prosecutor's Office
translating my skills
translating my skills
All three of my Engaged Learning experiences have provided me with skills that will transfer directly to my future career.
As president of FSA, I learned: how to lead and build confidence in myself in my peers; how to be a resource, a mentor, and an advocate my peers; and how to use my voice to advocate for the future of world languages at IU Indy for my peers and all of the passionate, talented, and global-minded students who come after us. I learned how our future leaders are made through language study in watching my peers come to life through their involvement with FSA.
By interning at MCPO, I learned how language study translates to justice for our neighbors right here in Indianapolis. I saw firsthand how the lack of world language students exacerbates the stress on our limited resources in the way of linguistic and cultural diversity. I witnessed how learning a language in the classroom doesn't prepare a student for the different dialects and slang that will pop up as they speak with the diverse residents of their community.
My time at l'Université de Sherbrooke was my first introduction to the many different dialects of La Francophonie. It showed me what it looks like to live in a world that operates in French, and showed me how hard it is to live life in a language other than your own. I could apply this to Indianapolis when I returned, as I now could directly empathize with how hard it must be for non-English speakers to navigate life here in Indy. Many associate world language studies with learning and living abroad as an adult, but my studies in Sherbrooke fueled the fire in me to be an advocate for those who are living life in a completely new language right here at home, because I know the stress of not be able to refill my prescriptions or find my dorm in the maze of student housing because of my linguistic and cultural background.
All of these Engaged Learning experiences have made me who I am: an advocate for linguistic diversity and for equal access to justice for all of our neighbors, English-speaking or not. More than this, I am fluent in three languages, open-minded, flexible, gritty, and interdisciplinary; I see how my studies in world languages go hand-in-hand with my passion for social justice through my lived experience, personally and professionally. I am well-prepared for my gap year working in Court Interpreting and for my future career in law as a trilingual attorney through these Engaged Learning experiences that have shaped who I am as I've overcome real-world challenges in the context of my studies.
Explore my Formal Retrospective
Explore my Formal Retrospective
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