Alumni of The French Program at Lehman College, CUNY

Meet some of our Lehman College alumni with Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degrees in French.

They exemplify the many career paths followed by the dozens of graduates who have completed study for a Major or Minor in The French Program at Lehman College.

Are you a Lehman graduate with a major or minor in French and do not appear here? On aimerait bien avoir de vos nouvelles!
Please email a faculty member (teaching courses in French) of Lehman's Department of Languages and Literatures.

Amah Justin d'Almeida

2017, Montréal

Double Major, French (B.A.) and Computer Information Systems (B.S.), 2004.

Amah Justin d'Almeida completed his Master's Degree in Economics at City College of CUNY in 2008.

From 2004 until 2006, he worked for Hachette Distribution Services RNA, a U.S. subsidiary of a French company where he was able to combine his love of the French language with his passion for numbers.

After a four-year stint with the software company ChannelAdvisor, in 2010 he joined his current employer, Dtouch New York Ltd, a prestigious post-production studio. He rose through the ranks to become their Financial Controller in 2013. The working languages of the diverse staff at Dtouch, a company established by three French partners in its Paris headquarters, are English and French.

Born and raised in Togo, Amah was fluent in French before coming to the U.S. Nonetheless, at Lehman, he recalls, "under the tutelage of professors Lynne Van Voorhis, Antoinette Blum and Thomas Spear, I was exposed to the richness of the French language through various periods of literature, philosophical schools, and through courses in advanced grammar and translation."

"This unparalleled education turned me from a bookish young man into a well-read Renaissance man with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge," he maintains, elaborating upon Montaigne ("Mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu’une tête bien pleine") to argue that "having loads of information readily available does not make us better thinkers. The mastery of how to use that information and put it to the best use is the key to success both professionally and personally."

Amah Justin d'Almeida is a founding member and Treasurer of T.A.U.P. (Togolese Americans United for Progress), a charity whose primary goal is to ease the integration of immigrants from Togo into the U.S. by helping them acquire documents, find affordable housing and decent jobs, gain access to health care, pursue higher education, and build strong financial foundations.

Catherine Amsellem

2019, New York

B.A., Major in French, 1988.

A French native, Catherine Amsellem moved to New York from Israel as young married woman with her first son. Born and raised in Paris, she arrived in the United States speaking French, German and Hebrew, but very little English. With her French baccalauréat (high school diploma), she enrolled (under her married name Seligman) at Lehman, hoping to get a degree in education to become a teacher of French.

As a French native, she found her professors to have higher expectations of her compared to her peers. She loved her classes in film with Prof. Donald Furber at Lehman, "Professor Furber was a fun-spirited individual and always very innovative with his curriculum." Her performance in her courses was so stellar that Prof. Hanna Charney, of Hunter College and The Graduate Center, invited Catherine to apply to the doctoral program in French, but the necessities of life brought her elsewhere.

She followed an advisor's recommendation to take advanced math classes in order to graduate from Lehman with honors (Pi Beta Kappa), which she did, with a 3.95 GPA. After graduation, she began a position in MIS (management information systems) at Morgan Stanley, a financial firm that sought new employees with computer skills and a solid liberal arts education. "Learning French culture, especially with foreigners, gave me a fascinating perspective of history and politics. This exposure to world affairs and history has helped me to speak intelligently with clients on a broad number of topics."

Her diverse background combined with her French degree have given her the upper hand to relate to people of diverse backgrounds and to change careers as her life has evolved. After working in the computer field for ten years, she worked as an executive search recruiter and, more recently, as a restaurant owner.

From 2007 to 2017, Catherine and her chef partner ran a French bistro in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan called Parigot, known as "a little Paris in downtown New York." Meaning "Parisian," Parigot became a pillar of the neighborhood, attracting a diverse clientèle, including regulars and tourists. "It was a lot of work, but rewarding to host artists, politicians and regular people from New York and from all over the world," she recalls. "They loved the casual, French bistro atmosphere. It seemed as though everyone was eager to practice the little French they knew!"

Her two sons grown (one attends Lehman College), Catherine Amsellem works as a consultant and continues to enjoy the diversity of New York City and its endless possibilities.

Francis G. Ashun

2017, The Bronx

B.S., Major in Health Education and Promotion (with Departmental Honors), Minor in French (Recipient of the Gabrielle Medeot Prize in French), 1993.

Francis Ashun completed his Master's Degree in Public Health at Hunter College of CUNY in 1999.

From 1994 until 2003, he worked in the Bureau of Tuberculosis and STD of the New York City Department of Health.

Since 2003, he has worked with the New Jersey State Department of Health, where he is currently Program Specialist in the Division of HIV, STD and TB Services.

"Study of French opened up a vista to learn other Romance languages," he says. In addition to French and English, Francis speaks Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. From his native Ghana, he also speaks Fanti, Twi, Krobo and Adangbe, and he has learned basic Polish.

At Lehman, he recalls that Prof. Spear required his students to become active participants during class discussions: "It forced me," he says, "to cultivate a yearning for reading French articles and magazines, a habit that has stayed with me throughout my journey in this beautiful Romance language."

Francis Ashun released a jazz album, You Are the Love of My Life, in 2015 (available online through streaming services and media retailers).

In 2017, he published his book, A Chronicle of the Life of an Immigrant in the U.S. Soon after its publication in Accra (Ghana), this "must read" memoir was released in ebook format, available online. For this memoir, he filmed two interviews at Lehman in August 2017 (available online in English and in French) and was featured in Lehman News: "Lehman Alumni and Author Achieves the 'American Dream'."

Marie-Christiane Bontemps

2017, Paris

B.A., Major in French, 1993.

Originally from Guadeloupe, Marie-Christiane Bontemps began school in Haiti. She arrived at age thirteen to New York where she had to learn English, in addition to her French and Creole. She also became fluent in Spanish in the Bronx where she completed high school.

Marie-Christiane remembers French at Lehman as her favorite subject, reading different writers with her "open-minded professors, and fun and motivated classmates." She served one year as president of the French club on campus; "we were able to discover French cuisine and culture." She also remembers "meeting some of the writers whose works we had read," including Tahar Ben Jelloun, Maryse Condé, Dominique Fernandez and Leslie Kaplan.

After graduation, she taught French at M.S. 113 in the Bronx, then at Bunnell High School in Stratford, Connecticut. She moved to France in 2004.

Marie-Christiane Bontemps teaches English at the Collège International Sainte-Marie in Meaux, a school that aims for all its graduates to be bilingual. She also teaches French and English at the Centre Berlitz in Paris. In France, she says, there is a need to learn both English and French, as with expats working in French companies. She also promotes language learning in sub-Saharan Africa through Vision for the Children Foundation.

"French has opened many doors for me, not only in my daily life, but also when I travel around the world on holiday or for work."

Martin Estrella

2018, Philadelphia

B.A., Major in French, 1997.

While at Lehman, Martin Estrella spent one year with the Paris-CUNY exchange program. "I planned to stay only one semester, but I so much liked being in Paris that I stayed for a full year. When I arrived in France, I thought I knew French, but living in France and speaking the language every day with locals allowed me to become truly fluent."

Martin speaks English, French and Spanish fluently, and speaks some Italian and Polish as well.

"My first job after college was with a small French company, working with French customers, organizing tours and packages for French visitors in New York. My degree in French was instrumental in launching my career."

He has been using French on a daily basis for over twenty years with colleagues and customers. Since 1999, he has worked in the packaging industry of international cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies. His responsibilities include exchanges with clients from Québec (specifically, from the greater Montréal metropolitan area). Speaking French has allowed Martin to have an edge in winning projects over non-French-speaking competition, given the prominence of the French in the cosmetics industry.

See Martin Estrella's LinkedIn profile.

Alexis Frederick

2017, Tokyo

B.A. Major in Linguistics, Double Minor in French and Japanese, 2016.

After graduating, Alexis Frederick was accepted to the Japan Exchange Teacher (JET) Program. He is an Assistant Language Teacher at a Technical High School in Tokyo, where he teaches English, promotes study abroad awareness, and exposes students to different cultures.

Born in Brooklyn, Alexis grew up in a multilingual household. His family is Garifuna, originally from Honduras. Alexis did not speak English until the age of five. His love for language learning developed during childhood, when his maternal grandmother made him her private translator every time she went shopping. "My grandmother and I had a unique way of communicating between one another," he recalls. "She used to speak to me in Garifuna and I responded in Spanish."

In Spring 2012, Alexis enrolled at Lehman as a transfer student, with the intention of majoring in Dietetics, Foods and Nutrition. He was advised by a dear mentor to study French. Although hesitant, he registered for Ms. Iziar De Miguel's French course and discovered an affinity for the language. He recalls, for example, that his background in Garifuna helped him quickly master numbers in French, because the Garifuna numbering system is based on that of French. After an "awesome" first semester, Alexis decided to enroll in the summer session taught by Mr. Miguel García. "Mr. Garcia is one of my role models. His love for French was inspirational and contagious." Alexis changed his major to Linguistics with a minor in French. He also decided to apply to the New York/Paris Exchange Program.

Accepted into the program, Alexis arrived in Paris in January 2013. He studied French and Portuguese at the Université de Paris-8 (Saint-Denis). "Studying in Paris," he says, "was the greatest decision I ever made. Not only did I learn how to speak French, I also learned many life lessons, and how to stand on my own two feet." Because of his African ancestry and his name, Alexis Frederick found that he was expected to be more fluent in French than his other classmates, "I had to learn how to speak French without an English accent in order to survive." Studying in Paris also opened many opportunities in addition to learning to speak both French and Portuguese. At Paris-8, he met a trilingual Japanese student who encouraged him to take up the study of Japanese to broaden his perspective of the world.

"Learning another language is like a hiker who reaches the summit of his or her first mountain who realizes, after looking at the horizon, that there are still other mountains to climb. Studying French allowed me to discover another part of me that I didn't know existed."

Miguel A. García

2014, Monterey, California

B.B.A., Major in Business Administration, Minor in French, 2008.

Born in the Dominican Republic, Miguel García came to the U.S. at age nine, and grew up in New York City. Though initially interested in graphic and performing arts, he completed a Bachelor in Business Administration degree at Lehman College. During his sophomore year at Lehman, Miguel took an introductory French class and fell in love with French language and culture. This passion inspired him to study abroad through the Paris-CUNY Exchange Program. The year in Paris, he says, was "life-changing." Completely submerged in a French-speaking society, he found himself learning the language more quickly than he’d imagined. He enrolled in regular university courses with French students, made many new friends, and felt comfortably in sync with the way of life in the historical European city.

After graduation from Lehman, Miguel worked two years in corporate America as a sales analyst. His passion for languages, however, led him to return to school to pursue a Master’s degree in French Linguistics and Pedagogy from Middlebury College. After completing his Master's, he found himself back at Lehman College in the very classrooms where he started his journey in French, but now as the instructor, teaching beginning and intermediate courses in French as an adjunct lecturer in 2011 and 2012.

While a student at Middlebury, Miguel attended a presentation on conference interpreting. Over time, this introduction sparked an interest in a career in interpreting. "The more I learned about the field," he recounts, "the more I discovered about myself, feeling more and more enticed by what was described as 'a day in the life of an interpreter'." He was accepted and enrolled at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, where he graduated with an M.A. in Conference Interpreting in 2014, with English, French and Spanish as his working languages.

Miguel García lives in Washington, D.C. where he works as a freelance interpreter in the city's dynamic conference market. Home to many international organizations and the seat of the U.S. government, Washington offers many opportunities to practice the skills and expertise Miguel has gained not only from his upbringing as a Dominican-American in the Bronx, but also from his professional and personal endeavors overseas and in the United States. When interpreting at conferences convened, for example, by the U.S. Department of State, the Organization of American States, or the World Bank, he draws upon his formative training and experiences that prove vital at every meeting, where topics can range from human rights and development to economics and finance. In 2020, Miguel García was awarded by the U.S. State Department the distinction of the Interpreter of the Year.

Proud of his CUNY education, Miguel García fondly remembers where this journey began, "the campus next to the train tracks!" He cites Lehman College as the place where he uttered his first words in French. "Thanks to the French Program at Lehman and the Paris-CUNY Exchange Program, I have been able to fulfill my dream of actively working in my three languages, helping to build a bridge between people from around the world."

Althea Greenidge

2015, London

B.A., Major in French, 1988.

After her undergraduate studies at Lehman, Althea Greenidge took graduate courses in translation and linguistics at NYU, at the Teachers College of Columbia University, and at The Graduate Center of CUNY.

Althea Greenidge began teaching French and Spanish in London, England, in 2001. For three years, she was also head of the department of languages at Bishop Douglass School in north London. Since 2012, she has been a French and Spanish Teacher at the Raine's Foundation School in London.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Althea says "Lehman College reminded me of home in that it was gentle and friendly, and I always looked forward to going to classes." She recalls her Lehman years as a time when she was "flirting with life, darting to and fro like a hummingbird sampling its fare. The Lehman experience became the macrocosm of the multinational microcosm I left in primary and secondary schools. Life at Lehman became 'the' wonderful melting pot I had (prior to that experience) only experienced in part, and read of in books."

Althea's "love affair" with French began when she started to learn the language at age eight in Trinidad where she studied it throughout high school. While in New York, her love for the language grew at Lehman. She recalls the "glorious" time when she studied, through the Paris-CUNY Exchange Program, at the Université de Paris-3 (Sorbonne) as "nothing less than a dream come true. Paris was everything that I thought it would be, and then some." She finds it ironic that, now that she lives so much closer to France, she has been less able to completely immerse herself in the language.

She appears attracted to "an elusiveness about the notion of living in foreign countries": "I loved New York, and at the time felt that I couldn’t get enough of it. Now I am 'away' again, living in the outskirts of London, England. London is not like New York, but it suits the stage of life that I am at currently: a laid-back observer."

Mounkaila Hamani

2016, New York

B.A., Major in French, Minor in Early Childhood Education, 2008.

Mounkaila Hamani is from Niger, where he completed his first undergraduate degree, after which he taught primary school and worked for the Niger Ministry of Education. He also worked with Aide et Action International supporting education in Niger. Dreaming of larger horizons, he emigrated to the United States in 2002.

While in New York, Mounkaila Hamani decided to return to school. At Bronx Community College, he learned English as a new language (his formal education had been in French), and completed his Associate's degree in 2004. He then followed an advisor's recommendation to pursue study for a Bachelor's, and in particular to consider Lehman College.

Mounkaila decided to major in French at Lehman, attracted by the idea of studying literature and the challenge to perfect his writing. "As my mentor, Professor Lynne Van Voorhis was instrumental in helping me overcome many obstacles," he recalls. "Professor Thomas Spear is well-versed in literature and has a great network of people from French-speaking countries." Mounkaila remembers visits to Lehman of guest lecturers, in particular the Haitian-Canadian author Marie-Célie Agnant and Dominique Fernandez from the Académie Française: "That international presence of French made Lehman a great place to learn."

After graduation, Mounkaila attended a CUNY job fair where he was offered, and accepted, employment with the Education Development Center in Brooklyn. While working as Case Manager for EDC, he attended Metropolitan College where he finished a Master's degree in Public Administration in 2012.

Since December 2012, Mounkaila Hamani has been Program Assistant Manager for Cerebral Palsy of Westchester, in White Plains, New York, a non-profit organization providing services to children and adults with cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities. "Working in a management position, I face many challenges, but I have developed confidence in my leadership."

Richard Levy

2016, Brooklyn

B.A., Major in French, 1974.

Richard Levy was born in Manhattan and grew up in the Bronx. He began college in fall 1968 with the freshman class of the newly created Lehman College. Rather than graduate with the class of 1972, however, he took a leave of absence from his studies to live in France. Professor Dorothy Brodin recommended that he spend summer 1971 in France as a camp counselor – which he had done in New York – and to perfect his French. He stayed for seven months and met many friends while a counselor and also when taking courses at the Sorbonne Nouvelle.

Richard loved the student and academic atmosphere at Lehman. He was involved in many non-academic activities as well: learning to play the guitar (he played several times at the student coffeehouse on Jerome Avenue), getting involved in politics, and acting in two plays (including West Side Story, in spring 1971). Most importantly, he says, "was 'hanging out' with fellow students of Lehman's Bilingual Program, many of whom became friends and with whom I learned Spanish."

He moved back to France in March 1974, hoping to become an interpreter and translator (which he would become, years later). He tutored in English in Paris and taught at Université Paris-13 (Villetaneuse) until a student strike shortened the school year in spring 1976. While in France, he began learning German, Farsi, Arabic, and picked up Portuguese "while studying Brazilian jazz guitar with a fantastic guitar player and teacher from Rio de Janeiro."

After his return to New York in 1976, Richard worked as a multilingual tour guide for Gray Line, then for several years at hotels in New York and in Washington, D.C. where his language skills were crucial for relations with international hotel clientèle. In 1983, he became International Sales Manager for the Air Courier Division of the (former) Wells Fargo Armored Car Services. For over three years, this position required regular travel across the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America and Western Europe, "all the while using my languages for business regarding international transportation of valuables." After another adventure in France in 1986, he returned to New York and worked as a salesman for DHL until 1990.

In 1990, he says, he "decided it was time to leave sales and get back to my true, original calling, that of a foreign language teacher." He attended SUNY-Stony Brook to take classes for certification in French and for his student teaching. At Stony Brook, he also became certified in Spanish and ESL, and obtained an M.A. in TESOL/Linguistics in 1994. From 1991 to 2006, he taught French, Spanish and ESL in the New York State school system on Eastern Long Island where he lived with his wife and children.

Since his retirement from teaching in 2006, he has used his "vast love of languages" as a translator and interpreter, as presented on his web site, World Speak International. He translates all types of documents (personal, web sites, legal and business texts, etc.) from French, Spanish and Portuguese into both US as well as British English for clients spanning the globe.

Richard Levy has spent more than thirty-five years using several languages in the fields of business, hotels and international courier services. These diverse positions provided numerous opportunities for travel to Europe and to Central and South America. Furthermore, he says, "I have done work-related chuchotage interpreting and translation for some twenty years."

Robert B. Marcus

2016, New York

B.A., Major in French, Minor in English, 1975.

Born and raised in New York City, Robert Marcus began his undergraduate study as a pre-med major at SUNY-Binghamton. Unfocused as a freshman during the turbulent years of anti-war protests in the U.S., he took a two-year leave of absence, then transferred to Lehman College. With a language requirement to fulfill and five years of previous (but not recent) study of French in secondary school, he chose elementary French, thinking it would be easy and offset the difficult courses required for his Chemistry major.

The course was indeed easy for him. There were a number of Francophones from the Caribbean and France at Lehman for whom the language was even easier, but many were less interested than he was in the study of literature. Having already chosen to minor in English, Robert Marcus knew that he enjoyed writing, which came naturally to him. Professor Capobianco allowed him to skip intermediate courses and take the advanced major courses required, and Robert changed his major to French. It was then that he discovered a great love for the classics of French literature – Voltaire, Zola, Hugo, etc. – and of the French language and culture, as he was becoming a Francophile. He also recalls the memorable parties Professor Marguerite Archer hosted at her home.

To perfect his language skills after graduation from Lehman, he enrolled at the Pace University School of Law where he was on law review and received his J.D. degree in 1979. He was admitted to the Bar in New York, the U.S. District Court in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York in 1980 and, in 1991, to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. He continues to practice his speciality as a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Robert B. Marcus P.C. based in White Plains, New York (email). Among other accolades, he has been named a Super Lawyer every year since the award's inception in 2006 through 2024 and awarded AV Preeminent Status, the highest possible rating (that he has held since 2010) in both legal ability and ethical standards.

Robert Marcus and his wife have travelled over two dozen times to France where they've gotten to know many of its different regions. Several times, for example, they hiked great distances along the Camino de Santiago (le Chemin de Saint-Jacques) in both France and in Spain. "The study of French language and culture at Lehman initially inspired me," he says, "to a lifelong love of Europe and especially France."

Emmanuel Pérez

2017, New York

B.A., Major in History, Minor in French, 2008.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Emmanuel Pérez was the Study Abroad Coordinator of Lehman's International Programs and Global Partnerships from 2005 to 2015. He completed a Master's Degree in International Education at NYU in 2009, and in 2017 a second M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of other languages (TESOL) at Hunter College of CUNY.

At Lehman, he was a McNair Fellow enrolled in the Lehman's Scholar Program and the SEEK Program. He decided to study French "to be different from [his] peers who were uninterested in languages and in cultures from around the world." He says that the thought of "being able to express myself in a language other than English or Spanish was exciting and motivated me to continue taking language classes and eventually studying abroad for a year in France" through the Paris/CUNY exchange program.

"Lehman was a great help in first informing me about the possibility and second helping me plan for the experience abroad," he says. "Studying abroad is a luxury for students with my background from a working class immigrant family." A native of the Dominican Republic, Emmanuel came to the United States when he was nine, a first-generation college student who grew up in Washington Heights.

"The language program at Lehman expanded my horizons and exposed me to many worlds. I am grateful to the faculty at Lehman for creating an environment where I could explore my interests in languages and cultures." His passion for learning languages continues, with study of Arabic, Korean, and Portuguese.

Since fall 2015, Emmanuel has been a full time High School teacher in the Bronx as a New York City Teaching Fellow, teaching English as a New Language (ENL).

Once an immigrant himself, Emmanuel Pérez now works "with young men and women from around the world who are new to the country and culture and have great language needs," he says. "It is my job to help them transition to life in the United States, focusing heavily on their language needs."

Marichelle Pita

2016, Paris

B.A., Double Major in Biology and French, Minor in English Creative Writing, 2015.

Since graduation from Lehman in 2015, Marichelle Pita has been working as a ScribeAmerica Emergency Department Scribe at Weill Cornell Medical Center, completing medical charts for physicians in order to allow them to focus on patient care. Promoted to Hiring Manager for the New York region in 2016, she works as a scribe at several hospitals in New York, teaches medical terminology, pathophysiology, and medical charting, and oversees the hiring and clinical training of new scribes. Her professional career is outlined on her LinkedIn profile.

Marichelle remembers hearing French when she was seven and falling in love with the musicality of the language. She would tell her mother, "I'd really like to learn the French language. It sounds so beautiful!" Born in Manila where she began her education, Marichelle arrived in New York at age sixteen to reunite with her mother, who had left the Philippines ten years earlier, leaving Marichelle and her brother with their grandmother (who later joined them in New York).

Despite her interest in biological sciences, Marichelle has always been fascinated by foreign languages. She welcomed the foreign language requirement at Lehman as an opportunity to learn French. "I rediscovered how much I liked French as I took beginning French with Professor Montaño in spring 2012. An advisor suggested that I take French in summer to complete the foreign language requirement quickly and move on to pre-medical coursework." Her summer course with Mr. García, she says, "was life-changing; his enthusiasm and passion revived my dream of going to Paris and sparked my interest to declare French as my minor. Years later, during my French literature courses with Professors Erfani and Spear, I realized why I found the French language very appealing: not only is it like music to my ears, but it's also very poetic."

Encouraged to reestablish the Francophone Club at Lehman in fall 2013, Marichelle served for two years as an officer of the student association, sharing with Lehman students her enthusiasm for the French language, and her dreams of studying in Paris to improve her language skills and to broaden her knowledge of French history and literature. Her involvement in the Francophone Club inspired her to pursue French as her major. "I couldn’t get enough of the French language!" she remembers.

Her biology advisor tried to dissuade her from taking on a second major. "If you're serious about medicine," she was advised, "you should focus on the sciences and not pursue a major that is not related to your field." Discouraged and heartbroken, she nonetheless decided to declare French as a second major and to apply to study abroad with the Paris-CUNY Exchange Program. She was determined to realize her dream.

When Marichelle arrived in Paris in January 2014, she says, "I could not believe I was breathing, hearing, speaking and dreaming in French! I lived in the center of Paris, in the 3e arrondissement, where I truly felt at home in my tiny, 5th floor apartment. It was the best six months of my life!" Since then, she has once returned, and hopes to move to Paris someday.

"Studying in Paris," she believes, "opened my eyes to the endless opportunities that come with multilingualism. It made me even more determined to become proficient in as many languages as I could learn. As a scribe, I have been asked by physicians to assist with interpretation in both French and Tagalog. I am currently learning Spanish, which has been quite easy thanks to my knowledge of French and Tagalog."

As an aspiring physician, Marichelle Pita believes her acquisition of French as her third language will allow her to effectively communicate with patients in their own language, to ensure she will be able to understand their needs and provide them with the best care possible by direct communication.

"Learning French while studying abroad contributed to my personal growth and cultural awareness and improved my French language skills, but also strengthened my communication and interpersonal skills, skills that a successful physician must possess."

Béatrice Yodé

2017, The Bronx

B.A., Major in French, Minor in Middle and High School Education, 2010 (honors in French); M.S. Ed., 2014.

Béatrice Yodé is from Côte d'Ivoire, where she studied to become a teacher. She worked for the Ministry of Education of Côte d'Ivoire for five years as a kindergarten teacher. She immigrated to the United States in 1998 to join her husband.

While in New York, Béatrice Yodé returned to school. At Bronx Community College, she learned English as a new language and completed her Associate's degree in Community/School Health Education in June 2007. She then pursued study at Lehman College, where she completed in 2010 her Bachelor of Arts degree in French, with a Minor in Middle and High School Education.

Béatrice graduated with honors, and was awarded the Elizabeth S. Peters Prize for Excellence in French. Her honor's thesis examined "La Condition de la femme africaine dans la société traditionnelle."

"Lehman was a great place to reconnect and to refine the French language. Though I was born in a French-speaking country and fluent in French before coming to the U.S., at Lehman, under the teaching of Professors Lynne Van Voorhis and Thomas Spear, I fell in love with the French language."

Béatrice continued her study at Lehman where, in 2014, she completed her Master's of Science degree in Education, with a focus on Childhood Special Education.

Béatrice Yodé has taught French in New York City public school and charter schools. She continues to teach while studying at Grand Canyon University for her Doctorate in Education, with an emphasis in Higher Education Leadership.