Why did you decide to become an Italian major?
When I arrived at Wellesley and learned about the language requirement, I initially registered for Spanish. However, like so many other first-years, I attended the department meet and greet and decided to switch to Italian hoping that the smaller class size might help someone like me who was terrified of taking a language. I had another reason. My mother was born in a small town in Southern Italy and had emigrated to the United States when she was nine years old. As a child, I never learned how to speak Italian. I wanted to use the opportunity at Wellesley to communicate with my grandmother, who spoke limited English, for the first time in my life.
How did it shape your time at Wellesley?
I always tell people that the Italian department always felt like home. The professors were supportive and caring, but like everywhere else at Wellesley, had high standards for our work. It was there that I discovered my love of the Italian language, and eventually after returning from a semester abroad in Padua, Italy, I decided to double major in History and Italian. During my senior year, I completed a honors thesis in the Italian department with Sergio Parussa. Professor Parussa was the ideal mentor—meeting with me weekly to guide my work and reviewing multiple drafts to help me hone in on my argument. When it was time for me to defend my thesis, the entire department came and pushed me to think more deeply about my work.
How has it influenced your life after Wellesley?
After college, I worked at the Steppingstone Foundation, an educational non-profit organization, and eventually returned to Wellesley to earn my teaching certificate which I used to teach in private and public schools in New York City and Boston. In 2004, I started my Ph.D. in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2012 with a joint Ph.D. in Education and History as well as an M.P.A. from Penn. Currently, I am the National Academy of Education/Spencer postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center where I am completing my first book manuscript, The Roots of Educational Inequality. The work that I did with Professor Parussa prepared me for the kind of research and writing that I did in graduate school and the support that I received from the Italian Department allowed me to take risks in my own work that have helped me immensely in my professional development.