Alumni Updates Featured in the 2018 Polyglot

​Miranda Armiger (BA Art History, Italian minor 2018) will be the inaugural candidate in  DLLC's MA in Italian Studies program.

​Sarah Gemski (BA Internations Relations, BAFLL French 2012) obtained a MS in Global Studies from the University of Leipzig, Germany and the University of Roskilde, Denmark. Immediately following graduation from UD, Sarah began working at the Embassy of France in Washington, DC, and spent a year using her French skills as a teacher in Martinique. Upon the completion of her master's degree, Sarah began working for the UNDP in Istanbul, Turkey, as an intern for the Sustainable Development Goals Philanthropy Platform. Presently, Sarah works for Mama Hope, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization which aims to re-conceptualize the field of development through collaboration and by empowering individuals throughout the world. Sarah specializes in scaling social businesses as a means of increasing quality of life, creating jobs, and empowering communities. In collaboration with Mama Hope, she is currently working on a project in Moshi, Tanzania with Anza International that provides social entrepreneurs with hands-on skills training, consulting, access to capital and partnership opportunities to start and scale their businesses. In addition to English and French, Sarah speaks German, Turkish, and beginner Swahili.

​Shawn Conroy (BA History, BAFLL Russian 2016) has completed a master's degree in history at Rutgers and will be teaching English in Russia for the upcoming academic year through American Home, an organization that fosters relations between the US and Russian since the fall of the USSR. 

​Megan Gaffney (MAFLL Spanish 2017), who completed her MA in Spanish while working as an Associate Librarian at the University of Delaware, was promoted to the rank of Librarian.

​Marianne (Stillwaggon) Grenier (BAFLL Three Languages 1993) received her MA in Education: Curriculum & Instruction and Teacher Certification from the University of Connecticut in August 2017. She now teaches Spanish Immersion (also known as FLES - Foreign Language in Elementary Schools), kindergarten, first and second grades in all four elementary schools throughout the Newtown Public School District in Newtown, CT.

​Lily Jaffie-Shupe (BA Psychology, BAFLL Italian, 2010) completed an MA in Linguistics with a concentration in TESOL from Syracuse University. While there, she earned a teaching assistantship that covered full tuition by teaching two ESL credit courses per term. Upon completion of her MA, Lily began to teach at Virginia Tech Language & Culture Institute in Fairfax VA, where she now is lead instructor. Lily has presented at a variety of local and regional conferences and twice at TESOL International Conference (2016 & 2017). Her most recent presentation was entitled "Transforming the Timed Writing Assessment: Process-Based Timed Writing."

​Max Levites (BA International Relations, BAFLL French 2014) writes, "After graduating from UD with a double major in International Relations and French, I attended Georgetown University where I received an MA in German and European Studies from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. In my studies, I focused on relations between the EU, the US, and Russia and wrote my graduate thesis on EU engagement in Central Asia. After graduate school I spent a short time working on a congressional campaign in my home district in Pennsylvania before moving back to DC. I am currently an Executive Coordinator at Vital Voices Global Partnership, a non-profit organization co-founded by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright that empowers and invests in women leaders around the world."

​James Wolynetz Jr. (BA International Relations, BAFLL Russian 1984) writes, "As a graduate of the Class of 1984, I've begun to reflect on my great career as a UD alumnus. After the guidance and instruction of the late Dr. Eugenia Slavov, I was well prepared for a career in foreign relations. Though it took me a few years after graduation to begin utilizing my degree, the wait and perseverance was well worth it. Over the past thirty-five years, I traveled to what was then Czechoslovakia to teach English and study Czech, resided in the Soviet Union again to improve my Russian, lived in my dream city of Washington, DC utilizing my Russian skills for the first time, returned to Russia yet again as a language specialist for the INS at the US Embassy in Moscow, and finally obtained a career position as a Special Agent with the Department of Homeland Security in Miami, FL which afforded me yet another opportunity to serve my country at the American Embassy in Moscow where I was informally voted 'Best Russian-speaking American in the Embassy!' Dr. Slavov would be very proud. Currently, I am winding down my law enforcement career after twenty years and eyeing retirement in beautiful Vermont. If there is one thing I want to say to my fellow Blue Hens, no matter how arduous the path, dream careers do come true! Thank you, UD, for starting me on a great ride!"