Blair Bazdarich
Class: 2009
Graduated with a French minor in Spring 2009
Blair works as the Outreach and Teen Program Manager, San Francisco Zoo & Gardens, and cohosts This Week in Science
She says, "French has played a pretty large role in getting me to where I am today, though not in the most direct sense. Mainly it got my brain working in ways it hadn’t before, and stretched out my language muscles very well.
I strongly believe that my background in French allowed me to pick up Hebrew much easier when I moved to Israel for 6 months in Winter 2012. While living there, I gained an invaluable set of skills working at the Jerusalem Zoo, which allowed me to land my first full time job in Conservation Education upon my return. I now do what I have always dreamed of doing – I run the ZooMobile program, bringing animals to classrooms throughout the Bay Area fostering caring and conservation values to students of all ages. Additionally, I am a cohost on the podcast This Week in Science, and I would not be nearly as comfortable broadcasting each week if I hadn't had to do so much public speaking in college... in French! Now that I reflect upon it, I also think I learned a lot from Suzanne when it comes to teaching – she was one of the best teachers I ever had, and helped me find my voice and my teaching style."