Daniel Bigelow
Class: 2001
Graduated with a French major in 2001
After graduation, I went to the School of Education at SSU. I began working at Santa Rosa City Schools in 2000 as a bilingual instructional assistant. Since 2005 I have been working out of the district office as the District Translation Supervisor. I am responsible for recruiting, training and scheduling of all the translators in SRCS. Although the bulk of my work as a translator has been in Spanish, I do have a surprisingly high level of interaction in French to this day. One of the schools in our district is a bilingual French immersion school (Santa Rosa French American Charter School), and from time to time I provide support in French, English and Spanish to the students, parents and staff at this site. My own children attend this school as well, continuing the learning of French in our family. Knowing French, Spanish and Italian has been a particularly important skill for me over the years, not only professionally but also when travelling abroad. In addition I have been able to maintain friendships in multiple languages in many countries. French for me has been a professional skill, a social skill and a continuation of a family connection to France (on my mother’s side, via Acadia, Québec and Louisiana). Even the wise cannot foresee all ends, and my language studies really have paid off for me over the years both personally and professionally.