People
Commencement 2008
Departmental
Convocation
Speeches
On May 16, 2008, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures held its annual departmental convocation in Washington Hall Auditorium. This year’s Robert D. Nuner Award for the graduating senior in the College with the highest GPA in any classical or modern foreign language was granted to French major Stephanie Brauer, who was also co-recipient with Amanda Bode of the Walter J. Langford Award for Excellence in French Literature. John P. Daly won the Walter J. Langford Award for academic excellence in Spanish, and Derrick Testa received the Joseph Italo Bosco Award for academic achievement in Italian. The department also initiated its own Endowment for Excellence award for Romance Languages and Literatures and Mariah Quinn, a dual Spanish/Italian and Peace Studies major, was the first recipient this May.
An excerpt of their reflections follows.
Stephanie Brauer
Stephanie Brauer has the dual honor of being co-winner of the Langford and winner of the Nuner award for the most outstanding student in any modern language with a perfect 4.0 GPA not only in her major but overall. Stephanie minored in anthropology, was a Kellogg Institute international research scholar, and served as a peer mentor for the Gender Relations Center.
When I came to Notre Dame, I had very few certainties about what my course of study and extracurricular involvement would look like. I knew that college was a time to explore new areas and that many students changed majors multiple times throughout their four years. I wanted to be open to the many possibilities that college would offer, but I did have two certainties in mind:
- that I was going to study abroad in France one way or another
- that I was going to study French in order to be able to study abroad in France
I began studying French in high school, and I thought the language would be a great asset for travel and possibly for a job in the realm of international relations, but I hadn’t really thought about it as a an area of study that was valuable in and unto itself. However, after studying abroad for an entire academic year in Angers, France as a sophomore, I realized that the language was not just a tool of communication. The process of learning a language is inherently entwined with induction into an entire culture. For example, I found that a people’s idioms, common word choice, and even syntax can be telling about their values, customs, and traditions. I became engrossed in a whole area of literature that was previously less accessible to me, as I came to understand that reading translated works was rarely as satisfying as reading them in their original language. I came to realize that it isn’t until you read a book or a poem in the language it was intended for that the work can fully reveal itself to you.
What’s more, the benefits I reaped in my other courses of study due to my experience as a French speaker never ceased to amaze me. Just as an example, I found that some of the greatest minds in the fields of philosophy and anthropology, which were two of my many transient majors during my time at Notre Dame, were French speakers. My familiarity with French history, government, and culture really helped me grasp the context and significance of great French scholars’ ideas and approaches.
Toward the latter end of my time at Notre Dame, I also became familiar with an entire world of literature written by French speakers whose origins lie outside of France. Some would simply call this francophone literature, but no matter how you label it, it is an area of French literature that I have found stimulating due to its large area of cross-over with my focus on immigration through a social-cultural lens. I hope to use the knowledge I have gained through my study of French literature and francophone culture to apply for research fellowships regarding a topic on immigration. I plan to push onward to graduate school in the next couple of years, but for now I will stay close to Notre Dame, as I will intern at the Field Museum of Chicago over the summer and will then begin my job at the Center for the Homeless in South Bend in August. But no matter what my future academic and career path will bring, I am confident that my background in French language and literature will continue to serve as an excellent gateway to a richer and fuller life. So I would like to thank the department’s faculty and staff, my fellow classmates, and my family for contributing to the wonderful experience I had within my major course of study. Thank you.
topAmanda Bode
Amanda Bode studied in Angers, France her sophomore year and returned to do research for her senior honors thesis with a grant from the Nanovic Institute. Next year, she will be attending NYU in Paris for a master's in French Literature and teach English as part of the French Ministry of Education Teaching Assistantship.
It is truly an honor to be standing before you now and to be given the opportunity to share with you some thoughts on my Romance Languages and Literatures experience here at Notre Dame. We sit here now, with four years of hard work and dedication behind us, wondering where all the time went and looking forward to a bright future, though we may not know exactly what that future holds. I suspect I am not alone among my fellow French majors in having had to justify learning the language while facing that question, “Why are you studying French? Spanish is so much more practical!” I remember one particular instance when I was speaking with a Notre Dame Finance professor and he asked why I was studying French, to which I replied with a smile “The real question is why am I studying Accounting.” I have had much more difficulty grappling with that question of relationship between French and Accounting; the best link I found was the cover of my Cost Accounting textbook: I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid with the Louvre peeking out behind it. I can’t help but smile to myself, finding it impossible to imagine not studying French. We have all been called to the study of romance languages in a way that may seem inexplicable to outsiders. Whether it be Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or French, language is the portal to another world, to a unique culture, a means for communicating with people around the globe in their native languages. You can appreciate so much more, so many nuances about another culture once you cross that language barrier. There is a French proverb which says, “A man who knows two languages is worth two men.” Knowing a second language opens so many opportunities, and I’ve even been told that we all have different personalities in every language we learn, so perhaps we are actually two people if we know two different languages. I can see how this would be true: even the intonations and the rhythms change from one language to the next. Here in Romance Languages despite our common Latin base, which can simplify understanding the written form, the spoken language can be something entirely different.
We all have different inspirations which led us to pursue Romance Languages and Literatures; we often start with a passion for the language and it evolves into a deeper appreciation for the literature. I jokingly blame my father for guiding me to French, as he rocked me to sleep when I was just a few months old with songs by Maurice Chevalier. The record he used to play was only a memory of scattered nonsensical French words until now: after what turned out to be a seven year search, my father, being the technologically savvy man that he is, was able to obtain that long lost record on eBay a couple of weeks ago to have in time for this momentous occasion. It was because of this record that while studying abroad in Angers, I made a special trip to Avignon so I could take a picture of myself on the bridge to send to my father, from Chevalier’s song “Sur le pont d’Avignon” (On the Bridge of Avignon). Speaking from personal experience, I wouldn’t recommend dancing there as the song suggests, first of all it’s incredibly windy and second of all you may have many Italian high school students on a school sponsored trip look at you like you’re crazy. Many of us have had the opportunity to study abroad or even to intern abroad, and through that semester, that year or that summer we transformed both ourselves and our language skills. We started with the building blocks: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in simplistic sentences, and then we began stringing together phrases before delving into that other culture.
We would not be where we are now without the support, if sometimes bemused, of our parents nor without the encouragement and the high standards of our professors which enabled us to excel. By setting that bar so high for us to attain, we have risen to the challenge and come into our own. I am deeply indebted to Notre Dame for all the opportunities I have had, and I truly hope none of us will lose those language skills we worked so hard to attain, no matter what career path we pursue.
John Daly, a dual pre-med/Spanish major completed his degree in three years with a 4.0 GPA in the major but deferred entrance to Medical School to intern at a South Bend health clinic that serves patients at 150% of the poverty level or below as the 2008 recipient of the Dr. Thomas A Dooley service award.
I admit, it’s a bit of a shock to people when you introduce yourself to them and let them know you’ve chosen to pursue a Spanish degree from Notre Dame. During my time at this University, I have come to expect a questioning silence from people who hear I am a Spanish major. Indeed, no matter whether it is another student, a recruiter from a corporation, or my academic counselor, the mere mentioning of the fact that my collegiate curriculum is centered around the study of Spanish language and literature always seems to shock people into silence. After three years of surprising people with this sort of introduction, I have come to the realization that there is only one response people can make once the initial shock of learning I am majoring in Spanish has worn off. In short, it is inevitable that everyone who finds out I am earning a Spanish degree eventually asks me: “What are you going to do with your Spanish degree?”
There’s no way around it: this is a tough question and one that I know every student in this room has had to answer many times during the past four years. Let’s face it, though, while many of us will never make a direct application of our Spanish degree as a career option, there is no way we can deny that our studies of Spanish language, culture, society, and literary production will serve us well in many areas of our lives. Indeed, simply from a statistical point of view, it is through studying the Spanish language in our classes that we have gained the ability to fluently communicate with not only the Spanish-speaking population that comprises nearly a quarter of the U.S. population but also over four hundred million Spanish-speaking people from nearly 20 different countries across the globe. Learning the Spanish language has given us the ability to step inside the mind and context of Hispanic and Latino cultures and to understand them on their own terms. In a world where nations and peoples are ever more dependent upon one another to supply goods and services, solve political disputes, and ensure international security, having an appreciation for Hispanic and Latino cultures is paramount. Indeed, lack of intercultural sensitivity can lead to mistrust and misunderstandings, to an inability to cooperate, negotiate, and compromise. Intercultural understanding begins with individuals like us who have fluent language abilities and who can thereby provide our own nation with an insider's view into foreign cultures. For survival in the global community, every nation needs such individuals. People like us who are competent in Spanish as a result of pursuing a Spanish degree can therefore bridge the gap between cultures, contribute to international diplomacy, promote national security and successfully advocate for world peace.
But aside from these political and diplomatic advantages in the world around us, learning the Spanish language and culture through our studies within the Spanish major also affords us the unique opportunity of seeing ourselves and our own culture from an outside perspective. There are aspects of our language, ourselves, our lives, and our own American culture that we accept as absolute and universal until we have encountered a culture and a people who do things in a much different way than we’re used to. Whereas a monolingual, monocultural view of the world severely limits one’s perspective, contact with the Spanish language and the Hispanic and Latino cultures provides us the unique opportunity to step outside our familiar scope of existence and view American customs, traditions, norms, and value system through the eyes of others. Intercultural experiences have a monumental influence on shaping our identity, heightening our self-awareness, and giving us a full appreciation of our life situations. These things happen only with knowledge of cultures and languages gained while in pursuit of the Spanish language and literature degree.
In short, then, while the meaning and value of a Spanish degree may not be widely recognized by those to whom we introduced ourselves along our way through the Spanish program at Notre Dame, each of us here today should know that our training in Spanish language and literature over the past four years will be of great use to not only us personally but others around us as well.
Before I leave the stage, I’d like to say two thank yous:
First, I’d like to thank my parents who gave me the opportunity to study Spanish at Notre Dame even though I didn’t have a convincing answer to the question “What are you going to do with your Spanish degree?” when I first set foot on campus in August 2005. Thank you for all your support and encouragement. I hope I made you proud.
Second, I’d like to thank all the Spanish professors under whom I have had the privilege to study. I think I speak for the rest of my fellow Spanish majors and minors in thanking you for sharing with us your love of the Spanish language and culture. Although it was often difficult to weather your critiques of our gringo accents, our grammar, and our writing, we appreciate your challenging us to see the importance of our work and its pertinence to not only our lives but the lives of the people around us.
In conclusion, my fellow graduates, Buena suerte y que dios les bendiga a Uds en todos sus esfuerzos del futuro. Nos vemos.
Mariah Quinn
Mariah Quinn divided her time between Spanish and Italian with a perfect 4.0 GPA in both, and an equally perfect 4.0 in her supplementary major in International Peace Studies. Mariah helped facilitate an adult literacy project in El Salvador, studied in Toledo, Spain and interned at the U.S. Consulate in Milan, Italy with a Nanovic fellowship, and was also honored at commencement with the Peter Yarrow award in Peace Studies.
Good afternoon. And thank you for this opportunity to reflect on my experience as a Romance Languages and Literature major. From my first days in Intensive Italian to the concluding class of my Spanish Senior Seminar just a few short weeks ago, I have had the privilege of studying under exceptional and enthusiastic professors and of studying with you, my fellow graduates.
At the end of every semester we complete Teacher Course Evaluations and every semester my least favorite question is Number 18, the question that relates to the course goals. I so often feel that the purpose of a language or a literature course cannot be accurately or fully reflected by filling in a bubble on a scantron sheet. We have at once honed our skills at expressing ourselves orally and in writing, while also pursing a factual understanding of literary and political movements; we have even exercised creativity during class discussions, group projects and in our own analyses of literary works. Through poetry, short stories and historical accounts we have explored love and loss; the experience of the indigenous, the status of women; we have gained insight into human relationships and identity formation.
Thornton Wilder’s The Eighth Day poses the question: “What does a college education do for you?” and provides the response: “It ties together the things you see.” A college education is not, in the end, about the books we’ve read, or were supposed to have read; the lectures or discussions attended; the papers, problems, or projects we toiled over. A college education is about becoming conscious and critical and curious, in order to draw connections. The study of Romance Languages and Literature specifically allowed us to “tie together” our understanding the historical and cultural context that produced the works we read. We also came to understand how certain seminal texts influenced political or literary movements. In this way, we have been equipped with much more than merely a foundation in the grammar or vocabulary of the language. Our consciousness has been aroused and, in the process, our ability to be critical has been enhanced. Perhaps most importantly, the study of language and literature has peaked our curiosity; in culture and history; in themes that transcend centuries and continents; themes that will continue to be relevant as we segue from the classroom to what lies next. This ability to draw connections can hardly be captured or quantified, as question 18 of the TCE would seem to suggest.
We so often make light of the Notre Dame ‘Bubble’, this controlled and comforting environment. Thankfully, the exploration of language and literature has allowed us to defy the stereotype that Notre Dame students are somehow disengaged from reality. Certainly, those of us who had the opportunity to study abroad broke out of the ‘Bubble’. But even while here on campus we remained aware of and connected to a world beyond our immediate experience. We are now primed to enter and engage that world; we will carry with us the lessons learned as we pursue a profession or dedicate ourselves to service or further study.
I would like to echo the sentiments of John and Amanda in thanking our professors who have encouraged and challenged us and instilled in us a love of French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Thank you to our parents, for their continued support of our studies and our travels. I also thank my fellow graduates: from late-night study groups in LaFortune to a shared obsession with Latino pop stars, I have cherished our time of learning and living together. I wish you all the best of luck!
