My Start at SUNY New Paltz

Greetings, my lovely readers and welcome to the third installment of 'Always Googliando'. At this point I've had a few questions regarding the name of the blog and requests for more information about my back-story. I'll start with the back-story since the name of the blog is informed by my professional experience and my own personal interests.

In 2004 I graduated High School and went off to SUNY New Paltz. A funky little state school, it's located just an hour south of Albany and is, as far as I'm concerned, the best school in America. The students range the gamut from hippies to cool city kids to Long Island goofballs (such as myself) and somehow, despite what most sitcoms and news reports would like you to believe, everyone really got along. Sir Thomas More would be proud.

SUNY New Paltz campus.

Me with Shades Step Team, 2007.

In addition to the harmony of the campus, there was a wonderful range of classes offered and clubs to join. I truly felt that whatever I was interested in I could try, and I did! I was a proud member of Shades Step team and I went Salsa dancing every weekend. I took a course on cultural influences in storytelling, another on defaming most of the people I had considered "American heroes" for my entire life (cough cough, Christopher Columbus), and even learned so much about geographical hazards that I had nightmares about the east coast drowning in a Tsunami caused by a landslide in La Palma. This was all perfect for me since I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.


Exploring everything showed me where my interests lay. It was in studying languages that I awoke a hidden passion. I declared a double major in both Spanish and Italian with a minor in Art Studio (concentration in ceramics). If that seems a bit over-ambitious (or even crazy) then you're seeing just the beginning of a pattern. I saw a future as a language teacher. While I loved the Italian language and personally gained a lot from learning it, being the proud Italian-American that I am, I knew that my job prospects would be much better learning Spanish since that is the second-most widely spoken language in the United States, especially in states like New York where I grew up. The art minor was just for fun.

Somewhere between declaring my majors in the end of my freshman year and my graduation in 2008 I finished all my course-work, studied abroad in Italy for 10 months, and met my now husband (stories for another day). From there I went on to New York University for my master's.

How did I pay for school at NYU? Why am I programming now if I went to school to be a teacher? How do you say "Give me all the pizza you have" in Italian? Answers to these burning questions and more next week! Until then, happy Googling!