Meet Jonah Crisanti. He grew up in Maryland, yet he's a Francophone at heart and his time studying at the College has only deepened his love for all things French.
Jonah knew from early on that he wanted to immerse himself in French culture and language. So, as a freshman, he signed up for a course in French marketing and ended up tasked with pursuing internships and jobs in the Francophone world. As a consequence, he applied for opportunities at more than 30 archaeological sites in France. (He's also a double major in archaeology.) And that resulted in his spending three months as an intern with the Federation Francaise de Spelologie, working on digs in Tautavel and Coulet des Rouches. Through that experience, he was able to expand his grasp of archaeology and French culture by doing everything from cooking meals for the team to excavating through the different stratigraphic levels at the dig.
"This experience gave me an amazing opportunity to practice speaking French with native speakers in addition to getting field experience in archaeology," he explains.
Jonah also managed to experiment with filmmaking during the course of his major in French. He and a team of two other students worked on an award-winning short film for Charleston's French Short Film Festival. Their film focused on French cuisine, and it turned out to be a valuable experience regarding what it means to be French.
His French studies even took him to the stage. In his "Voices from 17th-Century France" class, Jonah and some fellow classmates were assigned to produce their own interpretation of Moliere's Le Misanthrope.
"That was probably the apex of my academic career so far," Jonah offers. "Acting in front of 100 people was absolutely nerve-racking. However, for me and my classmates – and I think for the audience as well – it turned out to be a success.
In the future, Jonah imagines himself working as a French teacher, possibly at a high school. Whatever he ends up doing, he knows he'll be well prepared to excel.