Multicultural and
Multilingual Beginnings
Early Years
Five Countries - Four Continents
The United States, Ghana, and the Philippines. My earliest memory of language is a lullaby in Ashanti and eating meals of fish and rice in Tagalog. I had a pet chimpanzee named Ananse as my best friend for the first six years of my life. After returning to live in the Washington D.C. area, at school, I studied French, Italian, Russian, and later, computer science. My first real job was working with Clean Water Action defending the Chesapeake Bay. I then moved to France and afterwards Russia, studying language, literature, culture, civilisation, sociology, and training as a conference interpreter while earning my living teaching French, English, and Russian! Yup, all true!
A New Millenium
First Professional Experiences
Decidely Digital Decade
When year 2000 rolled around, I was asked to teach what many were just discovering, e-commerce and how to start an online business. For the next eight years I developed a full-fledged course on e-commerce, creating a school-wide competition for my students, inviting angel investors from the Paris area to serve in a jury to choose the winning teams. Under my guidance, my students created websites and e-businesses that, at the time, nobody had ever heard of. Unique, innovative, several of my students went on to work in the field.
The Next Five Years
Because learning not to care is the one lesson we can do without
Bringing Good and Making Better
Further developing what I called a meaning-based approach to teaching, I started creating teamwork training courses based on environmental and philanthropic projects. Connecting my students with social, environmental, and change leaders around the world. From exchanges with Arizona State University, to work with the Nobel Laureate organisation PeaceJam in Colorado and Warsaw, to a community-based tourism project in Kazbegi, Georgia, my students travelled the world both virtually and physically, bringing good into the world and making it a better place.
This Gets Us to 2020
Talking to, Talking at, Talking with
Beyond Social Media
Since 2015, I have been teaching social media communication, media studies, communication theory, and digital marketing in various business and communications schools in France and Belgium. I continue to be drawn to environmental and charitable projects as vectors for student learning in what I call meaning-based learning. Since 2019, I have combined both my passions in developing a social media intensive seminar around climate action, cause marketing, and corporate social responsibility.
