Why did you decide to become an Italian major?
As all the most rewarding things in my life have been (so far), becoming an Italian major was not something I planned. When I arrived at Wellesley I had already studied Spanish for four years--including time as an exchange student in Almeria, Spain--and I had a vague idea that I wanted to be an art history major. Italian seemed to make sense as the right choice to fulfill the language requirement, and I was very intrigued by the possibility of spending a semester in Italy. Little did I know that what at the time was a fairly small decision would actually have such a positive impact on my time at Wellesley and beyond.
How did it shape your time at Wellesley?
After two and half years of studying Italian at Wellesley, I spent the second semester of my junior year in Rome, through the Temple University program, where I was immersed in the art history, architecture, political history, and literature of Italy. Just as at Wellesley, my professors were excellent. I started reading the Italian Communist newspaper and learned about Antonio Gramsci, whose picture I still keep in my office and whose idea of the “organic intellectual” I have carried with me throughout my 20-year career in the art, performing arts, and publishing world.
With so many great options at Wellesley, I had had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted my “major” to be. Like a lot of Wellesley overachievers, I assumed I should at least do a double major, because why do one thing when you can do two? As it came down to the wire and I had to make a decision, I realized that the only classes I had ever taken that didn’t feel like work were the Italian classes. To be clear: they were work, but the work was so much fun.
How has it influenced your life after Wellesley?
First: I promise this is true. After I graduated in 1994, I spent about a year doing one random temp job after another while I figured out what to do next. This included selling CDs at HMV in Harvard Square, being a receptionist at an addiction-recovery center, being a secretary for the Massachusetts Environmental Police, doing data entry for the phone company, and more. All the while I was checking the newspaper for job listings and sending out hard copies of cover letters and resumes (old school). When I finally got my first “real” job, as an editor of closed captions for public television at WGBH’s The Caption Center, the woman who hired me said that the reason my resume stood out was because I had majored in Italian.
"I’ve made a living working with words in all of my jobs, including my current one as Editorial Director at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and learning a different language has been incredibly useful as a way to understand how our own language works, and how to communicate with others."
Studying Italian specifically opened an amazing number of doors for me in terms of understanding major movements in art, music, architecture, film, and literature, all of which have played a part in my career.