{"id":19844,"date":"2026-11-12T09:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=19844"},"modified":"2026-11-12T09:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:41:49","slug":"alison-hills-teaching-assistant-program-in-france-tapif-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/alison-hills-teaching-assistant-program-in-france-tapif-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Alison Hills: The Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF) Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Graduation Year<\/strong>: May 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major<\/strong>: Public and Professional Writing B.A., French B.A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hometown<\/strong>: Fairport, NY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where you lived and taught in France<\/strong>: Ch\u00e2tenay-Malabry, France – a suburb just outside of Paris<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you know you wanted to study French?<\/strong>
I knew I wanted to study French in college as early as middle school. I chose French in 7th grade as my language because it seemed like the cool thing to do. I didn\u2019t realize that one decision at 12 would shape my life so profoundly for years to come. I just knew I liked the language, and I fell in love with the culture as I continued to improve my skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What experiences did you have in the French program<\/a> that prepared you for Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF)?
<\/strong>Everything I did in my program was a way to prepare me for my life in France, and my job with TAPIF. I used every bit of the French language and culture taught to me in undergraduate while I was abroad. Going to France and immersing myself in the language and culture felt like a direct pay off of my time in the classroom with my professors. Setting up a bank account, getting to know my landlord, going to the pharmacy, socialising with my colleagues – everything was rooted in the conversational skills taught to me at URI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you apply to TAPIF?
<\/strong>I applied to TAPIF because of my professor, Lars Erickson<\/a>, actually. He shared the experience his daughter had in the program with the French class I was taking at the time, and I knew I wanted that for myself. I am lucky enough to have a great support system, professors and family alike, who supported me in my goals and are the reason I was able to move halfway across the world. Leslie Kealhoder-Kemp<\/a> helped with filling out the application itself and gathering the information needed. I had never studied abroad in undergrad at URI. I actually finished my degrees in three years, which left me with what felt like an open year that would\u2019ve been spent studying to do something else. It was a \u201cnow-or-never\u201d type of realization, as there wouldn\u2019t have been a better time for me to drop everything and move to a brand new country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were some of the biggest learning curves while in the TAPIF program?
<\/strong>While I had learned a lot about the cultural differences between France and the United States, experiencing them was a completely different thing. Adjusting to a different way of life and embracing that change took some doing. Much like a chilly swimming pool at the start of the summer season, I had to dive in head first, or else I knew there was no way I was getting in. I am grateful to myself that I did that, because I believe having an open mind allowed me to optimize my experiences, and form deeper connections with friends and colleagues. I will say, I never looked so put together as I did walking the streets of Paris, and that is thanks to embracing a very Parisian way of life.

Learning to manage a classroom was also a huge learning curve for me. The French education system holds students to a different standard than students in the U.S. are held to, some could say stricter, so I learned fast that I needed to adjust the approach I had been carefully crafting in my mind. I eventually found a nice balance between what my teaching style is and the cultural expectation of a French middle school (or college, to be more technical in the name).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope to do next?
<\/strong>I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with this question. Right now, I\u2019m a teacher aide for a class of fifth graders, and I adore my students. They mean the world to me. I feel very privileged to be there for them every day, supporting them and guiding them through a very fun and transformative time of their lives. Life in France taught me to take everything one step at a time. If you had asked me \u201cwhat\u2019s next?,\u201d at my college graduation, I would have pulled out a step-by-step, minute-by-minute plan of my entire life, and probably would have told you I was already behind. Now, I am enjoying exactly where I am and who I am in my life. I might not have all the answers of what lies next, but what I am doing now is making a difference in young children’s lives, and to me, that\u2019s everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you think it\u2019s important to study a language as an undergraduate student?
<\/strong>Language, quite literally, opened a whole new world to me. I would not have been to live where I lived or worked the job I had if I had not studied a second language in school. A deeper understanding of a second language also helped me in my own language. As I was earning a degree in Public and Professional Writing, I felt the more I studied French, the better my writing became in English. There also has not been any downsides to studying a language. It is not something to look at and say \u201cwell if I do study a language, this is what it takes from me.\u201d It only gives. It gives opportunity and connection and a new perspective that can only be gained through language acquisition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public and Professional Writing B.A., French B.A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5153,"featured_media":19845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[359,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19848,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19844\/revisions\/19848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}