An update from Victoria Leggi, English publishing sequence major and Italian studies minor.
I have been interested in other languages since I was a toddler. My grandparents immigrated here from Italy and I spent most of my childhood listening to them, my mother and extended family speak to each other in a beautiful and passionate language that I was unable to understand. For most of my life, I longed to converse in the same romantic vowels because I knew that it would bring me closer to my heritage and would make my grandparents smile.
As an Illinois State University language student, I find that my language classes are the most fun and relaxing despite the occasional intense grammar lessons. While my English classes can be heavily theory-based or discuss somber topics, my Italian classes function as a space where I can be completely enamored with another language and culture and typically, the classes are more upbeat.
Even if a class heavily focuses on grammar, I still think it is fun because learning new rules and constructing sentences is almost like a puzzle to me. Along with being a full-time student, I work a lovely part time job at the Normal Public Library as customer service staff. At the moment I have not joined any clubs, but next year I plan to be more involved in the Illinois State community.
My favorite aspect about my Italian Studies minor is the professors. From high school to my community college and now at Illinois State, I have never had a professor that I did not love. They always know how to make the class fun and stress free and are incredibly understanding and sympathetic. I have also found that language classes build a community in the classroom like no other. I think that the collective lack of vocabulary and fluency in a language creates a bit of a vulnerable feeling, but causes the class to be more dependent on each other and creates more friendships.
Unfortunately, I have not studied abroad but I would love to travel to Italy one day.
After I graduate I would like to continue my education in graduate school and hopefully earn a degree in library science. My goal is to work in a special collections department with rare and antique books but specifically, I would like to work with archives written in Italian.
