Madame Wilds has spent the last 27 years introducing students to a brand new world of communication, bringing the French language and culture to life from over 4000 miles away.

She discovered her love of French early in her high school years, being strongly inspired by her Spanish teacher to teach French as her career. In 1999, she began her career teaching both English and French. During those first few years of teaching, two French teachers were teaching at Grant. When the other teacher retired in 2007, Wilds took over the French program and has taught the French language at Grant ever since.

“When you learn a language, you find out more about those places and just have more enriching experiences by actually talking and communicating with people rather than just kind of seeing where you’re at,” said Wilds, “You can actually talk and learn about things firsthand from the local people.”

Having the ability to speak a second language comes with a lot of benefits. It gives you the ability to learn more about other cultures and brings you so many more opportunities in life and especially when traveling. As Wilds had said, if you’re traveling and you are able to speak the same language as the place you’re traveling to, you have the ability to communicate with anyone there. It could make your trip so much more meaningful and fulfilling to have those opportunities.

A big passion of Wilds is traveling around the world; she’s mainly traveled throughout Europe. Knowing how to speak French had brought her the opportunity to travel to all of these places. She had also done a program that allowed her to travel and study abroad in France. Being able to speak French gave her the ability to meet new people, learn more about their culture, and experience France in a way most people don’t get to experience. 

“I hope that they will find ways to use their French in their lives and want to travel,” said Wilds. Overall, Wilds hopes that her students will have the desire to travel and learn more about other cultures, the same way she had the desire to learn everything about the French language. Having the ability to speak multiple languages brings you a lot more opportunities in life and she wants her students to embrace those opportunities to learn more about others.