Bonjour! My name is Kayla McClenney, as of right now I am a freshman! I major in Cinema and TV Production with a minor in either Philosophy or Public Relations–Or maybe both as a secret third option! I’ve been studying French on and off since middle school. In total I’ve had about four years of experience actively learning it, but more like six years of being able to understand it. I can’t say exactly why I decided to take French over Spanish, given that I’m from North Carolina (technically) and literally nobody in my family speaks a lick of it except for me.

In my eighth-grade French class, our teacher had a sign up that said in big bold letters: “DON’T BE A TONGUE-TIED AMERICAN”. I guess that sentiment stuck with me, because I’ve been able to connect with a lot of people due to learning another language. I have a friend from Morocco named Adam that is able to speak French, and a friend named Lilia that translates stuff from French to Portuguese all the time for her research. Having something in common like that makes conversation fun. Also, I’m a person who has lots of experience interviewing, filming, and doing other broadcast roles. Learning another language means that I’d get a lot of opportunities to work with people since I can understand and interact with them.