Teacher Bios
The French Immersion Summer Camp
June & July 2010


MARIE NICOLETTI
Marie teaches Sewing, Cooking, Jewelry, and Arts and Crafts in camp. She is the founder of The Language of Food, created in 2000, a culinary and cultural program that teaches children and adults alike traditional and regional French cooking classes and French language. With the same "Practical French" philosophy in mind, in 2008 Marie created The French Immersion Summer Camp. This came naturally as a way to provide the children of Boulder and surrounding areas with a French environment where hearing and learning French would develop in children a curiosity for languages and an attraction to other cultures.

Marie has a BA in "Applied Foreign Languages for International Business" (in English and Italian) and a Fashion School diploma in Pattern making and Clothes construction. She has worked for designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Martin Sitbon, Plein Sud, and Nina Ricci, before moving to Boulder in 1990. She also studied cooking from the age of 8 years in an after-school program and since then she has never stopped nourishing this passion. Marie’s goal is to pass down to new generations everything she’s learned since she was little when arts and crafts, cooking, and music naturally held a big part on the map of education. Visit the thelanguageoffood.com for more information.

BETSY TOBIN
Betsy teaches Mask making, Shadow puppetry and acting in camp. She is the founder of Now or Never Theatre and teaches workshops, ongoing classes and residencies to adults and children. She taught for a number of years at the Theatre School in Le Havre in France. Betsy became involved in theatre at Dartmouth College where she wrote, produced, and directed plays. She then worked with the Seattle Puppetry Theatre for 3 years. In Europe she created and toured several shows, quickly emerging at the forefront in puppetry festivals and performance circuits as one of the only female puppeteers. She is a playwright, published in Paris by GES Editions.

In 1992, Betsy moved to Boulder and created Now or Never Theatre. In Boulder she has worked with many organizations and schools such as Naropa University, Uni-Hill Elementary school, BCSIS, Mizel Museum, Jewish Cultural Center in Denver, Horizon Middle School, Rocky Mountain Theatre for Kids and more. Visit nowornevertheatre.com for more information.

ERIN MENARD
Erin is in charge of the younger group in camp. She has a BA in French with a minor in music performance from St. Louis University. Since graduating, Erin has enjoyed teaching foreign languages for over 10 years. While living in France, she taught English for preschoolers to 5th graders. In Boulder, she has taught French to middle schools at Boulder Country Day School and Alexander Dawson School. At Alexander Dawson School, Erin also planned and led two school groups to Lyon and Provence, France. Since last fall, she has taken a leave of absence from teaching to raise her 18-month-old twins.

CECILE DESIRE
Cecile Desire is a certified Yoga Teacher registered with the Yoga Alliance. Her teaching draws from her foundation in Hatha Yoga and her continuing education in Anusara Yoga. Cecile is deeply passionate about teaching yoga to children. She introduces children to a fun integrated approach to balancing their body, mind and emotions. She earned her education in yoga for children with Calming Kids, a program integrating principles of communication to the science of yoga, which received the National Health Awareness Promotion Award from the American Medical Association in 2005. Cecile's approach supports children's growth by building balance, confidence, motivation, strength and respect and by teaching children how to incorporate these key foundations into their daily lives. Cecile was born and raised in France and moved to the United States in 1992. To learn more about Cecile, please visit her website at khromayoga.com.

COUNSELORS
Maude, Claire, Arthur, Lee and other French Counselors: Our counselors are young students who live and go to school in Boulder. They all have at least one French parent and they are all fluent in French. They are young teenagers or young adults that we know personally because they or their parents are part of the French community of Boulder that meets on regular basis for conversations, celebrations, etc. They have proven to be very serious about their involvement in their role as counselors and they bring to the camp a great attitude and act as great role models to the children.