The Core is an opportunity to inquire into the fundamental aspects of being and our relationship with God, nature and our fellow human beings.
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Jake Loel graduated from the University of Dallas in 2016 with a major in French and a Concentration in International Studies. During his time at UD, he was Commentary Editor for The University News and Charity Week Co-Chair. Upon graduating, he accepted a position serving as a Teaching Assistant with the Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale, the French Education Ministry, in Avignon, France. He then spent several years in the nonprofit space in roles which included using his French skills in serving Francophone African refugees. While working in the nonprofit space, he earned a Master’s degree in International Security Studies from the University of Arizona, where he was an Intelligence Community CAE scholar and served an Internship with the Department of State. Jake’s nonprofit experience exposed him to complex philanthropic strategies as part of personal financial planning. This eventually dovetailed into a career transition to finance. He passed the Series 7 and Series 66 exams in 2022. Jake currently works as a Financial Solutions Advisor with Merrill, part of the Bank of America Company.
Jake and his family reside in the greater Phoenix area.
Ashton Robinson graduated in 2022 from the University of Dallas with a major in Italian. During her time at UD, she served as an Italian tutor, studied abroad on the Rome Program, and wrote her thesis on the theme of consolation in Boccaccio’s The Decameron and Dante’s Vita Nova. After graduation, she wanted to deepen her study of Italian by living in Italy. She received a prestigous SITE Fellowship and worked for two high schools located in Verolanuova and Manerbio as an English teacher while doing a home stay with an Italian family in the remote village of San Paolo. Additionally, she conducted English lessons for adults and had the opportunity to be a guest lecturer at the local middle and elementary schools. She has since moved back to her hometown of Austin, Texas where she is in her second year of teaching 4th grade English and history at Valor North Austin, a classical charter school.
Sophie Gart graduated from the University of Dallas in 2020 with a major in biology and a concentration in Italian. During her time at UD, she served as co-president of Circolo Italiano, president of the Tri Beta biological honor society, and worked as an anatomy lab coordinator and tutor. Additionally, she studied piano and voice on a music department scholarship, which inspired her senior thesis on the use of music throughout Dante’s Divine Comedy. In 2018, Sophie became part of the inaugural cohort of the Rome Research Program, where she combined her proficiency in Italian and her scientific background. She worked in the molecular botany lab at the University of Tor Vergata, researching the bioactive effects of oregano on melanoma cells in vitro and assisting with the translation of several scientific manuscripts from Italian to English for publication. Following graduation, Sophie earned a Master of Science in Medical Anatomy and is now completing her final year of medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her experience learning a new language and working in Italy has given her a deep appreciation for those navigating communication in a foreign language. As a medical professional, she works closely with immigrant patients and is committed to advocating for their diverse needs, utilizing her Italian skills as a translator whenever possible. Sophie is a published author with scientific manuscripts in JAMA Dermatology, Pediatric Dermatology, and The Journal of Dermatologic Surgery, and she has presented her research at multiple national conferences. Recognized for her dedication to community service, she was named one of five classmates honored for service at her medical school and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society. Sophie is currently applying for residency with plans to specialize in dermatology.
Joanna Márquez-Espinoza graduated from the University of Dallas in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. While at UD, Joanna was a Spanish tutor and involved with Spanish Club and other department initiatives. Her senior thesis, La muñeca menor: el cuerpo femenino cómo sitio de opresión y empoderamiento used Puerto Rican author Rosario Ferré’s short story “La muñeca menor (The Youngest Doll)” to explore concepts of feminine agency and authorship. While finishing her Bachelor’s degree, she took advantage of UD’s 4+1 program to earn her Master of Arts in Teaching. She won the prestigious Spanish Departmental Award her senior year as she completed her student teaching. Joanna currently works as a Spanish teacher at Bryan Adams High School Leadership Academy in Dallas. In addition to crafting and implementing meaningful lessons for her Spanish students, Joanna supports her fellow teachers in their professional development and advocates for bilingualism and biliteracy in her community. Inspired by her own study abroad experience at the Catholic University of Ávila, Spain, she assists high school students with their applications to participate in study abroad programs. Joanna is the author of a dual-language children’s book, Mi cocina mexicana / My Mexican Kitchen (La Sociedad Free Press, 2022). Her Spanish and education classes at the University of Dallas prepared her to meet the challenges and reap the rewards of teaching a diverse population of high school students who look to her as a model of leadership and compassion.
Joseph Rodriguez majored in Spanish with Italian as a second language, and wrote his thesis on "El Castillo Interior" of St. Teresa of Avila. After graduation he spent 8 years as a missionary seminarian in Boston and then Ireland, where he completed a BA in Theology at St Patrick's Pontifical University of Maynooth, Ireland before returning to Dallas in 2016. After teaching Theology of the Body at Cristo Rey Dallas for 5 years, Joseph founded Vocatio Travel, a Catholic travel agency that serves parishes, dioceses, ministry groups, Catholic high school and university groups from around the country by organizing personalized pilgrimages, mission trips, and educational tours around the globe. Vocatio's two principal offices are in Dallas and in Rome, where he enjoys traveling with his wife and two young sons.
Clare Slattery graduated magna cum laude from the University of Dallas in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a concentration in International Studies. While at UD, she was active as a Spanish tutor, Student Ambassador in the Office of Admissions, and was involved in Student Government for four years, serving as SG Secretary from 2017-2018 and SG President from 2018-2019. Upon graduation, she joined the Office of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), where she is currently employed as Deputy Press Secretary. In her role, Clare handles Senator Rubio's foreign policy communications and Hispanic media portfolio, with a special focus on Western Hemisphere issues. She drafts statements and press releases on behalf of the Senator in both English and Spanish, which are distributed to thousands of journalists, constituents, and media outlets each day. She credits the UD Spanish Program's lower-level courses for providing her with a strong foundational understanding of Spanish grammar rules, and the upper-level courses for challenging her Spanish reading comprehension and writing skills. Whether reading an indigenous folk tale, a conquistador's journal entry, or a 17th-century Spanish play, UD's Spanish curriculum provides its students the ability to digest and analyze complex information and write concisely on a wide variety of topics - all done in a second language.
Alonna Ray Maddox graduated from UD in 2018 as a double major in French and Comparative Literary Traditions with a concentration in Drama. During her time in undergrad, she developed a biannual publication for the drama department called OnStage Magazine which allows students to write articles contextualizing mainstage productions and engaging audiences. Her comps presentation examined the Orpheus and Eurydice myth through its adaptations in ancient verse, mid-century French absurdism, and contemporary American theatre. Along with her oral defense, she directed staged readings of excerpts from 6 depictions of the myth in their original languages of Latin, French, and English. After graduation, she lived the multi-hyphenate-freelance lifestyle by collaborating on productions and new play development in American Theatre, managing French translation projects, writing for arts and culture-oriented publications, and generally being game to jump into any creative challenge that crossed her path. With the pandemic, she transitioned her career to meetings and events which has perfectly married her love for live storytelling and passion for people. She now assists with everything from leading strategy workshops to creating tech tutorials, from producing live streams to implementing new technologies on-site for events around the world. Her formation in the classics, drama, and French at UD continues to serve her in her career as she hosts multi-lingual events and consults with global companies to develop their meetings technology strategies.
Alexa Hassell graduated from the University of Dallas in 2023 with a double major in Politics and Italian and concentrations in Art History and Ethics. She had never been exposed to Italian language and literature prior to her arrival at UD but only three weeks into her first semester, she declared an Italian major given her new found love for the study of language. During her time at UD, she studied abroad in Rome, tutored students of Italian, and took courses ranging from Italian Cinema to Florence to Italian Literature from the 19th to 21st century. Her studies culminated in a senior thesis focusing on the private letters of Niccolò Machiavelli and his relationship with the Catholic Church. Alexa now attends the University of Notre Dame Law School (JD '26) where a surprising number of students speak Italian! There she serves as a Staff Editor on the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, as an oralist on the Moot Court Board, and as the Vice President of the St. Thomas More Society. She hopes to practice law in Texas upon her graduation and to keep up her Italian skills in new ways!
Alexandra double majored in German and Politics, writing her thesis on the influence of Marxism on the political thought of the German poet Heinrich Heine. Alexandra was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to teach English at a Catholic school in Rheinland-Pfalz while also studying at the University of Bonn in Germany. After her Fulbright year she began an MA degree in Politics and theology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt in Bavaria. She is currently doing a two year missionary stint with FOCUS Missionary at the University of Vienna
Alumna Marlena Figge (B.A. ‘20 Italian, English), began her UD career as a Chemistry major, but when she found out upon arrival in Irving that an Italian B.A. was in the offing, she declared as an Italian major—even BEFORE the major had gained official status. During her time on campus, Marlena was an Italian tutor and mentor, studied in Rome, and was a camp counselor at both an Italian-language immersion summer camp in northern Minnesota and at an Italian-language day-camp in Chicago. Marlena spoke no Italian when she began her study at UD, but in just three-and-a-half years she went from a 50-word essay to writing, in Italian, an outstanding, 25-page senior thesis comparing the poetry of Keats and Dante. After graduation she earned two scholarships and completed an M.A. in Italian at Middlebury College before returning to Italy in 2022-2023 with a SITE Fellowship to work as an English-language teaching assistant at the Istituto d'Istruzione Superiore (IIS) Dandolo in Brescia. Marlena now writes a regular feature on literature—often Italian—for the international media organization The Epoch Times and has published pieces on Italian authors such as Michelangelo, San Francesco d'Assisi, Dante, and Giacomo Leopardi.
Giada Mirelli double majored in Spanish and French with concentrations in Italian and Comparative Literature. During her time at UD, Giada tutored students in Italian and Spanish, was the president of Spanish club, and participated in multiple programs abroad in Lyon (2017), Rome (2018), and Ávila (2019). After graduating she completed an M.A. in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures at Indiana University (2022) while teaching Spanish courses as an Associate Instructor. Giada continued her graduate studies at IU to pursue a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures with a minor in Renaissance Studies. She is now a Ph.D. candidate doing a longitudinal study on Saint Teresa of Ávila’s pedagogy on the way of perfection. While at Indiana University, Giada frequently talks about her experience at UD and gives credit to UD’s exceptional modern languages program for her various accomplishments such as receiving the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Doctoral Student Award for Academic Achievement and the MIND (Motivación, Inspiración, Dedicación) Award for Impactful Teaching, as well as her editorial and translation work for Kathleen Ann Myers’ recently published book A Country of Shepherds: Cultural Stories of a Changing Mediterranean Landscape (2024). She is so thankful for her dedicated and acclaimed undergrad professors whom she aspires to be.
Grant double majored in German and Economics writing his thesis on the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter. Grant was accepted into the London School of Economics and Political Science where he earned his M.A. in the history of international relations. After graduate studies Grant worked as a membership coordinator at the Dallas Citizens Council and is now working for the Goethe-Institut, the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany as the Director of Goethe Pop-Up Houston. Grant helps to present contemporary German art and culture in Houston with a broad range of public programs and projects in the fields of film, arts, theater, dance, music, literature, and more.
Stephanie double majored in German and Comparative Literature writing her thesis on Thomas Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus. After graduating she earned her MA from the University of Regensburg with a thesis exploring the influence of Jewish biblical interpretation on Thomas Mann’s Joseph und seine Brüder. She completed her PhD Comparative Literature (German and French) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and she is now adjunct instructor of German at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she is the sole professor in the newly-revived German program and has been developing most of her own curriculum. Her current research is focused on the Catholic Revival movement, in late 19th and early 20th century France and Germany.
Dr. Elizabeth Nogan Ranieri decided to attend UD for 3 main reasons: an art scholarship, the Rome Program, and the Core. Since she knew she would spend a semester in Rome, signing up for Italian seemed like a no-brainer—and she is so glad that she did! During her Rome semester she was out and about whenever she wasn’t in class, and ended the semester with a decent proficiency. In her junior year, she became an Italian tutor, at which point she had so many Italian credits that Dr. Forte encouraged her to pursue the Italian Concentration. That year she and a wonderful group of friends resurrected the Italian Club, which organized (arguably) the best events on campus. After graduating from UD, Dr. Ranieri decided to go to graduate school for Humanities with an emphasis in Art History. Her MA work focused on Italian female artists and patrons, and her education from UD heavily influenced her multidisciplinary doctoral research on the Neapolitan Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore—she got to use her knowledge of Theology, Philosophy, Western Civ, Lit Trad, Sacred Art, and, of course, Italian. After earning her Ph.D., these days she is right at home in a wonderful multidisciplinary department at the University of North Texas. She has led several study-abroad trips to Italy. She credits UD with her lifelong love of all things Italian and her undergraduate education with setting her up to be the multidisciplinary scholar she has become.
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