The Fries Center for Global Studies welcomes Julia Fedoruk ’26 into the role of Global Language and Outreach (GLO) Fellow. Graduating with majors in French and Education, she is excited to bring her passions for educational language games and cultivating linguistic diversity to the Wesleyan community.

After making her first game in Professor Zamboni’s Educational Gaming lab course, Julia expanded her passion into her Capstone project, in which she created a party game for vocabulary acquisition. Side by side with their enthusiasm for educational gaming, Julia dedicated themselves to their study of French. In their second year, they collaborated with the French department to plan events as House Manager of the Francophone House, later going abroad to Paris, where they formed a weekly tabletop games club with some locals. Their final year, they worked as the Course Assistant for introductory French, bringing their experiences to those beginning their French language journeys while beginning to study Spanish themselves.

Side by side with practical language learning, Julia studied and witnessed the impact of education on language. As she heard stories of languages being either celebrated or erased across generations, and how schooling can be a key factor in this, she was galvanized to do what she could to communicate that linguistic diversity is an asset that we can all learn from. This year, she hopes to further explore the relationship between language and education, and play lots of games along the way! Outside of the classroom, Julia sings, plays a little guitar, knits, and climbs.

If you are involved in any efforts to promote language learning and/or linguistic and cultural diversity or want to be involved in such initiatives, or even if you just want to say hi, Julia would love to connect with you! Please come see her at her desk in the back of Fisk room 201F or email her at the brand new GLO Fellow email, glo@wesleyan.edu.