While at Connecticut College, Jess focused on the construction of the body in language and art—namely, poetry, digital photography, and fashion—and the resulting negotiation of identity. With the hope of eventually immigrating to the EU permanently, Jess spent more than 15 months of her undergraduate career studying at the University of Edinburgh and with Middlebury College at the Sorbonne Nouvelle III, attaining the highest level of fluency accorded to non-native French speakers. Jess was awarded a post-graduate teaching fellowship with TAPIF, a government-funded educational program inspiring cultural curiosity and amitié between France and the United States. Through TAPIF, Jess has spent this past year teaching ESL to middle schoolers in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a small city to the west of Paris. She works simultaneously as an essay mentor for college applicants and as an English tutor for American and French students. Jess aims to return to the classroom herself in 2025 to earn an MFA in poetry and an MA in linguistic anthropology or translation studies. An internationally-published writer, she spends her free time editing for a NYC-based literary journal and dabbling in flânerie. A professional portrait photographer, Jess has photographed Paris Fashion Week twice and New York Fashion Week once. This will be Jess’ second year with the Paris Academia program.
