Early Influences: Francesca Analysis

Early Influences
An early passage of significance for Francesca was her becoming a faculty member, a teacher, and a scholar in German. Francesca reported that this was a gradual drift and that as a child she grew up in the company of a reference group of bright and intellectually capable students, all of whom felt guided and inspired by teachers who served as encouraging mentors. This was a patter she experienced in high school..
Well, I suppose in a way you find people who are somewhat like minded. You enjoy some of the same things. You think alike about some of the same things. And in some ways these groups of people are very different too because the people that I interacted with most in high school for example were Germans. I had some American
Francesca reported this passage as significant in her life and career, as a passage that included learning from faculty mentors, who in turn encouraged her to apply and obtain a Fullbright to Germany. Francesca remembered this time in her life as one of immersion in a realm of intellectual curiosity and scholarship. She easily passed through the hurdles of graduate school, including oral and written examinations toward her Masters degree in 1966, and only much later obtained her doctorate in 1974. During the graduate school years at Stanford, Francesca and Fred decided to pursue careers teaching German in
I don’t think that’s changed for any of us. People with family commitments, whether they’re men or women, people with small children, feel pulled. And I think the expectation for faculty have increased here since I started in the 1970’s, increased considerably along many dimensions.
At Wilkinson
Francesca began to get involved at the College, first as a volunteer on projects and committees, then obtained a part-time position as an assistant to the Dean of the Faculty. As she branched out, Francesca found herself drifting into academic administration:
And I did a lot; I did other things for him [Dean of the Faculty]. And so I had my first real taste of doing more college wide administration. And I think that that being able to branch out, to get to know more aspects of the college and how they worked, how the pieces fitted together, and the sense that I had some influence over what was happening here. That was really very exciting for me. I did an awful of things like that. I also taught first year seminar, as you know, as everybody does. I was one of the first people to help design sophomore seminar inter disciplinary program. I taught three years in that