alumni today
EARLY EDUCATION
Listen and Learn
Escuche y Aprenda
Nathalie Simmons Jorge ’ 98 (MBA)
grew up in New Orleans speaking French
and English. Her husband, a physician who
was born in the Dominican Republic, speaks
English and Spanish. In a household with
this much fluency, Jorge assumed it would be
easy to pass on a multi-lingual experience to
her children. She began with Spanish so that
her children could add to their learning by
talking to Dominican relatives living nearby.
“I found myself embarrassed; my pronunciation was terrible,” Jorge recalls. “I decided
that there had to be a better way to do this.”
Jorge combined forces with her sister-in-law, Paula Jorge Guglielmino, to develop a
language-learning product that kids and parents could use together. They drew up a
business plan, investigated approaches to language immersion and the language learning
skills of small children, ages 2 to 6. For the
TRAVEL
Clean-up Duty in
the Deep South
Few people consider Antarctica an antidote
to the mild climate and easy life of Chapel
Hill, but Travis Lee Senor ’05 saw it differently. Unable to find work that tapped his
four years of study, he settled for a position as
a janitor for Raytheon Polar Services at
McMurdo Station in Antarctica, where he
worked from early October to late February.
With a job that kept him tied down for
nine hours a day, six days a week, Senor did
not get to explore as much as he’d hoped, but
he did get to Observation Hill, where he
looked out across McMurdo Sound and the
Ross Ice Shelf at Mt. Erebus. He rode on the
COURTES Y NATHALIE SIMMONS JORGE ’ 98 (MBA)
Nathalie Simmons Jorge ’ 98 (MBA)
final product, they chose audio CDs. “We
worked hard to make the tunes and stories
interesting, something you can stand to listen
to over and over in the car without going
crazy,” Jorge explained.
The cast includes Professor Pocket, Chico
the chick and Debbie the dinosaur. Their
first CD, Our Silly Farm Adventure, was
released in January and includes flying horses
and pigs who drive tractors. Instead of
vocabulary lists or drills, Professor Pocket,
Chico and Debbie move from story-telling
to song in English and Spanish. The words
are repeated, along with the funny parts.
COURTESY TRAVIS LEE SENOR ’05
Travis Lee Senor ’05 in Antarctica.
Coast Guard icebreaker, Polar Sea, and saw
minke whales, tons of seals and two emperor
penguins swimming in the channel. Senor
also found himself the designated guide on a
trip to Discovery Hut for the U.S. ambassador
to New Zealand and the director of the
National Science Foundation, who were traveling with Sir Edmund Hillary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of
Scott Base. (To his regret, Senor did not get
POLITICS
Forward on the Trail
Across the country people are following
the life choices of Elizabeth Edwards
’ 71 and her husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards ’ 77 (JD).
In March, Elizabeth Edwards, who was
diagnosed with
breast cancer during the closing
days of the 2004
presidential race,
announced that
the cancer had
returned. Her
doctors with
UNC Health
Care, where she is
JOHNEDWARDS.COM
Elizabeth Edwards ’ 71
being treated, say
her cancer is treatable but incurable.
While public opinion and news commentators debated the Edwardses’ decision,
both Elizabeth and John, who met when
they were UNC law students, said the
campaign would go on. “We’re all going to
die, and I pretty much know what I’m
going to die of now,” she told Katie
Couric on 60 Minutes. “You really only
have two choices here; either you push
forward with the things you were doing
yesterday or you start dying. … I don’t
want to do that. I want to live.”
Edwards also feels that her work in the
2008 campaign will be her legacy, built on
her belief that her husband’s plans for the
presidency are important to the nation.
to meet Hillary.)
“I do plan to go back to the Antarctic,”
Senor said after touching down in Raleigh in
March. “Perhaps immediately, if I am offered a
position at the South Pole, as I still want to go
to the absolute end of the Earth.” In the
meantime, he’s applying to graduate programs
in international affairs and security.
