Rossella Chiolini: Illuminating Languages along the Way

She possesses a certain light.  Like an archangel illuminating your pathway.  You can’t see what lies ahead, but no worry.  You are illuminated patiently and compassionately one word at a time.

Rossella Chiolini was born and raised in Pavia.  A small town located approximately 25 miles southwest of Milan, in Lombardy, Northern Italy. 

 

Having earned her diploma from school in Languages, Rossella quickly landed a position in the marketing department at an internationally acclaimed advertising agency in Milan where she made the short commute.

 

After several years, Rossella learned through a friend in Ireland about an opportunity where she could work and go to school to learn English in an exchange program.  Excited about the prospect of going abroad and improving her English, she headed off to Dublin and took a leave of absence from work.  Enjoying her time immensely, she called work and instead of returning from leave, resigned her position. 

 

Swissair liked Rossella so much that after her term, they offered her a permanent position in the company which lasted for about seven years until 1999.  Discovering opportunity following her dreams, she left Italy and her job once again. 

 

This time to San Diego, California where she immigrated and shortly after getting acclimated, got involved with the local Italian American community being hired as an instructor at the Italian Cultural Center in Little Italy teaching Italian.  At the same time, she became a member of House of Italy in Balboa Park where soon after, was appointed head of the Educational Committee and founded the language program instructing Italian classes that she still teaches today. 

 

Her true desire was to study and learn so while teaching, decided to pursue higher education and enrolled at City College exceeding in the Liberal Arts and Spanish programs.  It was through her Spanish minor that she discovered her passion and upon graduation from City College, continued with undergraduate and graduate studies at San Diego State University where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Spanish Literature. 

 

Interestingly, she possesses the dynamic of being a teacher and former student while maintaining a firm “student for life” attitude constantly learning new information.

 

 During her tenure as a student at university, Rossella was also studying her professor’s different teaching styles acknowledging some were good and some were bad.  She learned from both and implements successful methodologies in her own teachings that specifically address the student’s individual needs. 

 

While understanding that learning a language is difficult, she brings the best and fun tools as a facilitator however says, “It is up to the student to have the passion about learning the language.”   

 

Rossella currently teaches or has taught both Spanish and Italian responsible for developing and creating much of the current curriculum at City College Community College District, San Diego State University, in addition to the Italian Cultural Center and House of Italy.  

 

It appears that Rossella not only teaches languages, but also impresses her students with culture using current trends she learns on her frequent travels to Italy and Spain.

 

For every step she has taken, and every word spoken, Rossella is grateful to all the organizations and students she serves or served having met wonderful students and people who became close friends along the way.  “In every place where I have taught, I always found great experiences, great people I have met in my life and great students.”

 

She recently founded illuminalanguages.com that utilizes cutting edge interactive methods that engages her students with lessons customized to an individual or group online or in person.  

For further enlightenment, visit her website at www.illuminalanguages.com.