“Bonjour à tous et à toutes!” Mme. Finazzo cheers, standing at the lectern. “I left treats for everyone on the front desk; feel free to take as many as you wish.”
Chatter creeps up as the squeaking of feet on polished floor heads to claim the sweet rewards. As everyone fumbles back into their seats, Madame loads a Kahoot on the SMART Board. Nodding at one another from across the room, every student in the room shares one common unsaid sentiment: “We are so lucky to have Mme. Finazzo as our teacher.”
Ms. Geraldine Finazzo, more commonly and endearingly known as Mme. Finazzo or Madame, assumed the role of South High’s one and only French teacher when her predecessor, Mrs. Mary Ann Schwartz, retired. Although she instructs four different levels of French in varying class sizes, she is well-known among her students for putting her best effort into teaching.
“She’s just like a mom,” Rachel An, a senior and former student, recounts. “During COVID, she offered to privately help me with French once a week on Wednesdays after school, and I didn’t even pay her. . . . I was really having a hard time.”
Although her supportive, considerate pedagogical career path seems set in stone, the seeds for Madame’s teaching career were actually unexpectedly sowed on one fateful subway ride when she was 21 years old: “I was on the E train, and there was a big poster that read ‘Do you speak Spanish, and would you like to work with children?’ And that’s how I got into teaching, honestly.”
But what few students and faculty may know of her is that she developed an equally passionate vigor for law at a young age.”I didn’t originally go to college for education. I majored in languages and translation and interpreting, with a minor in political science history. . . . I always had an interest in being an advocate for people because my older sister was ill from when she was a little girl, and so there were times when, as a family member, I had to advocate for her and help her in different ways.”
Her enthusiasm for law sprouted even before discovering teaching as a profession. One of her first jobs after graduating from college was as a per diem (i.e., daily paid) court interpreter at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. There, she translated various legal and medical documents the summer before she started working as a bilingual special education teacher in New York City.
And in spite of her eventual transition into teaching, her passion for law never waned. Fast forward to 2017, Mme. Finazzo chose to continue her career in law, studying to become a paralegal alongside her job at South High. “[Nassau Community College] was flexible with schedules where other paralegal programs weren’t. So I was able to do three nights a week and Sunday mornings.”
Completing the paralegal program two years later, Mme. Finazzo started at an immigration law firm where she works now. As an assistant to the lead attorney, she helps prepare indexes of research-based evidence and sometimes interprets for non-English speakers. “We’re serving the recently arrived, people seeking asylum, people seeking change of status, and also people who have to renew their temporary protected status. . . . We mainly serve clients from Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.” Throughout her time as a paralegal, she has recognized the meaningful consequences of being able to communicate in multiple languages.
In French class, Mme. Finazzo stresses not only the same importance of language but also the same dedication to which she performs her job. Whether she dances to French rapper MC Solaar or excites the lethargic class with her energy, she always wears an upbeat attitude. “She really cares and is so selfless, considering how much she’s willing to do for other people even though she sacrifices her own health and her own free time. But at the same time, she’s dedicated and you couldn’t even tell that she’s working two jobs and has a bajillion things to do, so I think, so much credit to her for that, and we all really love her,” Audrey Huang, a senior, reflects.
And as she pushes the start button for the Kahoot, anticipation-filled seconds ticking down until the first question, one can’t help but wonder—how does she do it? For her, balancing school and the law firm takes no shortcuts. “[I sleep around] four to five hours a night but then there’ll be a day where I’m just absolutely exhausted. Can’t move. Your body tells you you’re done or you’re going to be sick.”
Even so, however, these same struggles foster a sense of dignity. “I’m honored to be able to [have both jobs], and I just hope that I’m working hard enough to do them justice.”
