Meet your tutor
Kelly Denzler began learning French as a high school freshman with no prior language-learning experience. After returning from her first trip to France at the age of seventeen, she announced her decision to major in French at the college level—much to her engineer father's chagrin.
Kelly spent two years studying abroad in Paris. She spent a year of her undergraduate career at the Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, and all of her M.A. program at Columbia University's Global Center in Paris. Her graduate thesis was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2013 and nominated for the American Library in Paris book award in 2014.
After completing a Master of Arts in French Cultural Studies at Columbia University, Kelly interned in the Press Office at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. She also began contributing to a French political news site and contracted as an on-location bilingual production assistant for French Public Television.
Kelly then started teaching college-level French in January 2013. She spent the next ten years teaching French to students in private and public education, ranging in ages from 13-70.
Kelly has been trained in TPRS ("teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling"), Organic World Language methodology, Comprehensible Input theory, and proficiency-based instruction. In 2023 she completed her French Oral Proficiency Interview rater certification through the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL). Kelly also worked as an AP French Exam scorer for the exam's speaking tasks in 2017 and 2020.
Kelly has traveled extensively in France and has many stories from staying with seven host families across several regions, including Brittany, Pays-de-la-Loire, Ile-de-France, and Occitania. She is also familiar with the French Riviera, having studied in Cannes and led a student trip to Nice.
Kelly has worked as a private tutor since 2015 and has tutored individuals of all ages and levels.
