Each week, the Record (using a script in R) randomly selects a student at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature, excluding current Record board members. This week, Valentina Cohen ’26 discussed her plans to study abroad in Paris, her passion for learning languages, and how she adjusted moving from Miami to Williamstown. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hannah Marx (HM): I heard you’re going abroad to Paris in the spring. Why Paris?

Valentina Cohen (VC): I’ve been studying French since I was in first grade, so I’ve always been really obsessed with French and French culture. I’m majoring in French as well, so that’s also a big reason, and I want to move to France after graduation, potentially. I went abroad this summer to Italy because I’ve also been studying Italian. I thought I’d go to Paris because I went to a small European city over the summer, so I wanted to do a really big city and have the contrast from small Williamstown life. 

HM: What aspects of Paris are you most excited about? 

VC: I’m living with my best friend from home, which is really exciting. We always dreamed of going to the same college, so this is going to be like our little college experience together. I’m really excited to get a full French immersion. I’m doing a program where the first five weeks are classes and the last 12 weeks are an internship. I’m really excited to see what it’s like to work in Europe. 

HM: What kind of work do you hope to do? 

VC: I also major in environmental studies, so I really want to do something related to ESG [environmental, social, and governance] or environmental consulting. 

HM: What’s one place you’d like to visit while you’re abroad? 

VC: I really want to go back to Italy. I fell in love with it over the summer. The other big bucket list item is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. 

HM: You mentioned you started taking French in first grade. What was that like? 

VC: I moved to Miami when I was five, and my parents were looking at good schools to enroll me in. There’s a really great public magnet school that specializes in languages, so my parents enrolled me there in first grade. We had to choose between German, Spanish, and French. I’m Argentinian, so I speak Spanish at home. It was my first language. It was between French and German, and not to offend the Germans, but French is such a beautiful language. I chose French, and it was honestly amazing. Languages are really my passion, so it’s been really fun to study them and learn more about different cultures. Speaking to people in their own language is also super rewarding and exciting. 

HM: What’s one thing you are going to miss about the College when you’re abroad? 

VC: I’ll miss walking around and seeing people I know — the familiarity. Just bumping into people and randomly being able to grab a meal with anybody. 

HM: So you’ve taken Italian at the College. How do you feel about the College discontinuing Italian course offerings? 

VC: I’m honestly devastated. I think it’s really sad. I feel like there is a homogenization of education going on right now. There’s been a lot more emphasis placed on math, science, and economics — which are all really important areas of study — but I see more and more that people feel the pressure to go into those because they’re more lucrative. As a result, we’re getting a lot of divestment from the arts and literature, which I think are so important.

HM: Why did you decide to start taking Italian at the College? 

VC: My parents are Argentinian, and in Argentina, around 70 percent of the population is of Italian descent, so my cousins are all Italian. I’m not Italian because my parents are Jewish, so my parents didn’t immigrate from Italy, but it’s a huge part of Argentinian food and culture, and our accent is very influenced by Italian. Since I already knew French and I already knew Spanish, I wanted to learn a new language. 

HM: What was the adjustment like coming from Miami to the Northeast? 

VC: Really big. [Laughs.] Miami is obviously a big city. It has a lot of Hispanic influence, so I’m really used to having a lot of Hispanic friends. The first thing was my name — I’ve never experienced people having difficulty with my name. The other thing is greeting styles. In Miami, we have this thing called a “besito,” where you give somebody a kiss on the cheek when you say hi. You do that with everybody. I remember getting here and going for the besito, and it was really awkward and strange. Also, I noticed people recognizing my accent as a Miami accent. I never realized that I had such a Miami accent. 

HM: You mentioned being Hispanic and Jewish. What’s that intersection like?

VC: People are always surprised when I say I’m Hispanic because, first of all, I look pretty stereotypically Ashkenazi. That is also another switch from Miami — I feel like in Miami there were no assumptions about who is Hispanic because there are all types of Hispanic people there. I feel like people here have more assumptions about what being Hispanic looks like. There are a lot of Argentinian Jews. It’s really cool to me to have that intersectionality. My name really represents that: My last name is Cohen and my first name is Valentina.

HM: Do you visit Argentina often? 

VC: My parents were the only ones who immigrated from Argentina out of their families, so I go once or twice a year to visit my cousins and my grandparents. It’s a really beautiful country. I’ve taken a couple of Spanish classes here at Williams and people are genuinely really curious about Argentina because it’s not one of the first countries that comes to mind when you think of Hispanic countries. I recommend that everyone go. 

HM: Last question: What is your favorite place to study?

VC: My room. I cannot study in public places. I love to talk, and I get distracted really easily. If I tell somebody I want to study somewhere, it’s not to study — it’s definitely just to hang out. You’ll never catch me actually getting work done outside of my room.