Julie Powers

Bonjour! I am excited to be teaching French at the Well-Trained Mind Academy.

I was born and raised in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and from the age of six was fortunate to get to spend time every summer camping in the south of France. It was there that I caught the bug for the French language and the people.

Following high school, I earned an associate’s degree in multilingual secretarial studies and moved to Belgium to work for two years. I ended up meeting my husband there and staying in Belgium for 15 years! In 2000 our family of six moved to Waco, Texas, where my husband taught at Baylor University. I returned to school and earned a BSEd with a concentration in French from Baylor, graduating summa cum laude (with a 4.0) in May 2010.

Before joining the WTMA, I taught middle and high school French, at Robinson Junior High and High School and at Midway High School, both in the Waco area.

My husband Jeff, Nellie the golden retriever and I moved out to the countryside south of Waco, and built our dream home. We love being surrounded by nature and our little menagerie of chickens, goats, donkeys and rabbits. Our children have all grown and flown the coop, and we are now the proud grandparents to our four beautiful grandchildren.

I believe that communication and culture are the key to learning a language, and they are central to my teaching. To this end my classes are very interactive and incorporate a lot of music and authentic readings.