After 26 years at Notre Dame, Alessia Blad-Miller is preparing to retire from her administrative role at the University, but the community she helped build will carry her legacy forward.
Alessia is the director of the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures. She has also served as Italian language course coordinator in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and has been teaching undergraduate Italian language courses since 1999. In addition to her work with undergraduates, she leads the Foreign Language Teaching Methodology & Second Language Acquisition course, where she trains graduate students to become effective and compassionate instructors.
In her decades of teaching and leading, she has shaped not only a program but generations of students and instructors who see language as a bridge to empathy, curiosity, and connection, and I couldn’t miss the chance to sit down with her to reflect on her teaching journey, her impact, and the lessons she leaves behind.
Beatrice Maria Rosso: Looking back on your 26 years of teaching and coordinating in Italian Studies here, what are you most proud of building or leaving behind in the program?
Alessia Blad-Miller: I am most proud of helping build a culture where students feel both challenged and supported, where learning Italian is not just about grammar and vocabulary but about curiosity, discovery, connection, and embracing a new culture with an open mind. The strongest legacy, I hope, is the community of learners and teachers who see language study as a gateway to empathy and intercultural understanding.
BMR: You started by teaching undergraduates, and later also trained graduate students in Teaching Methods. What differences did you notice between those two experiences?
ABM: Teaching undergraduates is about opening doors and helping them discover a new world through Italian language and culture. Training graduate students to be successful instructors is more about mentorship: giving them tools, confidence, and perspective so they can, in turn, open doors for others. With undergraduate students, the reward is seeing their first spark of discovery; with graduates, it is seeing them grow into thoughtful, independent educators.
BMR: What are the most important skills or values you tried to pass on to your students–both undergraduates learning Italian and graduates learning how to teach?
ABM: To undergraduates: persistence, curiosity, and the joy of expressing themselves in another language. And also the rewards of discovering a new culture, understanding a different way of living, thinking, and behaving. To graduates: I hope I have modeled empathy and shown that teaching is not about perfection but about connection, about meeting students where they are and helping them move forward.
BMR: How do you teach “how” to teach?
ABM: You model it. You demonstrate that preparation is essential, but so is flexibility. You cultivate a safe space for experimentation, reflection, and even mistakes. The core of the practice is helping future teachers analyze their own learning journey, translating that understanding into strategies that honor diverse student needs.
To me teaching is not about perfection; it’s about progress. We must model understanding, compassion, and grace, showing that to be a teacher is to be—first and foremost—a learner.
BMR: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing language programs today?
ABM: Facing funding and enrollment pressures, and competing with other fields, language programs must combat the misconception that English is enough, especially since demanding student schedules limit the sustained engagement required to prove languages are essential for global citizenship.
A key challenge for language programs is the essential integration of intercultural competence, which moves beyond simple fluency to equip students with the ability to understand cultural nuances and mediate communication for effective global collaboration.
BMR: What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to teach?
ABM: We must see ourselves not just as instructors, but as the primary model for lifelong learning and human excellence. One cannot teach effectively without passion—it is the fuel for our work. But that passion must be paired with patience for the process, with humility to learn from our students, and with respect for our students as learners, as human beings. The greatest educators in my personal experience have been those who understand they are modeling behavior, not just transferring knowledge.
It was an honor for me to hear Alessia’s point of view on teaching and directing. By leading a program, she did not simply create excellent curricula and syllabi; she created a strong community of passionate students and passionate educators. Alessia’s core teaching philosophy, that “teaching is not about perfection; it's about progress,” made it possible for first-time teachers like me to approach the profession knowing that it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them.
Knowing that she is leaving the program in great hands makes it a little easier to say goodbye as she moves onto her next chapter, but I will be forever grateful for the role she played in my journey as a teacher.
Beatrice Maria Rosso is a graduate associate at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Italian studies at the University.
Originally published by at learning.nd.edu on February 03, 2026.