Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachele DeMeo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rachele, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Regarding FLAM San Diego, a school providing French classes for children and teenagers:

As an educator for 18 years, possessing two Master degrees, but also as a mother of two children, I’ve always been passionate about bilingual/multicultural education. I actually grew up in a bilingual and multicultural environment (my father is American-Italian, my mother is British but I was born and raised in France) and have therefore always been captivated by various languages and different cultures.

Former reputed college professor, I not only taught French as a foreign language but I also helped students who came from French-speaking families. Some of them had grown up hearing and possibly speaking French but ended up taking French classes in college because the level wasn’t high enough to opt out (by testing for credit) for example, or they wanted to come back to their “roots” and perfect their level of French.

During that time, for 3 years, I partially homeschooled my boys while I was teaching part-time in two local colleges (MiraCosta College & Palomar College). I used my personal experience to help my children learn and continue developing their acquisition of the French language by doing an hour of French with them, outside the American school curriculum we followed. Together, we worked on different workbooks, then followed a program from the French government called CNED (Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance). However, this required a lot of investment and work on my end. I stopped homeschooling, placed them in a public American elementary school but continued working on their French for about an hour a day, after school. I really wanted to find an affordable school where they could continue learning French–because even as a teacher, it can be challenging to teach your own children.
I then hoped to work with the School District to open up a dual-language immersion French-American School in North County San Diego. This project didn’t happen as hoped so I continued to research ways for families in our area to provide their children with an ongoing excellent level of French. Knowing there are 20,000 French people living in San Diego, the demand is great. Families want to impart a high level of instruction in French to their children but often don’t know how to.

Right around that time, I had the opportunity to meet up with a lady in the Los Angeles area who had originally contacted me to ask for advice on opening up a dual-language immersion French-American School in the Los Angeles area. During our lunch, the name FLAM was mentioned. I asked what it was and learned that there are many non-profit FLAM schools worldwide. FLAM schools (Français en Langue Maternelle), which stands for French as a Maternal Language, provide high-quality classes so children can learn and continue developing French language acquisition, at a high-level and internationally known label.

However, out of the hundreds of FLAM schools that exist, there was so FLAM in the San Diego area. This hence inspired me to create FLAM San Diego in October 2019. Following a survey I sent out to French families, and other interested families (such as American, South American, Chinese and Russian) in the area, I had a large response from parents interested in French classes for their children. I left my successful teaching jobs and then started, as a volunteer, the intense paperwork, administrative and legal duties to start a new school to provide after-school programs in French. I had a small staff of three volunteers on the administrative team and I hired three French teachers that were qualified, possessed credentials and degrees from the national French government, had experience but especially passion in teaching their native language. And that was the start. We opened up the school in the middle of the 2020 pandemic and had to initially provide only online classes for our students.

Rachele, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Rachele DeMeo is a multilingual educator. Born in Southern France by English-speaking parents (her father being American-Italian and her mother, British), she was raised bilingual and multicultural. (She also speaks Italian.) Former college professor, she is now an educational presenter / speaker. She speaks at a variety of conferences and trains other instructors. She is founder and director at FLAM San Diego, providing French classes for children. She is a YouTuber, creating weekly videos geared towards language learning. She also writes and has published six books so far. She also offers French courses at Belle Terre Academy. Married, she has two children she’s raising bilingual and multicultural. She loves cooking, music and extreme sports.
More info: https://linktr.ee/racheledemeo

Some highlights ~ Rachele:
– Obtained 2 Master degrees prior to age 25
– In the Education field for 18 years
– Taught middle school & high school for years
– Previous college professor (for 9 years)
– Homeschooled her children 3 years (parallel to teaching part-time)

Reasons to start my own business(es):
I feel like in the education field, instructors are forced to teach the “classical” way, not always respecting students’ personality types, learning styles and other individual factors (such as their strengths, weaknesses, backgrounds, etc). I had a good reputation for my creativity in teaching. But I constantly felt like I was put in a box. I knew there were many ways students could learn and there’s not always one way that works for all. In 2015 I started presenting workshops for other college professors and had great feedback on how practical activities I did in class and demonstrated, helped students best learn and use the subject long-term. A few years back I left my successful teaching position. I started two businesses. One, Belle Terre Academy, where I offer French courses students can take at their own pace. Another one, FLAM San Diego which is a small school providing French classes. I’ve trained my teachers in creative teaching and online learning as well as other specific tools to best help their students learn, while having fun.
Additionally, as an entrepreneur, I have published 6 books and post weekly videos on YouTube–all geared towards language learning and some more specifically to learn my native language, French.
Since age 12, I knew I wanted to teach. I started teaching and loved it. I have a passion for languages and cultures which has influenced me in starting two businesses geared towards language learning.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Leaving a successful teaching career to venture into starting a new business, as a volunteer, was evidently quite a financial sacrifice. Opening up a school, even a small one, is tough enough but starting classes in the middle of the pandemic was even more challenging. We initially had in-person classes scheduled and then, since we couldn’t meet in person, I had to train my teachers on virtual learning. Fortunately, I had been trained myself (back in 2012) on online teaching and learning. Heck, I actually started the online program for French at MiraCosta College and helped other colleges and universities develop their online language programs. But the urgency of training my own teachers in a short span of time was a sprint instead of a marathon. That was a huge learning curve on so many levels. But we had to power through and my teachers learned fun, interactive and motivating ways to teach online.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Well, in short, I had to first invest my own income to start the business. Imagine the challenge of starting a school, as a volunteer, giving your time and money to start a company and pay your teachers but not yourself? But I believe that’s part of the process when you start from scratch. You have to see the bigger picture and have a long-term vision. The need for French classes was evident and I knew I had to fulfill that need to help the families in the area and help better the lives of students learning French..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.racheledemeo.com, http://www.flamsandiego.com/ (school’s website)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheledemeo/, @FLAM San Diego (school’s instagram)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rachele-DeMeo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheledemeo/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/racheledemeo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfPphdKi30kYeHMTLhN3GRg (14K subscribers)
• Other: https://linktr.ee/racheledemeo

Image Credits
Antoine Didienne Jastin DeMeo