Language traveller

Nichelle Soetaert, winner of the Jubilee Medal in the Humanities for the highest grade-point average in the faculty's graduating class, wraps languages around herself as if they were straps on a well-used backpack. She has already visited Europe, North Africa, Australia, the Middle East and South America, and graduates this month with a double major (French, Hispanic and Italian Studies).

Soetaert was born in Saint-Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec. The family-with her father in the military-moved around Canada, to New Zealand and finally to Saudi Arabia when Soetaert was eight.

"What brought me to Victoria and eventually to UVic is an interesting story," she says, "and usually a conversation stopper."

After 9/11, the situation in Saudi Arabia became unsettling for the family. In May 2002, there was a bombing near her school's property. Fortunately no one was killed, but the explosion was sufficient to damage the school significantly and encourage her parents to look for alternate options. While her father completed his contract in Saudi Arabia, Soetaert enrolled at Shawnigan Lake School. "I began boarding there in Grade 9, but after graduation, I decided I had spent enough time away from home and wanted to stay in Victoria."
It was an easy decision, as her family, including a younger brother, had relocated here in 2005. It was also an easy decision to pursue her chosen area of study, Soetaert adds.

"Learning a language always felt more natural to me than math or science. I love being able to communicate with all sorts of different people, a desire that likely stems from the extensive travel I was able to do while living overseas.

"Also, I love to read, and books are always so much more beautiful when you read them in their original language."

Soetaert is a 2010-11 scholar of the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Awards program, which encourages outstanding undergraduate scholars to reach for a tier of research traditionally reserved solely for graduate students. She researched the role of jazz in 20th-century French literature with specific focus on L'Écume des Jours by legendary post-war figure Boris Vian and La Naus&e#180;e by influential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

"I particularly love Vian because he doesn't fit in a box and he never will. In the Hispanic world of literature, I love the works of Julio Cortázar. He's a wonderful storyteller and his talent is extraordinary."

Soetaert's dream job would be teaching underprivileged high-school children in South America or in the poorer French-speaking areas of the world. Her future plans include returning to UVic this September to pursue a bachelor's of education.

It won't be long before she's strapping on a backpack again, but it's a safe bet it will be weighed down with at least a dozen books.