15 Min Language Story | Megan Diercks

Finding a Professional Home Through Language: Megan Diercks’ Story

What happens when one encouraging teacher changes the direction of a student’s life?

In this episode of 15 Minute Language Stories with Norah Jones, Megan Diercks shares the deeply personal journey that led her from a junior high student leaving notes around the house begging to study French… to becoming a teacher, mentor, leader, and Executive Director of the American Association of Teachers of French.

Megan’s story is one of mentorship, curiosity, and saying “yes” to opportunities that opened unexpected doors. Along the way, she discovered not only a love for French, but also the power of professional community and the importance of helping students see language as something that can shape an entire life.

As Megan reflects on her years in the classroom, one theme rises above everything else: the lasting impact teachers have on the lives of their students.

“The greatest compliment any language teacher can have is that your student wants to be you — or a better version of you someday.”

That idea comes full circle throughout her story as she shares how former students became language teachers themselves, while others carried their French into careers, travel, and lifelong experiences beyond the classroom.

From inspiring students to supporting educators across the country through AATF leadership, Megan reminds us that language learning is never only about grammar or vocabulary. It is about connection, confidence, opportunity, and belonging.

In just fifteen minutes, this story reminds us how one teacher, one mentor, or one encouraging voice can open doors that shape a lifetime.

Listen to this 15 Minute Language Story and hear how a love of language became a lifelong journey of teaching, advocacy, and community.

Transcript

Norah Jones (00:00)
Megan Dirks, here you are again. Wonderful, wonderful to see you again.

Megan Diercks (00:05)
Well, thank you so much for having me. It’s great to see you again. It’s always wonderful to see you and be able to sit down and chat with you. it’s really, it’s a fun thing to be able to share kind of my language story and my language journey. So I will say that I do come by language ability, honestly. My dad majored in German when he was in college and my mom minored in French. And about junior, when I was in junior high, I decided that I really wanted to learn French.

and I was attending a small private religious school that didn’t have any world language at the high school level. And so for months I begged my parents, I would leave little notes around their house, like leave little notes on their pillow saying, please let me transfer to the public high school so I could take French. And they did. And I started with French right away. I, through the course of my career, my high school career, I had three absolutely wonderful

high school French teachers. The woman who was supposed to be my French teacher was out on FMLA leave, so she had a long-term sub who had been a French teacher. She was amazing. Then my teacher came back and I had her for two years and I had another teacher for two years. And my French three teacher and I became very, very close. And about my senior year in high school, I decided that I did not, I no longer wanted to be a child psychologist.

that I wanted to be a French teacher. And it was really because of my French 3 high school teacher, Madame Mannweiler, that I made that decision. And so I went off to college and I was going to be a French and English major with the goal of being a high school teacher. So I get to college and my first semester advisor was a German professor.

And I realized that this is absolutely not the norm. I attended a small private religious college in Western Michigan. It’s the same college that my parents went to. This German instructor had taught my dad when he was in college. And so we’re working on my schedule and I had come in with credits from different high school classes that I had taken. And she said, this German professor advisor had said to me, well, you’ve got some room in your schedule and you said that you’d like to take German sometime during your college career.

why not start with it now? And I said, okay, so first semester college student, I was in sixth semester French, first semester German, and then in English class. And after my first semester in college, I decided that I really did not enjoy my English class. I did not really care for my English professor, and I no longer wanted to be an English teacher. I was going to be a French and German teacher. And so I ended up

Double majoring and then I had a secondary education concentration and it was it was really funny I had the German professors that my dad had had when he was in college one of my German professors had been at my Baptism he came to my wedding. So it was this it was this really close little little community and I feel very fortunate that I had a first-year advisor who let me take

language and encouraged me to add a second language during my college career. So my piece of advice would be to students who are currently taking a language and want to continue that language in college, stand up for yourself with your first year advisor. This is your career, it’s your college education, and if you want to take that language, be sure and push and take that language course and it’s okay.

to tell your advisor, no, I really want to do this. And you can stand up for yourself and say, I really want to do this. So I graduated. I did not end up getting married to the person that I thought I was going to get married to and then started a master’s degree and then married the right person moved to Texas and began my high school teaching career. And I was teaching both French and German. And I

As much as I love German and as much as I cherish the German experience that I had in college, I am not a German teacher deep down in my heart. I am a French teacher deep down in my heart. And so I was able to teach in several different districts. And the district where I spent the most time, I had an absolutely wonderful French colleague who shared everything.

with me and she’s the one who really encouraged me to take advantage of my AATF membership benefits. And she’s the one who introduced me to the Grand Concours, the National French Contest, to having a Société Honoraire de France chapter in our school. And then in North Texas, there’s a local world language, or local French competition. And we took students every year. And after a couple of years, I said to my colleague,

why don’t we host this? Because I think we can do a really good job with it and our school is larger than where it was being held and was just a better setup. And so we ended up hosting the Fete Francaise and then I was encouraged to run for an officer position in the North Texas AATF chapter. And that’s really kind of what kicked me off on my AATF career.

Norah Jones (05:22)
And this speaks so much to collegiality, to the people around whom you have spent time and their encouragement. What kinds of experiences then in sharing that experience of your own, that insight, that collegiality,

Megan Diercks (05:23)
Thanks.

Norah Jones (05:41)
have you had that helped you to reinforce the importance of language in general in people’s lives and also the pathways they can go on to using it and enjoying it for a lifetime?

Megan Diercks (05:52)
That’s a wonderful question. When I taught high school in Texas, my colleague and I, Delin Denton, had a really robust and active French program. And we had several former students go on and become French teachers, which is the greatest compliment I think that any French teacher can have is that your student wants to be you or a better version of you someday. And I did it. And I think that’s why Delin became a French teacher. But we’ve also seen our students go on

and use French in other careers as well, or travel to France and say, Madame, I used my French and I could still order and I could still do these other things. So I think giving students ⁓ the opportunity to really take advantage of what they could while they were in high school, be it French club or Societe Honoraire de France or participating in the Grand Concours or participating in another local French contest.

allows you to see French beyond the borders of your high school and it also allows you to have such a positive experience with your French. And my goal is that my former high school French students will tell their nieces or their nephews or their children so they choose to have children that they took French in high school. They had a

wonderful time in their language class. And if this child is deciding what language to take and is looking for advice that the positive impact of their high school experience will allow them to unreservedly recommend taking French. And it wouldn’t just be French. I hope that every single high school student has a wonderful experience in their language class, has a dedicated and motivated and exciting teacher, and can un…

unreservedly recommend taking that particular language to the younger generation who’s trying to figure out what language to take.

Norah Jones (07:48)
That’s great. Thank you, Megan. And one of the things that struck me also here as you’re speaking is the AATF itself, the American Association of Teachers of French itself, is a celebration of people coming together that have common interest. What kinds of impact have you seen of the AATF on the heart’s, mind’s professional trajectory, however you would like to define it or multiple ways?

for those that have taken on French as part of their life journey.

Megan Diercks (08:20)
Thank you for that question. I can speak for me that it’s been incredibly impactful. I’ve been a chapter officer in North Texas. I was a chapter officer in the Colorado, Wyoming chapter. And because of all of that chapter officer experience, I participated in the AATF Leadership Academy in 2015. Because of that, it was recommended that I apply for National Bulletin Editor, which I did, and I joined the AATF National Board.

in 2016, which allowed me to then meet the National French Contest Director at the time, Lisa Nerug, and she needed an assistant. And I said, I’ll be your assistant. then spent the next four years sending emails and supporting teachers while taking the National French Contest. And then when the Executive Director position came up, I applied for it. And looking back, I realized how much the AATF had impacted

my career, not only with chapter officer experience, but I had associated to honor a French in all of the schools that I taught at except for my my very first year of teaching. had participated in the Grand Concours every single year except for my first year teaching. So I was really well versed in both of those initiatives. I knew the National French Contest from a

back end standpoint as well with being the Concord Assistant Director and then I knew the National Bulletin too. So it had brought me a wealth of knowledge. I knew a lot of our members and I think that that maybe was an impact on why I got my job because I knew so many members. aside from aside from my personal professional journey,

The AETF is a place where French teachers can come together and receive support and also be recognized for their own professional accomplishments. We have so many awards and grants and scholarships that teachers can apply for and really stand out. We have a program recognition that people can apply for and you’re not competing against other programs for that program recognition, you’re competing against the rubric. And so if you can tick all the boxes on the rubric,

then your program will be labeled exemplary. And to the best of our knowledge, no AATF program labeled as an exemplary program has ever been cut. And so we are here to support you. We are here to recognize your accomplishments and your students’ accomplishments. We want your French program to thrive. And everything we do is designed to support you and your students.

in your program through our webinar series or our convention or our publications or the myriad awards that you can apply for or be nominated for. But we want this to be your professional home. If you’re interested in leadership, we have leadership opportunities. If you’re looking for more, if you want to get more involved, we have ways for you to get more involved. so no matter if you’ve

You’ve just got a little program and you just want to make it grow. Or if you’re in a really thriving program and you personally are looking for more, you want leadership opportunities or you want to grow or you’re ready to tackle a larger challenge. We’re here for you and we’ve got something for everybody.

Norah Jones (11:33)
That energy of that invitation is inspiring. And I just think about your personal story has a lot of try this, try this, this opened up. And like so many folks, you’re adding on, but instead of thinking to yourself, you’re overloading what you’re doing is you’re exploring and incorporating many, many more things. And then you just made that offer right through ATF also that opportunity to

get resources and get opportunities, but also to grow and add on in ways that can really help. The last question I have for you then, the last part here is, do you have a story about someone that you watched in your professional life, a person who might not have understood the power of French in their lives, but because of the way that they

were engaged with French, were in an orbit of other French teachers, lovers, ATF members, however you want to define it, that they found that door that they had always wanted to walk through.

Megan Diercks (12:38)
That’s a good question.

I don’t know that I have anything off the like anything super powerful off the top of my off the top of my head, unfortunately.

Norah Jones (12:47)
that’s okay. But do you know someone that you just know is that is happy? They’re just they’re so happy. They’re a French teacher and they outside of yourself. I mean here that they’re just super happy to be a French teacher and you’re just delighted whenever you see them because they are still delighted to be a French teacher.

Megan Diercks (13:02)
Yes, I would say that my friend John Shi, who’s the president of the Connecticut chapter of the AATF, is always super happy to be a French teacher. And he and I present every year at Neckful together. And we organize the karaoke at the AATF convention. And he’s just an awesome example of what a French teacher is. And he’s very inspirational. He’s always looking to do better by his students. He’s always looking to promote his French program. He does

all of the AATF things to bring recognition to his students and to his program. And I’m very lucky that our paths magically crossed at the AATF convention in Austin and we’ve been really great friends ever since. And he’s pushed me to make some changes and with his help and support, he and I organize the trivia contest and the super fun karaoke night every year. And so he pushes me to be a better

representation of the AATF and in turn he takes advantage of all of the AATF opportunities that we have.

Norah Jones (14:08)
Great story, great shout out. Thank you for it, my friend. That was really awesome. See, we pulled it together in a way that allows you to bring the joy that you have and have shared it with others. Thanks, Megan.

Megan Diercks (14:21)
You’re welcome.

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