Très bien! Olivia Ramsey’s path to French knighthood

What do you get when you mix the beauty of multilingual, Francophone culture with an Earlham education? If you’re Olivia Ramsey ’00, you get a knighthood.

On May 16, 2025, Ramsey received the insignia of Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes académiques, knighted by the French government for her efforts to bring Francophone culture to the U.S. through education.

Except this knight isn’t carrying a sword. She’s carrying books of Creole and French plays and has bilingual, curious children following in her wake as she spreads Francophone culture throughout Brooklyn, New York.

The path of a knight

At Earlham, Ramsey majored in both French and psychology thinking she would go into environmental law, but she learned quickly that it wasn’t for her. A job opened up at a Montessori school for a French teacher, and she knew immediately that she had found her calling.

“I could connect with the kids,” she said, “but even more powerfully, I just loved it. It’s the most fulfilling career you could have.”

For her master’s, Ramsey attended New York City’s Bank Street College of Education, which is deeply rooted in the Quaker tradition. The school embraces a developmental-interaction approach to teaching, a philosophy that Ramsey uses in her own work as an educator. It emphasizes that children learn best through active engagement with materials, ideas, and people. Educators who practice this approach focus on the authentic growth of their students rather than standardized testing and outcomes.

 “That approach was such a beautiful continuation of the work and ethos at Earlham,” said Ramsey. “It is such a human approach to learning and child development and the importance of connections and our responsibility to each other, our communities, the planet, and helping children grow into goodness and spread that out into the world.”

After Bank Street, Ramsey worked at a therapeutic nursery school in lower Manhattan, but shortly thereafter was on a study abroad trip with Earlham, leading a French trip to Martinique with the late Annie Bandy, a professor of French and Francophone Studies at Earlham.

“Annie had this amazing ability to connect with artists, dancers, playwrights, actors. We had this incredibly rich experience that ultimately expanded my understanding of Francophone culture,” said Ramsey. “She was an influence as a professor, mentor and guide from the classrooms of Richmond, Indiana, to the streets of Paris, the hills of the Pyrenees and the beaches of Martinique. I was her student, and later her assistant director on the study abroad programs she led, where she taught us not only literature and language, but how to live with curiosity, purpose and joy. Annie opened doors I didn’t even know existed and changed my life in the process.”

A bilingual revolution

Trips with her professor lit a fire for Ramsey. She knew she had to find a way to combine her love of French language and culture with education. Little did she know, however, that she’d contribute to “bilingual revolution,” a grassroots movement chronicled by Fabrice Jaumont, a French scholar and author of Bilingual Revolution: The Future of Education is in Two Languages.

“It is driven by parents, educators and community leaders advocating for dual-language programs in public schools,” said Jaumont. “These efforts began in response to a growing awareness of the cognitive, cultural and social benefits of bilingualism – and a desire to preserve heritage languages, particularly in immigrant and diaspora communities.”

For French speakers and heritage learners, bilingual education offers a means to maintain a vital connection to their linguistic and cultural roots. For many, it’s about more than language; it’s about identity, continuity and inclusion. Families want children to speak the language of their grandparents, to access French literature and history in the original language, and to belong to a broader global francophone community.

“In today’s interconnected world, bilingualism is no longer a luxury,” Jaumont said. “It’s a necessity. Bilingual individuals enjoy cognitive advantages such as improved problem-solving, creativity and mental flexibility. Being bilingual enhances career opportunities, fosters empathy and equips young people to navigate a multicultural world with confidence and respect. Moreover, in a time when linguistic diversity is at risk, promoting bilingualism is a form of cultural preservation. It allows us to honor our roots while building bridges across communities.”

Such was the case for Ramsey, who applied for a position at the private bilingual school Lycée Français de New York, where she taught kindergarten for three years. She eventually was recruited to start the French Dual Language Program at P.S. 58, in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York.

Ramsey worked at P.S. 58 for five years and increased relations with the French Embassy and French government, helping grow the program from a couple kids to several hundred. Six dual language programs are based off of the one from P.S. 58. Gradually, Ramsey was getting closer to her goals, both professionally and personally.

During this time, she and her husband also had two children. To adapt to a family life, she began tutoring. She started with five kids, but that number quickly grew and more popped up on her waiting list, eager for her teaching.

“I ended up with about 22 students, and I only worked maybe three to four hours a day, but it clearly was filling a need,” she said. “Whether it was academic support or French enrichment or even test prep, folks really wanted a connected and warm nurturing space for their kids to get individualized support.”

One of the families using Ramsey’s services offered a studio space for her to rent to expand her services and clientele base. This also allowed her to hire a staff of teachers.

Not long after, she established Smith Street Workshop, which led to establishing a formal preschool, Smith Street Maternelle in Brooklyn. Among her students is the daughter of the award-winning picture book author, muralist, and illustrator Katie Yamasaki ’99, who was enrolled from 2020-2022, and continues to attend the school’s summer camp. Now, Ramsey has two enterprises. Smith Street Workshop includes test prep and tutoring for K-12 students across all subjects with even some casual adult language learning classes. Smith Street Maternelle is under the umbrella of the workshop, and is a specialized bilingual education program for preschoolers. It includes sections for Toute Petite (2-year olds), Petite (3-year olds), Moyenne (4-year olds), and Grande (5-year olds) that cater to the unique educational needs of those young learners.

Graduates of Smith Street Maternelle go on to join public dual language programs, the Lycée Français and other independent French-American schools, the United Nations International School and many of New York City’s most respected independent schools.

French blood

In 1983, when Ramsey was 4 — the same age as the students at Smith Street — her parents moved the family to the south of France for eight months. She remembers the time as magical and memorable: the gardens, the Mediterranean sea, the markets, the cafés, boulangeries, patisseries.

“It was a small town, Boulouris, where we got to know everyone pretty quickly,” she said. “It was unusual for Americans to be in France at the time, so we were the talk of the town. People were so kind, and I got a real feel for the culture, food, history and way of life that was so different from my home state of North Carolina. It felt like a total dream.”

When Ramsey came back to the U.S. with her family, she started kindergarten and always took French classes, through to AP French in high school. Her parents cooked a lot of French food at home, and there was always a family reverence for Francophone culture.

On the heels of an important expansion of Smith Street Maternelle in 2023, Ramsey found out she had breast cancer.

“We had many families who believed and still believe in our mission and were counting on us, including my one daughter, Ida,” said Ramsey. “In February of 2024, after three surgeries and radiation treatment, it became very clear that the leadership demands of founding and expanding an elementary school were totally incompatible with what it took for me to get better.”

She made the hard decision to close Smith Street Maternelle’s elementary division and worked to place Smith Street students in new schools. Heartbreaking, definitely — but the right thing to do, she said.

“There was no one else I could have hired to do what I was doing,” she said. “I was working 60 to 70 hours a week, totally stretched. The foundation was not strong enough for me to hand it to someone else at that point. My doctors also advised me to reduce stress as much as humanly possible if I didn’t want the cancer to recur.”

Even while having to pause plans of expansion, Ramsey still made her mark with her persistence and tenacity, and the French government took notice. In May, a soiree celebrated both 10 years of Smith Street Maternelle and the knighting of its Head of School for her efforts to expand French culture in the world.

Featured music and cuisine were inspired by the vibrant cultures of the Francophone world — France, the Caribbean, West Africa and beyond. After the ceremony, guests danced the night away and attended both live and silent auctions benefitting Smith Street Maternelle’s mission to cultivate curious, passionate, multilingual learners.

Twinkle lights decorated the gathering room where a captive audience in formalwear watched as student artwork was auctioned, a knight was honored and a community cherished. Jaumont, who nominated Ramsey, was also in attendance.

“This was already quite an incredible partnership between Olivia and I and the embassy of France, and our work together with me as the education attaché,” Jaumont said. “Olivia embodies the spirit of the ‘bilingual revolution.’ Her commitment to bilingual education goes beyond professional duties. She is a tireless advocate, connector and innovator.

“Through her leadership, she has helped launch programs that serve not only French-speaking communities but also students from diverse backgrounds who benefit from a global, multilingual education,” he said. “Her efforts have helped children grow up bilingually and biculturally, opening doors to higher achievement and deeper cross-cultural understanding. Olivia’s impact is lasting: she’s helped build programs and partnerships that will empower generations to come. Her knighthood is a recognition of both her personal dedication and her broader contributions to the advancement of the French language and culture abroad.”

Vince Punzo, professor of psychology at Earlham and longtime friend and mentor of Ramsey, agreed that nobody else was more deserving of this award. He was in attendance at the gala alongside Megan Wilson Paris ’00 and other friends and family.

“In these polarizing times, it is easy to become despondent about the possibility for community, connection and respect to override tendencies that propel us toward polarization, conflict and divisiveness,” he said. “But Olivia has shown it can be done. The testimonials at the gala showed that Olivia’s efforts not only led to the education and holistic development of individual children, but also built a strong, vibrant community of people united in a spirit of cooperation, care, respect and civic mindedness.”

This story was written by Jay Kibble for the Earlham College Office of Marketing and Communications and appeared originally in the fall 2025 issue of Earlhamite magazine. Photos are courtesy of Kate Burton.

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About Earlham College 

Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion foster a collaborative learning community that inspires and motivates students with transformative opportunities and experiences so they can become catalysts for good in a changing world. Located in Richmond, Indiana, Earlham is one of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 75 national liberal arts colleges and offers one of the top 20 classroom experiences in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.