As the 2018-2019 school year comes to an end, French students at WA and Stony Brook Middle School are saying goodbye to Diana Albu who has been working in the Westford School System for 21 years, 9 at Blanchard and 12 at Stony Brook, and is going to be retiring after this school year.

Her love for teaching is what has kept her in the school system all these years.

At Stony Brook, Albu   started the French and Italian club. Both Albu and the students in the club enjoy their meetings after school. Many students have also come back to her after leaving Stony Brook telling her how they have been doing in French. They keep her updated with their progress in high school, as Albu likes to know that she helped them establish a foundation in French.

Albu wants to stay a part of the school system after her retirement by going to different events and supporting her daughter who teaches at WA.

“I’d like to come to all the foreign language awards so I can see my students and say congratulations,” Albu said.

Stefana Albu, Albus’ daughter, has worked at WA for 5 years now as a biology teacher.  Growing up Stefana graduated from WA and came back to teach as well as to stay connected with her mother.

“It’s been really really awesome because she can be a mentor since she’s taught for a lot longer,” Stefana Albu said.

Since Diana Albu had majored in and taught French when she was in Romania, she was excited to take a job as a French teacher at Stony Brook when the opportunity came. She mentioned how lucky she had felt that of all places, she ended up in the Westford School System.

Albu mentioned how the way she teaches has evolved over the years, and when she first started they did not have computers at Blanchard.

“Learning is different, it’s much more project based learning now. They like to use more technology than when I first started,” Albu said.

Before coming to Westford, Albu taught French and English to middle schoolers in Romania, where she grew up. Albu liked living in Transylvania but mentioned how things in Romania were harder than they are in the US. Albu and her husband were excited when they won the green card lottery allowing them to move to the US.

“Here [in the US] we have everything, including so much technology, which makes our life so much easier and more enjoyable,” Albu said.

Though Romanian is her mother tongue, Albu is also proficient in French, English, Italian, Latin, and German.

Albu also mentioned how the students in Westford are different from those in Romania.

“I liked the relationship between students and teachers, which is so much closer than over there. Over there you have to be more distant, and I like that it’s different here,” Albu said.

According to Stefana Albu, her mother is planning to travel this fall with her husband and connect with family in Romania as well as visit Europe.

In addition to traveling, Albu also wants to keep working on her foreign language abilities by learning Spanish.

“And now I want to learn Spanish. I think it will be easy for me already knowing Romanian, Italian, and French; I think I will pick it up easy,” Albu said.