Foreign Language Faculty

Department Chair
Mary E. Ricciardi, Ph.D.

Mary E. Ricciardi, Ph.D., has been teaching foreign languages at MMA since 1984 and has headed the Foreign Language Department since 1985. She holds degrees in French and Italian from Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana, and has taken courses in Spanish, French, and foreign language teaching methodology at the University of Missouri – Columbia, the University of Texas - Pan American, and the Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. Dr. Ricciardi teaches all levels of French and prepares her Cadets to participate in the National French Contest and the Rio Grande Valley French Competition. In 2004 she was chosen to participate in a summer seminar in Lyon, France, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, where she studied the Occupation, the Resistance and the rescue of Jewish children by French citizens during that period. The following summer she and her colleagues presented papers on their work in Lyon at the annual meeting of the American Association of Teachers of French. She is a past president and advisor to the AATF South Texas Chapter and in the summer of 2006 conducted a workshop in French Theatre for Teachers of French.

Stacey Neaville

Ms Stacey Neaville, B.A., received her degree from Central Washington University in Washington State and has had teaching experience that includes work with children of Spanish-speaking migrant workers. Before coming to Harlingen, she spent four years in military service with the U.S. Army, where her work was as a linguist for an intelligence unit. Cadets in her classes often dramatize their dialogs and prepare oral and artistic presentations, and one year her classes got to sample barbacoa straight from the skull. In 2006 she worked with Harlingen Performing Arts Theatre to create an educational unit on Mexican artist Frida Kahlo as part of a project involving the play I Choose My Own Colors. Ms Neaville has begun work toward a Masters in Instructional Systems Technology and is currently using a computer-based approach to teaching Spanish 2 and 3 which has resulted in her students’ making exceptional scores in vocabulary and culture.

Ashley Schuster

Ms. Ashley M. Schuster, B.A., holds a degree in Spanish and Communications from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She has studied abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain at the Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Estudios Norteamericanos (I.U.I.E.N.). Ms. Schuster’s area of interest is in Translation. She has translated for non- profit companies both in Mexico and the United States. As well as living along the U.S./Mexico border, she has lived in Puerto Rico, an island rich in Hispanic culture. She has traveled extensively throughout Mexico, making her well versed in the Latino Culture and Spanish language. Also, she has traveled to Germany, France, Holland and Luxembourg this past summer where she attended the World Cup Soccer Games (cheering Mexico’s team of course). Ms. Schuster is a first generation Mexican American, and brings a unique passion for sharing her culture and language to the Cadets here at the Marine Military Academy. She teaches Spanish 1 and 2.

E-mail Academics (academics@mma-tx.org)