Local StoriesMay 31, 2024

Meet Rachèle DeMeo

Local Stories

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Rachèle DeMeo. Rachèle was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Sharmila Hall.

Hi Rachèle, we’re so thrilled to have you sharing your story with us today. Maybe we can kick things off by having you introduce yourself to our readers? We’d love to have you go into your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hi there! My name is Rachèle DeMeo. Thrilled to meet you. I’ve been an educator for two decades. I absolutely loved teaching my native French language and was extremely passionate in teaching as a whole. I had an excellent reputation in the different schools and colleges I taught at. I was asked to open up a French speaking school due to my experience and the fact that I’m raising my children bilingual and multicultural.
I left my successful teaching career (I had taught middle school, high school and university level French for 15 years) in 2019 to open up a French school called FLAM San Diego for kids and teens in the San Diego area and nationwide. We opened our doors in 2020 and started with after-school online French classes. The classes are all taught by native, experienced, educated, passionate teachers. The first three years were very challenging on many levels. But we’ve grown tremendously since we’ve started. We now additionally offer in-person French classes in different locations in San Diego and in San Diego County, as well as extracurricular activities. Our classes have been very successful. Many of our students come from French-speaking parents expatriated to the United States. Other students don’t have either parent French-speaking and now speak French fluently thanks to our classes. We have so many successful students. From young adults entering the workforce and using French professionally to students entering university and skipping up to six classes thanks to the classes taken at FLAM San Diego. We also have moving stories of kids being able to speak to their grandparents back in France, Belgium, Cameroun, etc who wouldn’t communicate with them prior to taking our classes. And then we have families who move (back) to France and the children easily integrate schools there thanks to the classes taken at FLAM San Diego–which is officially recognized by the national French education system.
It’s so rewarding to receive these testimonials and watch our students use such a sought-out-after and popular language in their personal and professional lives. Our amazing team is key to the success our school continues to have and I’m so grateful for each member of our team.

We’ve heard great things about your organization. For our readers who might not be as familiar, can you please tell them about the organization?
We offer tailored, Interactive & Fun French Classes for Kids & Teens both in-Person & online. FLAM, an acronym for “Français en Langue Maternelle” (French as a Mother Tongue), is a globally recognized hallmark of high-quality French education. It underscores the worldwide renown and excellence of our programs. Hence, the quality of our courses resembles French classes taken in French. We have different levels of French: FLAM (French as as Maternal Language), FLS (French as a Secondary Language) and FLE (French as a Foreign Language) as well as different formats (in-person or online group classes, private lessons, etc). Additionally, we provide extracurricular activities for students, also both in-person and online.

Sharmila Hall and SMB Global Marketing have been great to us and I know you’ve got a great relationship with them as well. Maybe you can tell our audience a bit about Sharmila Hall and SMB Global Marketing and your experience with them.
Sharmila and SMB Global Marketing is top of the line in the industry. We needed a new website. Sharmila was outstanding from beginning to end in every way. She was professional yet personable. She listened to our needs. She delivered in time everything she worked on. She created a WhatsApp group just for our team and to keep us informed of updates along the way. She regularly organized meetings for us to go over the website. From the layout, to the verbiage, to picture-choice, she kept us not only in the loop but asked us what we needed and wanted to reflect what we offered. Additionally, she went through the best keywords for internet searches in both English and French.
Since the website was completed last Fall, we have gotten not only way more visibility but many more clients. Usually we don’t get many requests for classes in the middle of the school year and since we have had Sharmila redo the website, we have gotten way more traffic on the website and many families enroll their children in the middle of the school year.
Thank you so much Sharmila for your stellar work!