Margaret Sullivan: Middlebury French MA Alumna, Author and Illustrator

What first made you interested in pursuing a Master’s in French at Middlebury?

I was fresh out of college and working as a 6th grade English teacher in France when the program caught my eye. I hadn’t really considered pursuing a masters in French at the time, mostly because I knew I didn’t want to become a French professor. But what Middlebury offered was different. 

Its generalist approach drew people from all walks of life and career paths, beyond those who aspired to teach. Its offer was unique, and for me, hard to pass up: Spend a year perfecting your French language skills with world-class professors in Vermont and Paris, then apply them while working in a Parisian internship—or stage—in an industry of your choosing. For someone just two years out of college, it offered exactly the kind of immersive real-world experience I was after. 

And I wasn’t alone. My peers in the program ran the gamut of backgrounds and interests. Some were headed to law school to study for international practice, and, for them, a French degree was an important feather in their cap. Others were preparing for careers in the UN or the museum world. I pursued a stage in publishing, while my peers interned at law firms and art auction houses and banks. 

What did you do following graduation?

I’d discovered the world of public relations and marketing during that Paris internship, and after graduation, I landed an agency job in New York. My French came in handy again and again as I grew a career over the subsequent fifteen years working with clients like TED, USAID, Target, GE and Disney. Eventually, I became a partner in a communications and marketing agency that was acquired by the global media holding company WPP.

What prompted you to leave the corporate world and travel/write a book?

My corporate years were consumed with work—growing the business, traveling, meeting client needs and deadlines. Somewhere along the way I got married and had two small children. All of it — the work pressure and the responsibilities at home — felt like a lot, but I put my head down and did it, mostly because that’s what I thought I was supposed to be doing. 

But then something happened that changed my mind. 

I traveled a lot for my job in those days, usually to places like Minneapolis but occasionally overseas to cities like Rio, Edinburgh, and Paris. In fall 2017, I flew to Arusha, Tanzania, a temperate city near Mount Kilimanjaro, to oversee media relations for a conference hosted by my client. 

While there, I had an unexpected “a-ha” moment. My book goes into the details, but the short story is that I could suddenly see how my New York life had grown transactional to the point of being forgettable: commute, work, bedtime, playground, socializing, rinse, repeat. 

On the 20-hour journey home, I reflected on this. I had never heard the terms “family gap year” or “family sabbatical” or “RTW travel” — the acronym for Round The World — but that’s the wild idea that started to take shape in my mind. By the time I landed, I had a pitch for my husband, Teddy: “A full year of global travel, with the kids, without jobs, on the move, seeing and learning as much as we can about the rest of the world. Not someday, but now.” 

Eventually he came around, conceding that a family gap year would allow us to make the most of this fleeting chapter when the kids were still young and we were all healthy. A way to future-proof against regret. He was in.

I never imagined I’d quit my big job, give up my New York City apartment, pull my two kids (four and six) out of school, and leave the country to travel with my family to twenty-nine countries across six continents — but that’s exactly what we did.

I couldn’t have predicted I’d become an author, either. But once we returned home, I could see how far we’d come, and how all the lessons we had learned the hard way—about travel, about the world, about ourselves—just might be interesting for others too. 

How did Middlebury impact your career?

In the most practical sense, being able to speak French gave me the gift of being able to effectively communicate and collaborate in multicultural settings, both domestically and internationally. And the work experience in my stage helped me hone essential skills like adaptability, cross-cultural communication, and problem-solving—all indispensable in today’s global work landscape. 

But with time and distance I can see that beyond opening doors for career growth, the degree contributed in an important way to my broader understanding of the world. It was a building block toward recognizing that there is so much more out there than I realized. These days I’m not immune to getting caught up in the routine and short-sighted details of everyday life, but experiences like Middlebury remind me that there is so much more out there. I appreciate that the experience helped me start my work journey with a wider view of the world than I might have otherwise. 

What advice would you give to future students?

Get off your phone and meet people—real ones, in the flesh. By the time my initial six weeks in Vermont were complete, I had cultivated a tight group of buddies by shelving my homebody instincts and putting myself out there. I’d wrangle a group to head down to dollar Bud night at Mr. Up’s (aka Chez Monsieur En Haut), or organize a tennis tournament. I even signed up to learn and perform the can-can with others at a big party! This wasn’t my nature, but I knew I had one chance to make the most of the program. 

Once I landed in Paris, I kept it up. It turns out introducing yourself to someone can lead to, well, you never know what it can lead to, which is the point. I pushed myself to get to know a wide variety of people, French and American alike, and it paid. To this day the people I met during my Middlebury year remain some of my closest. 

About Following the Sun: Tales (and Fails) From a Year Around the World With Our Kids (December, 2023)

A must-read for any parent pondering extended family travel, Following the Sun offers a refreshingly honest account of one American family’s decision to uproot their conventional life and embark on a year-long adventure around the world with two small children.

After having an epiphany (the world is big and our time is short), working parents Margaret and Teddy Sullivan make the drastic decision to quit their jobs, give up their New York City apartment, pull their two kids (four and six) out of school, and leave the U.S. with nothing more than carry-on bags to travel for a year to twenty-nine countries spanning six continents.

Following the Sun transports readers along their ambitious itinerary through vivid descriptions—cloud forests in Peru, horse races in Mongolia, sunsets in Zimbabwe—and in the process, answers commonly asked questions: What did they pack? Where did they go? How did they stay sane with their kids around all the time? It also answers plenty of questions no one asks, ever. Like what to do when your five-year-old projectile vomits on a crowded Saigon bus, or what not to do, under any circumstances, when piranha fishing in the Amazon.

More than a travelogue, Following the Sun reveals practical hacks and hard-won wisdom—about travel, about the world, about being parents—and offers a glimpse into what can happen when a family steps off the treadmill of daily life to experience adventure together while they still have the chance.

About Margaret Bensfield Sullivan

Margaret is an author and illustrator living in Lower Manhattan. Before quitting to travel the world with her family, she spent nearly 15 years in corporate communications and brand marketing, much of it as a partner at WPP’s award-winning agency Group SJR, where she designed storytelling campaigns on behalf of clients like TED, Target, Disney, and USAID. A native of Washington, DC, Margaret is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds a Masters in French from Middlebury College.

You can buy Following the Sun here!

Apply to our School of French Immersion (all levels ages 18-90+) and Graduate programs here!