Matera is a small town in southern Italy unexposed to crime, and where, according to Bakersfield College math professor Maria Perrone, “Life is good.”
The town is now famous since films such as “Passion of the Christ” and “The Nativity Story” have been filmed in the quiet city. Perrone had friends and lived what you could call a normal life until her aspirations of becoming an architect and later a math professor led her to her stay in the United States and end up in Bakersfield.
“I used to study English in high school,” said Perrone. “However, it was not with the intention of ever coming to the U.S. In high school, they teach us British English. I knew the grammar very well but could not understand the sound.”
Perrone is a math professor who has been teaching math at Bakersfield College for the past two years, and she has been in the country for just three years. This Italian math teacher, if given the chance to introduce herself to all of BC’s 15,000 students, would say, “It would be great if I had all of you in my class.”
Perrone’s hobbies are dancing, reading and cooking. Right now, she especially enjoys giving Italian lessons out of her home.
Perrone stayed in Matera until she finished high school and left to attend college in Brescia. She wanted to study engineering with aspirations of becoming an architect when she realized that the hands-on part of being an engineer did not agree with her. That’s when she decided to change her degree to math.
Brescia is located between Milan and Venice, and that’s where she completed her degree in math.
Perrone stayed in Brescia until 2004 and held different jobs including computer programmer and assistant professor. One of her jobs was what brought about a major change in her life, and that was when she was employed as a researcher because that was how she met her husband who was also working as a researcher and was from the United States.
Between the year 2003-2004, Perrone and her husband traveled from the United States and Italy, and it was later that they decided to get married.
The Perrones got married in Marin County, north of San Francisco, mainly because that’s where her husband’s family is from.
Perrone, after her move to this country, found out about community colleges, which is something that Italy doesn’t have. So she spent about four months at the computer applying to about 50 community colleges all over California and got her first position at Cerro Coso College for two semesters and later transferred to BC.
Perrone said that she is now expecting her first child and sees herself being in Bakersfield and being a part of BC’s staff for years to come. Perrone, 31, was 28 when she came to America and is in the process of becoming an American citizen.