Early into the 2025-26 academic year, the Center of Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) had the opportunity to speak to Roxanne Aguilera about the beginnings of her U.S. Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award, which has allowed her to move to Spain for about a year to teach and be a cultural ambassador for the United States. Months later, CUE once again had the opportunity to speak to Aguilera about how her program has been going.

Aguilera with Fulbright fellows

Fulbright placed Aguilera in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain for her program. As part of her Teaching Assistant Award, she spends most of her days teaching students from ages 11 to 18/19 at IES Plurilingüe Eusebio da Guarda, the school where Aguilera was assigned. Aguilera teaches up to 16 classes a week across a variety of subjects. In these classes, she either offers help in translation or creates lesson plans and teaches the lessons herself. 

A special project assigned to Aguilera was overseeing Global Classrooms (AKA Model UN) at her school, in which she prepared students to debate at a conference later in the school year. “We had full free rein to teach it how we see fit, which was quite hard because we had no guide info on how to do that, so we all got to do it in our own way which was quite nice,” said Aguilera. The Global Classroom conference occurred at the beginning of March in Santiago, the capital of Galicia. 80 students, around ages 14/15, debated entirely in English. For many students, it was their first time traveling outside A Coruña and provided them with the opportunity to meet new people. “It was a wonderful experience. Xunta, the [Galician] government, had made a beautiful exposition for them to be a part of,” said Aguilera. 

After school hours, Aguilera continues to provide for the community. She volunteers at the nonprofit organization Caritas. One part of her volunteering is being an English tutor. She tutors people from ages 3 to 80 who do not have access to independent tutoring or need extra instruction in their English lessons. Along with tutoring, she also volunteers in helping with human rights. “When I came [to Galicia], I had this idea that I wanted to work with gender rights and gender equity because that’s what I focused on in my thesis,” said Aguilera. During her time in Spain, she has been able to connect with people who were present during these moments of Spanish history and been able to receive first-hand accounts of those realities they faced. Her work has included participating in protests around Galicia that have raised awareness in violence against women or protesting for women’s rights. 

Aguilera at Global Classroom Conference

As her time with Fulbright comes to an end in June, Aguilera has started to think about what her next steps will be. Aguilera wants to make the most of her time left in the Fulbright program. “To finish off this year, I just really hope to make the most of my time and being a lot more intentional with how I use my time, whether that’s curating relationships or helping my community here…I love the culture and I love the community. I feel like there is so much more I want to explore,” said Aguilera. 

The U.S. Fulbright Program offers opportunities to teach or conduct research in over 140 different countries. If you are interested in applying for the Fulbright program, the 2026-2027 award cycle opens Spring 2026. To learn more about Fulbright, attend the Fulbright Information Session on Thursday, April 9 from 1-2pm in Beckman Hall 401. For additional information on other prestigious grants, fellowships, and scholarships, visit CUE’s website or email cue@chapman.edu.