World Languages and Cultures Fulbrights
Over the years, several students from Providence College’s language department have earned prestigious Fulbright Awards. These awards have allowed them to travel the world to teach and study. Here are some brief descriptions of the Fulbright Scholars.
Class of 2022 Fulbright – Grace Maffucci
Grace Maffucci ’22 (Mamanoreck, NY), who double majored in Spanish and music, has been awarded an English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico for the 2022-2023 academic year through the U.S. Fulbright Program. Grace will serve not only as an English language teacher but also as a cultural ambassador and representative of the U.S. in Mexico. Grace plans to facilitate a multicultural musical group in her local community in Mexico as part of her ambassadorship.
Past Fulbrights
Fulbright scholars Kelley Garland ’16 (Wantagh, NY) and Abbey Guerino ’16 (Milford, CT), both members of the College’s Liberal Arts Honors Program, spent a year teaching English to secondary school students alongside a master teacher.
Garland traveled to the Czech Republic, where she had an internship with a nonprofit and took a political science course in the summer of 2014. Garland, who was PC’s senior class president, was a global studies major and had minors in sociology and French, as well as a business studies certificate.
Guerino, who majored in English and Spanish, was a member of PC’s Campus Ministry. In addition to serving as Peer Ministry coordinator as a senior, she coordinated Campus Ministry’s English as a Second Language program for campus food service and janitorial workers in her sophomore year. Guerino returned to Spain, where she spent spring 2015 at the University of Seville and volunteering in a fourth-grade classroom.
Emily M. Kennedy ’15 (Tallahassee, FL) and Vincent A. Whalen ’15 (Eatontown, NJ) spent a year abroad thanks to Fulbright awards. Kennedy, a global studies major who minored in Spanish, political science, and Latin American studies, received a Fulbright Research Grant to study a social movement to improve water access in a rural community near Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Whalen, who majored in Spanish and economics, was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Scholarship to IE University in Madrid, Spain. He worked with faculty and business students at IE, where courses are taught in Spanish and English.
Alanna E. Smith ’14 (Wappingers Falls, NNY), an English major and a Spanish minor, spent a year in Nepal as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) scholar. Smith was the sixth Providence College student in four years to be awarded a competitive, merit-based grant from the Fulbright Program. She was one of approximately 1,700 students to receive a Fulbright ETA grant and earned just one of six grants — from more than 50 applicants — to teach in Nepal.
Emma Wright ’12 (Lake Hill, NY) combined her passions for international travel and sustainable food policy in Germany during her Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Wright graduated summa cum laude as a history major and as a minor in both French and German. She has visited Germany twice through an exchange program at her high school. She also served as an au pair in Germany and Martinique. In addition to working in an English-language classroom, Wright — a dietary vegan — compared American and German food policies and the health and longevity of people in both countries.
