Mikaela de Lemos ’21 Receives Fulbright to Spain

Mikaela de Lemos will continue her work as a service-oriented educator in the Hispanic community as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in the Canary Islands. 

De Lemos graduated in May 2021 with a major in psychology and a minor in Hispanic studies. She currently works as a research assistant in the Chicago Healthy Adolescent Transition Study (CHATS) Lab and Children Adapting to Stress and Adversity (CASA) Lab at Loyola University Chicago. With assistance from the CHATS lab, she started the first virtual support group for teenage siblings of those with spina bifida, and will be conducting a study assessing the feasibility of the program this summer. She is also volunteering as an English language teacher at the Muslim Women Resource Center for refugee families affected by the crisis in Afghanistan.

In Spring 2020, de Lemos studied abroad in Alicante, Spain, but the semester was cut short due to the pandemic. At Oberlin, she volunteered at El Centro de Servicios Sociales as an English Language Tutor for those preparing for their U.S. citizenship exam.

“I wanted to continue my work with the Hispanic community in a culturally-immersive setting,” says de Lemos, who is from Southlake, Texas. “Furthermore, I hadn't appreciated the privilege it is to speak English until I lived in another country. Using the skills I have developed as an English language tutor at El Centro de Servicios Sociales and the Muslim Women Resource Center, I want to give back to the community that welcomed me when I studied abroad. In addition to teaching, I'll be leading an intergenerational community engagement project to bring back together those who have been isolated due to the pandemic.”

Her Fulbright grant starts in early September 2022 and ends in mid-June 2023. She will be placed on one of the eight Canary Islands, where she will teach English at an early childhood or elementary school. 

“I'm looking forward to building meaningful relationships with my students and getting to know the local community,” she says. “I've never been to the Canary Islands, so I'm excited to explore a new place and culture. I’ve read that the Canary Islands are one of the best places in the world to go star-gazing.”

In addition to volunteering with El Centro, DeLemos played on the Oberlin women’s soccer team, was inducted as a member of the Oberlin College Chapter of Sigma Xi (the Scientific Research Honor Society), and worked as a research assistant in Professor Cindy Frantz’s social and environmental psychology lab.