Mount Holyoke alums teach English via Fulbright program

Two recent Mount Holyoke College alums, Helen Roane ’23 and Celine Falcon-Geist ’25, are participating in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA), a year-long, federally funded program that allows United States citizens to live and teach English in a foreign country after graduating from college. 

Roane majored in International Relations and East Asian Studies and received an ETA in Taiwan. She heard about the program during her senior year, but she only applied to Fulbright after working in residential life at Bryn Mawr College.

“I was really feeling like I wanted to go do something a little bit different, and I was missing … being immersed in … learning about East Asia specifically,” she said. “In addition to that, it would [help] me to explore a different career path because [I’m] open to teaching.”

Roane is teaching at two schools: at one, she teaches the entire student body (36 students), and at the other, she works with fifth- and sixth-graders. While teaching, she is immersed in Mandarin, which she has been learning since middle school, and Taiwanese Hokkien, the local language.

In Senegal, Falcon-Geist works with a “kids’ club” and a primary school, but she has primarily been teaching adults. She would like to work more with kids in the future. She has immersed herself in Senegalese life and culture through adult conversation groups.

“I think it’s cool to actually be with adults … because then I can build more of a community,” she said. “I can find out about events that are happening in the city or, like, places to go and eat, which is really nice that I can have … more community.”

Falcon-Geist learned about the Fulbright program from her mother’s post-graduate involvement, and she applied for an ETA during her senior year as a Psychology and Education major and Latinx Studies minor at Mount Holyoke. She ended up in Senegal partly because of connections through family and friends. She is learning French, Senegal’s official language, as well as Wolof, a widely spoken language in Senegal.

Both alums said they received extensive help from Mount Holyoke’s Career Development Center (CDC), especially from Associate Director of Fellowships Briana Chace ’17. Chace worked closely with Roane and Falcon-Geist throughout the application process, helping them to set timelines and finalize their applications. Chace speaks highly of both alums.

“Helen has the curiosity, enthusiasm and jovial demeanor [needed] to take full advantage of the growth opportunities offered by the Fulbright ETA experience,” she said. “[And Celine] engaged so thoughtfully in the application process, leveraging her network to strengthen her application materials, resulting in an incredibly strong community engagement plan centered on sharing craft skills across cultures and on practicing language acquisition with women in Senegal.”

Roane and Falcon-Geist stressed the value of working with the CDC while applying. Chace, Roane and Falcon-Geist strongly recommend that Mount Holyoke students take full advantage of the opportunities available through the College and the wider Mount Holyoke community.

“You’ve got a network here of really smart folks — your peers, your faculty — who can help with the creation of your application, who are content experts or who can read with fresh eyes,” Chace said. “The more eyes you have on your writing, the better.”