Journey of Self-Discovery Leads to Fulbright Award
With linguistic aptitude and a clear sense of identity, Galilea Luna ’25 wins prestigious fellowship to teach in Costa Rica
Growing up in Houston, Galilea Luna ’25 felt the need to balance respect for her parents’ Mexican culture with their dream of her pursuing higher education in America. This involved speaking Spanish at home and English elsewhere.
At Colby, she discovered that being bilingual was a strength. She used it tutoring a Guatemalan high school student in Waterville, encouraging Spanish-speaking workers to participate in a research project, and during her study abroad.
The Fulbright Program recognized Luna’s strength, too, and has awarded her a prestigious English Teaching Assistant fellowship. Fulbrighters, as recipients are informally called, act as cultural ambassadors while providing English language instruction in local schools. She has been assigned to teach in Costa Rica.
At Colby, Luna’s experiences helped her understand how to translate her language skills into opportunity in the classroom and the larger community. As a Fulbrighter, she can combine her interests in education and linguistic competency with the opportunity to impact the lives of others.
“It hit me that I had the opportunity to learn Spanish and English,” she said, reflecting on her time meeting Spanish-only speakers in the Waterville area. “I realize how powerful knowing a language is. Learning English has opened so many doors, and knowing Spanish has made people feel comfortable in many situations.”
The beginnings of self-discovery
Luna came to Colby as a first-gen Posse Scholar wanting to double major in Spanish and Latin American studies. Her primary motivation was to gain a deeper understanding of her parents’ culture and language. In Houston, she stopped taking Spanish classes in fourth grade, so her language skills never fully formed. Her mother often teased her when she didn’t say the right words.
“I was like, you know what? I’m going to take Spanish classes to prove to her,” she remembered thinking.
Luna did improve her Spanish at Colby, and she also gained confidence and a clearer sense of identity.
Her transformation began in the classroom. In her Spanish courses, she stepped up when classmates were nervous learning a new language. “This is my language,” she told herself, shedding her normally shy nature and becoming talkative and outgoing in class. As a sophomore, an essay she wrote won first prize in the short-story category during the College’s third annual Spanglish Creative Writing Contest.
A deeper cultural understanding came in her Latin American studies courses, where her attachment to her parents’ culture grew firmer. Those courses had a significant impact, she said, and helped her realize the importance of identifying herself. After years of not feeling comfortable with terms she heard growing up—Hispanic, Mexican-American, Latina—she now identifies as Chicana.
“I feel more confident in my identity,” said Luna. “I have also learned how that affects others—I didn’t know that people would see me differently.”
First time abroad
As a sophomore, Luna was a research assistant for Associate Professor of Government Lindsay Mayka, who was researching urban interventions, using Bogotá, Colombia, as her case study. Mayka was also Luna’s Posse mentor and an important figure in her Colby career.
During her sophomore-year Jan Plan, Luna spent the month in Bogotá with Mayka and her other research assistant, Hailey Guzman-German ’24, who was also awarded a Fulbright ETA fellowship. The trip was Luna’s first time abroad, and an eye-opening experience at that. For 10 days, the two students accompanied Mayka through skid row zones and sat in on interviews she conducted with drug users, sex workers, and politicians.
For the remainder of the month, Luna and Guzman-German were on their own with a guide who showed them areas they had only read about or seen in pictures. There was also time to explore the sprawling city’s cultural and culinary offerings.
“It was really nice,” Luna reflected on the experience. “Everyone was speaking Spanish, the food was good, and there were some people who looked like me and my parents.”
The time in Colombia bolstered Luna’s confidence to study in Mexico during her junior year. At la Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan in Merida, she took cultural studies courses—ceramics, cooking, literature, and anthropology—and immersed herself in the local culture. In ways that can’t be replicated in a classroom, the immersive experience brought Luna even closer to her family’s heritage, broadened her cultural understanding, and strengthened her Spanish.
Role modeling through tutoring
Back on campus, Luna found fulfillment as a Spanish tutor. She tutored Colby students and offered private tutoring in Waterville. She also volunteered to help the high schooler from Guatemala with his homework. When they first met, he knew virtually nothing about English and understood little about what was happening in his classes.
“It was a big issue,” said Luna, who helped to identify three other Spanish-speaking students in the school and also contacted the principal about the situation. Over time, she helped the student with his math homework and tutored him in English as well. He began to glimpse in her something he wanted for himself.
“Seeing me, he said, ‘I wanna go to college.’ He told me he wanted to do something more, and he understood that to do more, he needed to learn English,” said Luna. She knew firsthand that he was right.
Becoming a role model through tutoring, combined with her family experiences, was the main factor in Luna deciding to apply for the Fulbright.
While she waits for her assignment in Costa Rica to begin, Luna is back in Houston tutoring, applying for paralegal positions, and studying for the LSAT, the Law School Admission Test. Her long-range goal is to become an immigration lawyer.
On the eve of her graduation, she recognized that through her academic, personal, and study-abroad experiences, she met the goals she set coming to Colby. She understands her parents’ language and culture more clearly, and the unexpected—and welcome—outcome is the clarity with which she sees herself and articulates her identity.
“I identify as Chicana,” she says without hesitation. “I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and my parents are from Mexico.”
With that self-awareness, she’s bound to continue inspiring others through language.
