CURRENT STUDENTS

María del Mar Aranda Gómez-Guillamón (she/her/ella) is a graduate Fulbright student from Málaga, Spain. Her intercultural experiences abroad from a very young age led her to develop a deep curiosity about the ways culture impacts the way people approach life and connect with others. Since she was introduced to the world of International Education through her job in student services at a study abroad agency, she knew the field was a perfect fit for her. This experience inspired her to pursue a Master in Education. From that moment on she has been involved in different international and educational professional settings –in Spain and abroad. Her latest roles include being a student life coordinator for young American university students in South Spain; a Spanish teacher for international students from all over the world at the EF International Campus in Málaga; and a Spanish language and culture assistant in a middle school Spanish immersion program in Portland, Oregon. In her spare time she takes online university classes in order to obtain an additional BA in English Studies as well as French lessons to improve her French skills. Through UMBC’s Master in Intercultural Communication she aspires to develop her intercultural and cross-cultural knowledge and competences, and to be able to answer key and complex questions of the field of International Education. Her goal is to design, lead and diversify intercultural learning programs in order to make them more accessible and significant.

Chelsea Leonard (she/her) was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed her undergraduate degree in Secondary Education English with a minor in Theatre. She found that teaching perfectly tied together her love for language and her desire to perform. Upon graduation, Chelsea decided to move to Taiwan to teach English. While teaching in Taiwan for nearly seven years, she traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia. Chelsea also attended the National Taiwan Normal University where she completed several courses in intermediate-level Mandarin Chinese. Chelsea moved back to the U.S. in 2018 and began her career in higher education administration. In her spare time, you can find her playing live music, planning her next big trip, or spending quality time with her wife, corgi, and cat.

Gemma Garcia Parellada (she/her/ella) was born and raised in a small city near Barcelona, Spain. She pursued a BA in English Studies at the University of Barcelona and her BA thesis analyzed the work of two Caribbean authors from a queer perspective. During her undergraduate, she studied at the University of Manchester for a year and she also taught English and Spanish as a second language to different levels for five years. After that, she pursued a career in publishing, where she developed an interest in children’s books, rights, international communication and agenting. She enhanced her knowledge about the industry by completing a Postgraduate Course in Management and Marketing in Publishing at the Open University of Catalonia. Gemma also co-edited an academic issue (Blue Gum Journal) on Artistic Responses to Contemporary Social Movements in Chile and Puerto Rico. Her research interests are Caribbean literature, queer theory, ecocriticism, and decolonial feminisms and she is also interested in the political economy of the publishing industry. In 2023, she earned a Fulbright scholarship to study an MA in Intercultural Communication at UMBC. She speaks Catalan, Spanish, English and a bit of French and she is currently learning Haitian Creole.

Lina Alejandra Mora Oviedo (she/her/ella) is an international graduate student from Colombia and a Spanish teaching assistant in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication. In her home country, she completed a B. A in Education and English language, and she also worked as an English teacher in public and private schools in Bogotá. Teaching in urban areas was a particularly enriching experience for her, as many of the students she taught faced socio-economic challenges. However, they demonstrated a genuine desire to learn despite the unfavorable conditions around them. In 2018, she was granted a PILA scholarship to study in Guadalajara, Mexico. From there it comes her interest in intercultural communication and training as she had the opportunity to interact with students from different cultural and language backgrounds. It was fascinating for her to observe behaviors, traditions, and beliefs that made each of these students unique; however, this process also made her more aware of some preconceived notions people had from her country and that were difficult to overcome. As a result, she consolidated her belief that developing intercultural skills is essential to communicate with others. Lina also holds a TESOL certificate from ASU and looks to explore the field of international education and cultural exchange advising.

Ramlah Ahmed Amsa (she/her) was born in Ottawa, Canada, but raised in College Park, Maryland. She also spent some of her childhood living in the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka. Having moved constantly, she attended multiple schools in North America, allowing her to gain insights into different cultures. She also has a diverse family background, so she grew up surrounded by numerous languages. She took around ten years of Arabic language courses and now majors in French at UMBC. Before this, she was a marine biology major with a French minor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She is a BA/MA student who hopes to continue to do her MA in intercultural communication with a specialization in French. To strengthen her hold on the language, she is also acting as the president of the French Club at UMBC and writing an honors thesis on Quebecois vs French comic books.