Naima Castaneda Isaac will be awarded her bachelor's degree from Spelman College on May 15, 2022. The East Palo Alto, California native double majored in Spanish and Philosophy and is a Presidential Scholar and Fulbright Finalist.
Recently, she was an intern for the Catholic Charities of Atlanta serving children refugees in their after-school program; and she was a Directed Supplemental instructor for 200-level Spanish classes at Spelman. She was also the program director for Spelman’s Spanish club, a reporter for the Education Committee as a member of the NAACP, as well as the program logistics manager for the Spelman chapter of Girl Power, and a team leader at Jumpstart where she aided in the education of preschoolers. She was also a member of the Presidential Reading Circle.
Upon graduation, Isaac will continue working with students through the Fulbright-García Robles English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico. She is dedicated to global engagement and is seeking to be an international consultant and linguistic interpreter to global entrepreneurial companies.
I am so honored and excited to be a finalist for the Fulbright-García Robles English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico. Traveling, meeting new people, and helping others have always been passions of mine, so I am so grateful that I have been granted an opportunity that will let me pursue my dreams. This opportunity will be a way for me to further my Spanish-speaking abilities and learn about a different culture. I plan on enrolling in a philosophy course while I am there in my free time so that I can connect the two things I love most -- philosophy and Spanish!"
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and citizens of other countries.
Isaac is interested in feminist philosophy, indigenous philosophy, and decolonial theory and plans to learn through experience and through formal classes while in Mexico. In the future, she plans to pursue a graduate degree in philosophy for feminist and Native American philosophy. In her free time, Isaac enjoys traveling, dancing, meeting new people, and spending quality time with friends and family.