USF Fulbright Recipients Build Community Abroad

Mariya Arancibia ’25 received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to serve as an English teaching assistant in Morocco for the 2025–2026 academic year, and Adjunct Professor Salvador Acevedo of the graduate Museum Studies program received a Fulbright Specialist grant that funded a five-week project at the Fundación Museos de la Ciudad in Quito, Ecuador.

Teaching English in Casablanca, Morocco

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Arancibia, who majored in politics and minored in Middle Eastern Studies, is teaching English language at two universities in Casablanca this year, the Hassan II University and Institut Superieur des Etudes Maritimes (Maritime Academy).

She said, “My placement allows me to build upon my previous experience in Morocco, where I studied abroad in fall 2023. I studied Arabic for three semesters at USF and wanted to continue my Arabic study. Morocco has such a unique language profile and culture which made it the perfect choice for my semester abroad.” 

After her Fulbright, Arancibia plans to work in youth development, global education, and policy. “I want to continue fostering cross-cultural understanding and creating opportunities for young people, especially those from immigrant and underrepresented backgrounds, to access education and thrive,” she said.

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Protecting the Arts in Quito, Ecuador

Adjunct Professor Salvador Acevedo has just returned from a Fulbright Specialist grant in Quito, Ecuador. There, he spearheaded the five-week La Cruz Del Sur project with the Fundación Museos de la Ciudad (FMC), a private institution that oversees five Quito museums and supports 60 other museums in the city. 

Acevedo visited all the FMC museum spaces during his time there, and said, “One of the most impactful aspects of this project was learning that the Ecuadorian constitution protects the right to culture for its citizens, a provision that is not found in the U.S. Constitution. As an adjunct professor in the Museum Studies graduate program, my role is to instill in our students that arts and culture are a vital and necessary part of our lives, and to teach them how to satisfy those needs. My time at FMC reinforced that."