I am a current doctoral candidate in the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego, a former English Language Learner (ELL) teacher, and an advocate for multilingual learner educational equity.

A proud graduate of the Massachusetts public school system, I’ve always enjoyed working with and learning from people from different countries and cultures. After graduating from Smith College, I taught English at a bilingual school in Madrid, Spain for two years. During this time, I also started working as an English instructor for GPI US, a Boston-based summer study program for Japanese high school students. These rewarding experiences proved foundational for my professional trajectory: I realized that my joy of learning about different languages and cultures could translate into a formal career as an English Language Learner teacher, where my work would be dedicated to supporting students from other countries in developing their English proficiency. Eureka!

With this goal in mind, I enrolled in a Master’s degree program in Bilingual, English as a Second Language (ESL), and Multicultural Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At the same time, I started working in public schools, making my way from an ELL paraprofessional, to a substitute ELL teacher, to finally, a fully licensed ELL teacher. In these roles, I witnessed the challenges my multilingual students and their families faced in navigating an unfamiliar school system. As such, I learned how to advocate for my students and families, ensuring that the school served their needs. This advocacy continues now, in the form of my dissertation study as I research how leaders can promote educational equity for multilingual learners.   

I invite you to explore my website to learn more about my research. If you would like to contact me, please send an email to nturriago@ucsd.edu.