Bridget Galassini '12, Madeline Hahn '12 and Mary Kate Vanecko '13

Bridget Galassini '12 was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Grant for the 2016–17 academic year and is currently living and working in Alcala de Henares, a suburb east of Madrid, as an English teacher at a bilingual high school. “I’ve made many international friends and adapted to the lifestyle here,” she says. “I’ve come to truly love everything from the late dinner times—9:00–11:00 p.m.—to the relaxed no pasa nada attitude.”

When asked about her work in the classroom, Galassini is most proud of teaching Global Classrooms, or Model UN as it’s called in the States. The program has an educational  component wherein students are exposed to global issues and academic skills such as speech writing and debate vocabulary in preparation for local and international debate competitions.  “For months, we learned about the UN debate structure and world issues like gender equality and juvenile violence,” she says. “I think it’s an invaluable experience for children.”

Madrid is the fourth city Galassini has lived in on a list that includes Washington, D.C.; Santiago, Chile; and Dublin, Ireland, where she is also a citizen. As a student at Loyola Academy, her work on The Prep newspaper ignited in Galassini a passion for reporting and telling other people’s stories. “This passion has propelled me to all different parts of the world to try to learn about as many different stories as possible,” she notes.

And even before she was living and working in cities around the world, Galassini went on a summer service trip to Guatemala through Loyola’s Campus Ministry Department, and it was a trip that changed her worldview. “That service experience is the reason I started asking questions about justice, that I became interested in economics, that I started falling in love with people's stories,” she recalls. “Mr. Baier chaperoned the Guatemala trip, and I learned from him about service philosophies, reflection, justice and so much more. Justice Seminar with Mr. Hooker built further on these roots. Honestly, it changed my entire life perspective from being inwardly focused to being outwardly focused.”

Galassini pursued these interests at the University of Notre Dame where she studied international economics and took on a minor in peace studies and journalism, ethics and democracy. Galassini and fellow Fulbright awardee Madeline Hahn ’12 attended Notre Dame together and remain close friends today.

When she returns from Madrid in July, Galassini will begin a government consulting job in Washington, D.C. and hope to pursue a career in government, public policy or journalism.

It was Mr. Hooker’s social justice class during her senior year at Loyola Academy that started Madeline Hahn ’12 thinking about issues of inequality, society and politics. “The course made me question everything about our society, and how its systems and institutions continue to create inequalities,” she says. “The more I learned, the more I felt inspired to work toward changing these systems so that we can build a better society. To me, being a woman or man for others means putting the needs of others before your own and using your talents and resources to contribute to a better world for all.”

This led Hahn to pursue a degrees in sociology and Spanish and a minor in education, schooling and society at the University of Notre Dame, where she was classmates with Galassini and developed a passion for education and its power to foster equality.

“I hope that by pursuing a career in education, I can contribute in a small way to the fight for social justice, and I have Loyola Academy to thank for instilling those values in me,” she says.

Hahn was  awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Grant to Madrid, Spain, for the 2017–18 academic year, where she will work as an English teacher at a local high school. In addition to teaching courses like history, geography and science in English, Hahn also will prepare students for local and international debate competitions through the Global Classrooms Program.

“An important lesson I learned at Loyola is to stay awake and passionately motivated to make a difference in a world in which it is easy to be numb to the struggle of others,” reflects Mary Kate Vanecko ’13. “Life is not meant to be lived passively.”

Vanecko is preparing to set out for South Africa in the fall, where she will assist students with English and give presentations on American culture. She intends to dedicate part of her time to coaching through BoxGirls South Africa, an organization that uses the sport of boxing as a catalyst for social change. Having studied political science with a concentration in women's gender and sexuality at the College of the Holy Cross—where she was also a Division I lacrosse player—Vanecko seems perfectly suited for this adventure in which she’ll teach girls in the classroom and coach them in the ring.  

At Loyola, Vanecko spent three years on the varsity lacrosse team and was involved in student council, ministry and the Pax Christi program—experiences she calls formative in her passion for social justice, her interest in politics and government and her competitive nature.  

“The Jesuit values instilled in me at Loyola emphasize the importance of solidarity,” she says. “In our increasingly polarized world, there is a pressing need to understand issues from the viewpoint of others.”

After her Fulbright, Vanecko plans to start a career in public service.