About the Program
The graduate assistantship is a training activity that fosters the fullest development of the student within their discipline. Assistantship is not a regular job and involves the handling of certain teaching, research, and service responsibilities. The stipend that is awarded for the graduate assistantship varies according to the level of commitment to the assigned tasks and the academic grade of the student.
Currently, the semester stipend for a full assistantship paid for with institutional funds will depend on the number of credits assigned by the department or graduate program as well as whether the assistant has a bachelor’s or master’s degree. In addition, all assistantships with institutional funds include exemption from the tuition payment, while if the assistantship is with external funds, then the exemption from the tuition payment will be subject to the type of research project.
Click here to know more about the Graduate Teaching Assistantship Program or see more details about the duration of the program in the 7th section of Certification 05-62(SA-UPRM).
Our Fall 2022 Graduate Teaching Assistants
Gabrielle Armstrong Velázquez
Gabrielle has been part of the UPRM campus since 2015 where she began as a Literature major. She graduated in 2020 from the English Department with minors in Comparative Literature and Teacher Preparation. After working as Dance Teacher and English teacher in high schools, she is now a GTA and MAEE graduate student at UPRM. Currently, she is also part of the AREPR project as collaborator along with Dr. Ricia Chansky, Natalia Betancourt, Aleyshka Estevez and Yarelis Marcial. Apart from that she was an athlete for the UPRM Dance Team; has worked as a content writer for HerCampus UPRM; been an intern for the Digital Humanities program led by Dr. Leonardo Flores; and was editor of the English Department website.
Research interests: Currently working on the thesis project focused on Young Adult dystopian series, particularly The Hunger Games series and its prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The purpose here being a comparison between the heroine and villain in their Bildungsroman, how the power of choice made them into homo sacer and scapegoats. Apart from that other interests include Dance Studies, Fantasy Literature, Literary Theory, YA Literature Studies, and Film adaptations.
Camila Aldebol Ruiz
Camila Aldebol Ruiz is currently coursing her third year in the MAEE program. She graduated from UPRM in 2020 with a Bachelor’s in English Linguistics and a minor in writing and communication. Her future goals are to successfully finish her thesis and then complete a doctorate program to become a professor.
Research interests: Linguistics, codeswitching, and translanguaging in Puerto Rico.
Adriana Paola Moreno Moreno
Adriana P. Moreno is a graduate student in the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez currently studying a Master of Arts in English Education. She is also a Graduate Teaching Assistant where she teaches the courses Intermediate English Part 1 and Intermediate English Part 2. Aside from that, she’s a member of Sábanas Bilingual Literary Magazine working as an editor.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Puerto Rican studies, Postcolonialism, Feminism, Motherhood, Diaspora, etc.
Michelle Nieves Quiles
Michelle Nieves Quiles is a Teaching Assistant at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language with Multimedia Technology at the Secondary and Elementary level at the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla. She is currently completing her Master of Arts in English Education at UPRM where she works part-time at the English Department as well. Besides that, she collaborates on the English Department’s website, specifically the master’s Program.
Yarelis Marcial Acevedo
Yarelis Marcial Acevedo is currently completing a Master of Arts in English Education (MAEE) at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez. At the same institution, she previously attained a Bachelor of Arts in English Linguistics. Some of her projects include the “Mi Maria” project and the children’s book Maxy Survives the Hurricane.
Liezel Q. Datulio
Liezel Datulio is an international Masters of Arts in English Education (MAEE) student of UPRM. She has been teaching Intermediate English parts 1&2 in the same university since Spring 2021 as GTA. She is currently working with her experimental case study research about exploring material selection specifically media texts in writing instructions to ESL students in an intermediate level.
Research Interests: Bilingualism and Misconceptions/Miscommunication, Pedagogy and Language Literacy, Socio-economic Status and Competence, Media Literacy, and others.
Natalie M. Kage
Natalie Kage is a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez currently in the MA English Education program. Her bachelor’s degree is in Educational Studies from the University of Evansville. She is also a tutor at the English Writing Center on UPRM’s campus.
Research Interests: Communicative Competence, Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Cultures, Food.
Sarah Lema Solis
Sarah Lema is a graduate student enrolled in the MAEL program of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez. Additionally, she is currently working as a Teacher assistant for the English Department at the UPRM.
Research interests: Postcolonial Studies, Puerto Rican studies, Victorian Literature, African American studies & post-Modernism.
Tatiana M. Taylor Cruz
Tatiana Marie Taylor Cruz is a graduate student at the Masters of Arts in English Education in the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. Currently, she is an Intermediate English instructor as part of her assistantship, while researching for her Thesis, —Neurodivergent Students In Puerto Rico Language Preference. In addition, Tatiana is currently working as a part-time waitress in Rincon.
Research interests: Bilingualism, Second Language Learning, English as a Second Language, Language Preference for Neurodivergent students in Puerto Rico
Camila Vega
Camila Vega is an international MAEE student at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. She has a Bachelor’s in Foreign Language Teaching from Universidad del Atlántico. Being part of the US State Department’s “100k Strong Minds in the Americas” program in 2019, she was able to present her project Building Peace Through Education at the First Annual Symposium on Education and Peace Initiatives in Colombia and Chicago. By working with underprivileged students, Camila has been encouraged to promote educational alternatives as a mechanism of social mobility. She is currently teaching two sessions of INGL3201.
Research Interests: Second and Foreign Language Acquisition, Social Justice and Education, Culture and Bilingualism.
Ysabel S. Hightower
Ysabel Hightower is a graduate student in the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, studying English Literature. She primarily spends her time working as on online tutor under The Princeton Review and writing creatively.
Research Interests: African American Studies, Literary Theory, Postcolonialism, Neo-Slave Literature, Slave Literature, Literary Fiction, etc.
Sopuruchi Uwakweh (Sochi)
Sochi Uwakweh is a graduate student in the MAEE program in UPRM, within the Pedagogy track. Her undergraduate studies were also completed in UPRM, in Chemical Engineering with a certificate in Environmental Engineering. She has held various directive positions in engineering student organizations, such as WIE, AIChE, and NSPE, and religious organizations like JCP. Sochi conducted research throughout her entire undergraduate journey and was an English tutor at the Bilingual Writing Center for 4 years.
Research interests: English for Specific Purposes (ESP), ESL, Bilingualism, Language Contact, Pedagogy
