Edmonds native and Meadowdale High School graduate Leslie Delehanty arrived in Athens, Greece, last week with a mission: to help foster cultural awareness and understanding between the people of the U.S. and Greece through teaching English to grade schoolers.

Delehanty is a recipient of a Fulbright Grant, a prestigious award intended to advance “the promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture and science.” 

The Fulbright Program was founded in 1946 by U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright to build cultural bridges between the U.S. and other countries in the aftermath of World War II. Some famous “Fulbrighters” include Daniel Alarcón, Dale Chihuly, Rita Dove, Gabby Giffords, Elizabeth Kolbert, N. Scott Momaday, Linus Pauling and John Updike. 

Delehanty is a teaching fellow in the English Teaching Assistant Program at Athens College-Hellenic American Educational Foundation, a private school just north of Athens. Fellows are to “act as young ambassadors, strengthening the ties between the Foundation and the United States, and providing a cross-cultural educational experience. The role of grantees includes infusing their culture, enthusiasm, ideas, language and knowledge into the school’s community,” according to the Fulbright website.

Inspired in part by some beloved teachers from her years at Lynndale Elementary, Delehanty knew from an early age that she wanted to be a teacher. She spent hours “playing teacher” in her bedroom, outfitted with a whiteboard and an overhead projector. Her mother worked as a family resource coordinator in public schools and she recalls “going to work with her sometimes, and I loved just being in school and pretending to be a teacher in her classrooms,” she said. 

Fast forward to 2020: Delehanty graduated with her bachelor of arts in elementary education and received a K-8 teaching certificate from UW Bothell. “I can’t talk highly enough about that program,” she said. “They really prepare you to be a teacher in the current landscape of education, really focusing on multicultural education, anti-racist pedagogy, how to be a real activist of a teacher and support students as a whole child. I felt very confident as a teacher leaving that program.” 

While teaching in Washington and California, she observed the challenging impacts of systemic inequality on young lives. “How can we expect students to learn when they have come to school hungry or have problems going on at home?” she asked. “An important part of being a teacher is not just getting up there to teach math every day – it’s about helping students as human beings, how to navigate the world, providing them with the right support services.”

These realizations led Delehanty to Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. She graduated in 2023 with a masters in education policy and social analysis, specializing in K-12 policy and education law.

We sat down at Urban City Coffee before she left and below are some edited highlights from that conversation.

How did you hear about the Fulbright opportunity?

I traveled abroad in the summer of 2023, and I came back and thought how cool would it be to teach abroad – that it would be such an experience that I would really value and could bring back to my work here in the United States. I reached out to a professor at Columbia and they told me about the Fulbright and said that I would be a great candidate. 

So I looked into it and the Greece program really stuck out to me, specifically because the school there is pre-K through 12th grade. And they offer college courses as well. This was really interesting to me because we don’t have much like that here in the United States.

Are you going to get a crash course in Greek when you arrive?

I’ve been taking Greek classes this summer, one hour twice a week. They’re on pause right now until we get there in person and then we’ll start again. It’s a challenging language and it’s not intuitive to a native English speaker. But it’s very exciting to learn another language – I haven’t done that since a few years of Spanish in high school.

Is Fulbright also giving you a primer on the fundamentals of teaching English to non-native speakers?

Yes, I’m doing what’s called a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification. I’ll be co-teaching with a Greek teacher so I won’t be alone!

And the Fulbright program pays for your language classes and TESOL certification?

Yes, they provide everything, including my airfare and housing. I’m going to be living with two roommates.

What qualities do you have that you think helped your application stand out?

Probably that I’m passionate about education. I’ve known that this is what I’ve wanted to do my entire life. And I’m hardworking. I think in order to go and do something like this, you need to be open-minded – I’m going to be immersing myself in a completely new experience and new culture. And I think that takes some courage and being open-minded and flexible.

In the application process, it literally said in bold, “This is a very demanding placement.” The extracurriculars and being involved in the community is something that they really emphasized for sure. I’ll be teaching the full school day and we’re also expected to do extracurriculars and community involvement – it’s part of being what they call an ambassador of the United States. 

We’re also there to represent the United States and help students that want to come here for an education. So I’ll be sharing what the college experience is like here and helping them with applications, answering questions or anything that they need in terms of preparing for school. 

Do you have any thoughts about what you’ll do when you return to the States?

Potentially getting back into the classroom in New York – I love it there. And then down the road, I really do want to be involved in education policy. I want to be a part of the conversations that impact what is happening in schools and in classrooms on a day-to-day basis.

What would be an example of that?

Investing in more school personnel such as psychologists and counselors, for example. When there’s budget cuts, school support staff are usually the first to go, and they’re just as important as teachers.

How will you be spending your free time in Greece?

I’m excited to travel. It’s so easy to travel once you’re in Europe, everything’s so close and affordable. I’m excited to go to Greece’s beaches and islands and hike in the mountains in the northern part of the country. I love being outside and being busy, so walking around all the shops and restaurants – the food, the people, Greek dancing.

Thanks for your time and best wishes for an enriching year in Greece!