“Being able to work with kids who are going through the same trials that I experienced as an immigrant in this country…that’s what excites me.”
“Despite being the youngest person in the room, Felix’s insights helped others learn,” says Professor Melissa Venegas, director of RIC’s World Languages Education Program. “We all learned a great deal from him.”
Venegas is speaking of 26-year-old Felix Fonseca Garcia, who will be graduating this May with a B.A. in world languages education, with a concentration in Portuguese.
When RIC combined the program’s graduate and undergraduate courses, he became the youngest student and the only undergraduate student in the program. Upon completion, he will be eligible for full certification to teach world languages in Portuguese in grades pre-K-12 in Rhode Island.
“In class, Felix often underscored the importance of teachers being sensitive to the diverse needs of multilanguage learners,” Venegas says.
Born in Cape Verde, he, too, was once a multilanguage learner. At age 17, Fonseca Garcia immigrated to Rhode Island, fluent in both Cape Verdean and Portuguese but unable to speak English. Entering the American school system, he says, was difficult.
“I attended Central Falls High School. I have the lived experience of the importance of teachers validating different cultural backgrounds,” he says. “I had very few teachers who were able to do that when I was in high school, which is why I appreciate the very few teachers I had who did.
“I would look forward to going to their classes because I knew that my language wouldn’t be ostracized by other students or even teachers. I knew that the way I spoke and the way I behaved wouldn’t be ostracized. My language is part of my culture, it’s a part of who I am. Those classrooms were the safe spaces for me.”
After graduation, Fonseca Garcia was hired by his former high school to interpret and translate for Cape Verdean and Portuguese-speaking students and parents. From 2020 to 2024, this work ignited his passion for education and languages.
Five years later, he enrolled in RIC’s world languages program. There, he excelled. Fonseca Garcia has been on the Dean’s List for the last three years and graduates with the 2026 Prémio Em Estudos Portugueses (Prize in Portuguese Studies) conferred by the Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies.
He was awarded the Mary Alice Grellner Outstanding Senior Award for excellence in secondary education and inducted into the Sigma Chapter of the Phi Lambda Beta National Portuguese Honor Society on the basis of high scholarship.
An advocate and leader, in 2025 Fonseca Garcia advocated publicly for multilingual learners in Rhode Island schools at the Rhode Island State House Library. That summer he also interned in Lisbon, Portugal, where he worked at community organizations assisting low-income families.
“My experience at RIC has been amazing,” he says. “Dr. Oliveira, Dr. Papa and my other professors showed me that I can turn the skills I already possess into a career and at the same time help others who might be going through the same struggles that I went through.”
“Felix is such a stellar student and teacher,” Venegas says, “that he has already been offered a full-time teaching job, which will be waiting for him this fall.” He will be in charge of creating and teaching a Portuguese and Cape Verdean heritage language program at New Bedford High School in Massachusetts.
New Bedford has the second largest concentration of Portuguese Americans in New England and the United States, with the largest concentration in Fall River, Massachusetts. Roughly 43% to 46% of Fall River’s population claims Portuguese ancestry and is often referred to as the “10th island of the Azores” due to the high concentration of residents from that region.
What excites Fonseca Garcia the most about this job opportunity, he says, “is being able to work with kids who are going through the same trials that I experienced as an immigrant in this country – learning the language, the culture, the school system. I get to be there to help them through that journey.”
He just completed his student teaching at Shea Senior High School in Pawtucket, where most of his students had just entered the school system here in America. They came from Brazil, Portugal and Cape Verde where Portuguese is spoken. For some of them, Portuguese is their first language.
“The cooperating teacher Dr. Nilson DaSilva and I taught it like a Portuguese heritage class,” he says, “That means it was taught in Portuguese and that the content of the course was focused on helping them understand the American school system, build up their English and build all the other skills they’ll need to be successful in high school, higher education and in a job.”
Fonseca Garcia says he is most proud of hearing that because of his help the students who weren’t doing so well in the class earned a passing grade this quarter. “I think if you teach in a way that the students can see themselves in that activity or in that lecture, they are much more likely to engage with it,” he says.
Going forward, he intends to spread his passion for education to his students. “I believe education is the only key that’s fully accessible to everyone to make a change in their life and in society,” he says. “It’s the only thing that no one can take away from you.”
Also see “Felix Fonseca Garcia Awarded Summer Internship in Portugal”
Learn more about RIC’s Modern Languages B.A. program.