Megan Irene-Teresa Mastro

Megan Mastro is a current doctoral candidate and Teaching Assistant (T.A.) at ASU Tempe Campus. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where she also earned minor degrees in Spanish and Sociology. After finishing her undergraduate studies, Ms. Mastro worked as an elementary school teacher at Horizon Education Center, a non-profit organization, and later moved to Madrid, Spain to work as an English Language Assistant (Auxiliar de conversación) where she earned a TEFL certificate for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. In Fall 2018, Megan moved back to her hometown in Cleveland, Ohio to begin a Master of Arts in Spanish program as graduate assistant at Cleveland State University. She graduated her M.A. with a concentration in Spanish Linguistics and a graduate certificate in TESOL.

Currently, Ms. Mastro teaches beginning level Spanish at ASU while studying Sociolinguistics and Heritage Language Education in the Spanish Linguistics Ph.D. program. Her research interests include Student well-being; Second/Foreign Language Anxiety; Spanish Linguistic Insecurity in US Latinos; Positive Psychology and Emotions in Heritage Language acquisition, Second Language Acquisition (SLA); Language immersion program administration; Bi/Trilingual Education Curriculum & Instruction; and cultural/intercultural competence development in American students grades 4-16.  

As an interdisciplinary scholar, Megan combines the fields of Psychology, Sociolinguistics, Language Acquisition, and Religiosity (Christianity) in order to shine light on the importance of empathy, vulnerability, group-belonging, and individual well-being as key factors to consider when discussing Spanish language maintenance. Megan wishes to use her doctoral degree to serve the Catholic Latino/Hispanic American community to promote Spanish Maintenance in the US.