Fulbright Reality Czech

David Burch is a teacher,  Cambridge English Exam instructor, and advisor for the Financial & Investment Club at Bishop’s Gymnázium Hradec Králové. In August 2018, David came to the Czech Republic to teach English as a Fulbright grantee. Given his passion for Slavic languages and music, he was placed at the Furniture and Musical Instruments Design High School in Hradec Králové. At that time, he had no idea that a couple of years later, this Fulbright host town would become his home. At the start of his teaching career, David remembers: “I found myself creating lessons on subjects they could all relate to: rock bands and woodworking tools. I grew as a teacher, while my students taught me the ins and outs of how to make a guitar, a cabinet, or a 3D model.” Throughout his Fulbright experience, David fell in love with teaching, the Czech Republic, and a Czech woman, who has been the main reason for David to make the Czech Republic his new home. For all new Fulbrighters who are...

Kristina Hakenová je neurovědkyně. Aktuálně působí v Národním ústavu duševního zdraví, ve skupině Dr. Valeše, která se zabývá experimentální psychofarmakologií. Na 3. lékařské fakultě Univerzity Karlovy navíc studuje doktorský program Neurovědy. V akademickém roce 2022/2023 strávila šest měsíců na věhlasné Harvard University jako stipendistka Fulbright-Masarykova programu. Ve svém výzkumném projektu analyzovala, jaký vliv mají střevní bakterie na kondici našeho mozku, odborněji řečeno: vliv střevního mikrobiomu na stárnutí mozkových buněk. Dnes se primárně věnuje schizofrenii, tedy nemoci, se kterou se pojí řada mýtů. Kristina zdůrazňuje: „Důležité je pochopit, že lidé s touto nemocí nejsou ,nebezpeční blázni‘, jak je někdy mylně vnímá společnost – s včasnou diagnostikou a vhodnou léčbou mohou vést plnohodnotný život.“  Rozhovor s Kristinou Hakenovou vznikl ve spolupráci s Ladislavem Loukotou ze stránky Vědátor a je čtyřicátým prvním dílem seriálu příběhů k 30. výročí Fulbrightovy...

Jasmine Su is a 2023/2024 Fulbright ETA Alumna with a BS in Biomedical Engineering, plans to attend medical school, and a life-long passion for music. Due to Jasmine’s wide breadth of interests, she was placed at Otokar Březina Gymnázium and High School, a school where students prepare to study a variety of different fields at university. Her school is in Telč, a town of 5000 with a gorgeous historic center, protected and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before her program, Jasmine took a month-long intensive Czech language course, which significantly improved her everyday interactions by providing her with basic Czech language skills. However, as an English Teaching Assistant in a small town, Jasmine discovered that there is another language that even more reliably bridges people from various cultures: Music. Jasmine was introduced to Czech music in her youth orchestra through Bedřich Smetana’s Má vlast, a symphonic cycle titled “My Fatherland.” She continued to expand ...

Tadeáš Celý is a PhD candidate in political science at Masaryk University. He specializes in political behavior. From September 2023 to May 2024, he spent nine months at the Polarization Research Lab at Dartmouth College, where he compared political polarization and disagreement in European and American contexts as a Fulbright Student grantee. Reflecting on his recent stay abroad, he says: "I learned a great deal about various computational methods, such as using large language models for research, which I had never used before. Additionally, I gained a deeper understanding of efficiency." Experiments With Belief Structures Conducting research within a great team at a top university is a unique opportunity. It provides all  the necessary resources—not just financial, but also intellectual—to develop a research thesis that  truly matters. I began with a project on ideologies and how having an ideological worldview affects  interpersonal relationships. This topic was n...

Soňa Hříbalová je materiálová  technoložka. V Ústavu skla a keramiky na Fakultě chemické technologie Vysoké školy chemicko-technologické v Praze se věnuje modelování rozptylu světla v transparentní keramice a bezolovnaté piezoelektrické keramice. V roce 2022/2023 vycestovala společně s manželem do USA s cílem prozkoumat mechanismy degradace bezolovnatých materiálů pro výrobu piezoelektrické keramiky, která se využívá třeba k výrobě ultrazvuků ve zdravotnictví, parkovacích senzorů v automobilovém průmyslu nebo v inkoustových tiskárnách. Vzhledem k tomu, že dlouhodobě působila v Akademickém senátu a ve studentské iniciativě pro podporu doktorandů, získala Fulbright-Masarykovo stipendium pro špičkové vědce a vědkyně, kteří jsou navíc aktivní v občanském nebo veřejném životě. Přestože osmiměsíční pobyt na Pennsylvania State University byl velmi náročný a v začátku poměrně stresující kvůli nepříznivě se vyvíjejícím výsledkům výzkumného měření, dodnes jí Spojené státy spolehlivě vykouzlí...

Denisa Dražkovičová is a student of chemistry at the University of Pardubice. This past summer, she participated in the 2024 Summer Institute for European Student Leaders, a special training program run by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. The goal of this 5-week immersive program at Michigan State University is to provide 20 undergraduate students from various countries with a deeper understanding of the United States while enhancing their leadership skills. Denisa’s program focused on civic engagement, leading participants to examine its history in the United States and explore topics such as citizenship, community building, economic development, grassroots activism, political leadership, and volunteerism. Hands-on sessions and workshops focused on civil rights and protections, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, citizen journalism, social movements, education, governance, minority communities, leadership, and media. Denisa s...

Veronika Pikola Brázdilová works as a manager of international projects in the Václav Havel Library. She studied communications at Sciences Po Paris (Institut d'études politiques)graduating with an internship at the European Commission in Brussels. She was a project manager for the Belgian communication agency managing European Union websites. After returning from abroad, she worked for a year at the Representation of the European Commission in Prague. Since 2013, she has been working in the Václav Havel Library. In the Spring of 2024, she, her husband, and their two sons left for the USA as a scholarship recipient of the Fulbright-Masaryk program for the non-profit sector. For four months, she worked at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Veronika and her family wanted to take advantage of everything the big move had to offer for their family of four by traveling across the country: “During six months we traveled through 21 states, explored about 40 mus...