Emma Blenke is an alumna of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program. She spent the past school year teaching at the Business Academy in Karlovy Vary, one of the Czech Republic's most renowned spa towns. Like many Fulbright ETAs, Emma made the leap across the Atlantic right after earning her BA, navigating not just a physical journey, but a profound cultural and personal transformation. Although she was the only ETA in Karlovy Vary, Emma quickly found a supportive community in her Czech colleagues, especially her mentor, Kate, who made her feel welcome from day one. Reflecting on her time there, Emma shared: “What I thought would be a solo journey of learning how to live on my own turned out to be a shared one. I grew because of the people around me, students, teachers, mentors, who reminded me that independence doesn’t mean isolation.” Some people ease into adulthood. I crash-landed into it—with a frying pan in one hand and Google Translate in the other. In college,...
Jaké je to být Fulbrighterem. What it is like to be a Fulbrighter.