Fulbright Reality Czech

Hana Konečná  je středoškolská učitelka. Na Integrované střední škole Moravská Třebová učí angličtinu, propaguje environmentální výuku a koordinuje program DOFE, který studenty vede k aktivnímu a smysluplnému trávení volného času i získávání cenných dovedností. V tomto školním roce Hana  uspěla ve výběrovém řízení do programu Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement (zkráceně TEA) a 22. ledna odletěla do severní Kalifornie, kde se zúčastnila šestitýdenního programu na Chico State University. Program Fulbright TEA nabízí středoškolským učitelům školení, během kterého se účastní akademických seminářů, sledují výuku amerických kolegů, vyučují a zapojují se do kulturních a komunitních aktivit podporujících mezinárodní spolupráci. Dva týdny po návratu Hana novým uchazečům o program vzkazuje: „Možnost pracovat v národnostně rozmanité skupině, v kulisách multikulturních Spojených států a ve spolupráci s akademickou obcí nesporně patří mezi vrcholy mé učitelské kariéry.“ P...

Kaylee O'Brien is an English Teaching  Assistant. This year, she teaches English at Gymnázium Cheb, a college-preparatory high school tucked into a town of 30,000 just a few miles from the German border. Armed with a BA in Philosophy and Political Science, a lifelong love of sports and fitness, and experience teaching everything from English and math to boxing, Kaylee arrived eager to discover what life in her new home might hold. What she didn’t expect was how quickly that search for belonging would take shape in a local gym, where shared routines turned into friendships and a foreign place began to feel, unexpectedly, like her own. I remember the moment last summer when I received my Fulbright placement...I was going to Cheb in the Czech Republic! I was thrilled beyond belief; but shortly, thereafter, that thrill left, I realized I was going halfway around the world, to a country whose native language I did not speak, and to a town where I knew no one. Would I be able to find a p...

Hayley Lanier is a biologist. She specializes in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Oklahoma. The 2025/2026 academic year, however, is taking her far from campus. Together with her husband and their two school-aged children, she is spending the year in the small Czech village of Liběchov, home to about 1,000 residents. Less than an hour’s drive from Prague, the village hosts the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, where Hayley is conducting research as a Fulbright Program Scholar. Her work focuses on how population history shapes genomic adaptation to climate change. But beyond the lab, the year is also an adventure for the whole family. What is it like to settle into life in the Czech countryside and to experience local traditions and holidays along the way? “But will Santa be able to find us?” When we planned to move to Czechia for my year-long Fulbright my 3-year-old, Iggy, had some very pressing concerns about how holidays and birthdays would happen in ...