Fulbright Reality Czech

Allison Hafner, Anna Shepard,  Bianca McNeely, Bree Patzke, and Emma Holdren are alumni of the Fulbright ETA Program. During the past academic year, they taught at High School Kaplice, Gymnázium and Nursing School in Vyškov, Gymnázium Lesní čtvrť in Zlín, the Engineering High School and Business Academy in Bruntál, and Gymnázium Sušice. Each host school and town offered a unique experience, but throughout their grants, they all found themselves asking the same question: How can they meaningfully contribute to the relationship between the United States and the Czech Republic and, in doing so, fulfill the Fulbright mission of serving as so-called citizen diplomats?  In mid-April, the five alumni represented the Czech Fulbright Commission at the ETA Enrichment Seminar, Bridging the Atlantic: 250 Years of Diplomacy and Shared Prosperity, in Bratislava. Hosted by the Slovak Fulbright Commission, the three-day seminar brought together ETAs from across the region for thoughtful discu...

Ester Lišková is the wife of Fulbrighter Petr Liška. She is also a pediatrician and the mother of their one-year-old daughter Lada. In August 2025, Ester and their four-month-old daughter accompanied Petr to Stanford University in California, where he began his Fulbright grant as a physical engineer. What initially seemed like an overwhelming adventure filled with unknowns gradually turned into a deeply rewarding and life-changing experience. Along the way, Ester discovered not only a welcoming local community but also that traveling abroad with a baby came with one unexpected advantage: their daughter quickly became the perfect icebreaker for spontaneous conversations and new friendships. For anyone wondering whether to accompany their Fulbrighter across the Atlantic, Ester’s answer is simple: say yes.  When my husband first mentioned applying for Fulbright, I decided not to think about it too much. I was already pregnant, and the idea of relocating to California with an infant re...

Ryan Williamson is a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. With a BBA in Business Honors, a minor in International Trade and Agriculture, and plans to promote agricultural diplomacy, Ryan applied for the Fulbright ETA Program with impressive mentoring and facilitation experience, but no prior experience living abroad. Given his background, the Agricultural School in Benešov was a natural fit. During his Fulbright year, Ryan not only immersed himself in Czech school life and culture but also represented the Czech Fulbright Commission at the EU–US Young Leaders Seminar in Brussels. There, he engaged with inspiring speakers, exchanged ideas with peers about the challenges facing today's workforce, and explored the opportunities and implications of artificial intelligence. As he reflects on ten months of living in Europe, Ryan says he is more convinced than ever that we all share a responsibility to make the world a better place. For him, that commitment will likely take the form of pu...

Amil Khattar is a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. Armed with an MS in Sports Marketing, the founder’s mindset of someone who has launched two companies, the energy of a social media and marketing wizard, the stage presence of a stand-up comedian, and the endurance of an avid runner, Amil brings an impressive mix of talents wherever he goes. In his Fulbright ETA application, he named Emil Zátopek and Tomáš Baťa as his role models, admiring their discipline, vision, and determination. So when the Tomáš Baťa Business Academy in Zlín applied to host an ETA for the 2025–2026 academic year, it felt like destiny had done the matchmaking itself. Amil's secret to integrating into life in Zlín? Saying “yes” to even the most random invitations - a strategy that has earned him countless local friendships, unforgettable experiences, and probably a few stories worthy of his next stand-up routine.    The mantra I tried to live by during my time here in Zlín, Czech Republic is...

Petr Liška is a physical engineer. But the world he works in is almost unimaginably small: he studies materials so thin they are only a few atoms thick, exploring how they can manipulate light through quantum phenomena that continue to work even at room temperature. The vision behind his research sounds almost futuristic, creating an electrically controllable optical component thinner than a strand of human hair by a factor of one hundred thousand. Originally from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology, Petr is currently spending the academic year at Stanford University in California as a Fulbright Visiting Student. Yet this story is not only about cutting-edge science. It is also about moving across the world with a wife and a newborn daughter, adjusting to life under the Californian sun, discovering how everyday kindness can shape one’s state of mind, and perhaps unexpectedly realizing what people back home in the Czech Republic often take for gran...

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 ...