Fulbright Reality Czech

Aidan Uvanni is an active-duty United States Coast Guard officer and currently a full-time master’s degree student of Water and Environmental Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He focuses on water management and rainfall-runoff modeling. Aidan is one of a few Fulbrighters who has stayed in the host country for over one year. In September 2022, he started his graduate program as a Fulbright U.S. student and chose to extend beyond his grant for this academic year. When not in school, Aidan enjoys indoor rock climbing and exploring the city by bike or on foot. He is an active volunteer at a local Czech middle school and practices English conversation with a group of Ukrainian teenagers. Prior to his Fulbright grant, Aidan served aboard USCGC Polar Star, deploying to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2022. After graduation, he will continue his service in the United States Coast Guard as an Executive Officer of a smaller icebreaker. This interview is the ...

Aidan Uvanni is an active-duty United States Coast Guard officer and currently a full-time master’s degree student. He is studying Water and Environmental Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague. His research focuses on water management and examining sustainable treatment systems to address stormwater pollution. In his free time, he enjoys indoor rock climbing and exploring the city by bike or on foot. In addition, he volunteers with a local non-profit organization that assists socially excluded children and youth, and he practices English conversation with a group of middle schoolers from Ukraine.  Prior to his Fulbright grant, Aidan served onboard USCGC Polar Star, deploying to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2022.  Growing up, I wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps; I thought of entering the medical field to become a doctor. But, if you read the first line of my Fulbright grant description, you know that I am studying water engineer...

Anshula Gandhi graduated with a joint major in mathematics and history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has continued to explore how the human brain does mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and at MIT’s Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines. Since April 2021, Anshula has combined mathematics, computer science, and logic to create algorithms for solving mathematical theorems at the Institute of Informatics, Robotics, and Cybernetics of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Before the transition to the Czech Republic, Anshula had started to learn the Czech language in an original and impressively effective way - through watching Czech TV shows. What are her tricks to become fluent in a foreign language without formal instruction? Why are TV shows better than movies? Read below to find out.   As soon as I found out I had received a Fulbright to spend time in Prague, I started learning Czech. At first, I felt...