Fulbright Reality Czech

Teresa Contino is a creative writer,  a mindful observer, and a fresh Fulbright ETA alumna. In May 2023, she graduated with a B.A. in English and Psychology from Santa Clara University in California. Teresa plans to use concepts of cognitive psychology to design visitors’ experiences in museums and art galleries. To prepare herself for these future plans, Teresa wanted to sharpen her pedagogical skills and broaden her culture perspective by spending a year in an environment significantly different from her own. Given her liberal arts background and passion for literature, mindfulness, crafts, and creative writing, Teresa was placed at Jiráskovo gymnázium Náchod, a college-preparatory high school, located in a town of 20,000 in northeast Bohemia. Before embarking on her trans-Atlantic journey, Teresa did her research on how to have a successful Fulbright experience. Finding the advice from the program alumni to be somewhat daunting and intangible, she began to contemplate how o...

February went quickly, didn’t it? After the weekend of birthdays I had a flurry of other projects to plan for, like the weeklong English speaking event California Days as well as my spring break trip. That as well as figuring out my plans for the next year (a source of unending worry, as it seems). But the spring break pictures will have to wait, because I have to backtrack to California Days first. Since August, the teachers and I have been talking about–and then later planning–an English language event at the school. These are school-wide events that involve student participation in various projects, presentations, and even music. Previous years have been Irish Days, Australia Days, and though 2013 was already planned to be New Zealand Days, they changed the theme to my state, California, since I’m… from… there. It felt really weird for a single American state to be the theme for the whole event, but I consoled myself with the fact that California is actually bigger th...