Fulbright Reality Czech

Seiler Rivers is a 2024/2025 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant alumna. With a BS in Computer Science, a minor in Music, and a passion for both choral music and supporting young women in technology, Seiler was placed at the Gymnázium and Business Academy in Mariánské Lázně, the youngest town in the famous spa triangle of Western Bohemia. Inspired by the experiences of previous Teaching Assistants, Seiler hoped to join a local choir or orchestra (as a piano player) to integrate into her new community while continuing to do what she loves. She succeeded. Music, often called a universal language, helped her navigate challenges and connect with others in ways that went well beyond choir rehearsals and performances. Today, Seiler reflects on the question: "Why do we sing? Is it to be heard? No, surely not. It's to participate in something larger than ourselves–to both contribute and to listen." Before embarking on my journey as a Fulbright ETA, I had studied classical pian...

Anna Zittle is a violinist,  a pianist, a mathematician, a teacher and a composer. This year, she serves as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at the oldest general education high school in the city of Pardubice, Gymnázium Dašická. Before her Fulbright grant began, Anna took a summer language course to learn the basics of Czech language. This course has certainly helped with basic communication and navigation in the host country, but her Czech language skills are far from fluency that one would need in order to communicate with Czech native speakers smoothly and free of the fear of miscommunication. Luckily, Anna possesses another language, a more universal one, that does not need any translation - music. She says that: "Once we start to play, I get lost in the connection we have when moving through the music." Her motivation to spend a year in the Czech Republic was to explore and experience the home country of Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák. Her Czech host school re...