Fulbright Reality Czech

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...

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...

Veronika Pikola Brázdilová works as a manager of international projects in the Václav Havel Library. She studied communications at Sciences Po Paris (Institut d'études politiques)graduating with an internship at the European Commission in Brussels. She was a project manager for the Belgian communication agency managing European Union websites. After returning from abroad, she worked for a year at the Representation of the European Commission in Prague. Since 2013, she has been working in the Václav Havel Library. In the Spring of 2024, she, her husband, and their two sons left for the USA as a scholarship recipient of the Fulbright-Masaryk program for the non-profit sector. For four months, she worked at the Bill Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Veronika and her family wanted to take advantage of everything the big move had to offer for their family of four by traveling across the country: “During six months we traveled through 21 states, explored about 40 mus...

Veronika Pikola Brázdilová je manažerka mezinárodních projektů v Knihovně Václava Havla. Vystudovala komunikaci na francouzské vysoké škole Sciences Po Paris (Institut politických věd). Absolvovala stáž v Evropské komisi v Bruselu a působila jako projektová manažerka v belgické komunikační agentuře spravující webové stránky Evropské unie. Po návratu ze zahraničí pracovala rok na Zastoupení Evropské komise v Praze. Od roku 2013 pracuje v Knihovně Václava Havla. Na jaře roku 2024 vyjela spolu s manželem a dvěma syny do USA, kde jako stipendistka Fulbright-Masarykova programu pro neziskový sektor čtyři měsíce působila v Prezidentské Knihovně Billa Clintona ve městě Little Rock ve státu Arkansas. S cílem využít přesun čtyřčlenné rodiny přes oceán na maximum si s manželem a dětmi před Fulbright pobytem i po něm dopřáli hodně času na objevování Ameriky: „Během šesti měsíců jsme projeli 21 států, prozkoumali asi 40 muzeí a ujeli zhruba 4200 mil. Jsem nesmírně vděčná, že jsme si mohli takové ...

Ema Rozumková je studentka střední školy. V listopadu však svou pražskou oděvní průmyslovku, kde se věnuje módnímu návrhářství, vyměnila za Mission Bay High School v americkém San Diegu a, jak píše níže, byla to skvělá zkušenost. Ema do USA odjela společně se svým otcem Martinem Rozumkem, ředitelem Organizace pro pomoc uprchlíkům, který získal Fulbrightovo stipendium pro pracovníky v neziskovém sektoru. Martin Rozumek se pět měsíců zabýval problematikou tzv. "klimatických uprchlíků" na University of California a Ema chodila do běžné americké střední školy. Za 32 let existence Fulbrightovy komise v České republice do USA vyjelo přes 1200 stipendistů a stipendistek, téměř 1100 Američanů a Američanek naopak získalo zahraniční zkušenost v České republice. Spolu s nimi však Fulbright změnil život i stovkám manželů, manželek a dětí, protože mnozí stipendisté přes oceán letí společně se svou rodinou.   Přijetí na americkou střední školu (Mission Bay High School v San Diegu) bylo mno...

Jason Nichols is a church music director and voice professor. During the past academic year, Jason spent nine months in the Czech Republic, accompanying his wife Bree on her Fulbright grant, making his official status in the Fulbright program that of a “dependent.” Fulbright Czech Republic has over 2100 alumni on both sides of the Atlantic. Together with grantees, the international stay in the U.S. or in the Czech Republic has transformed the lives of an additional 1000 people, who accompanied the Fulbrighters on their international journey as dependents. These spouses and children left their homes as well and set off for an adventure, but unlike their wives, husbands, or parents, who fulfill their clear-cut grant objectives, the mission of dependents has often been rather blurred and lacked structure. Jason’s wife Bree is a soprano , and she came to the Czech Republic to study Czech art songs in Olomouc and Prague. During their time abroad, Jason continued to work remotely for his...