Fulbright Reality Czech

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 ...

Julia Prager-Hessel  is the Deputy Communications Director for a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving in the U.S. Congress. Three years ago, she served as an English Teaching Assistant at Gymnázium Chotěboř. In November 2022, she hosted an unforgettable Thanksgiving for her Czech students, colleagues, and fellow grantees who had no plans for the holiday. What seemed a Herculean task at first turned into “cultural exchange in its purest form: joyful, messy, loud, communal, and, true to Thanksgiving culture and Czech cuisine alike, punctuated by a ton of heavy food,” complete with traditions and Cotton-Eye Joe dancing. Because of this and many other experiences, the town of fewer than 10,000 grew close to Julia’s heart. She returns whenever possible: “Chotěboř grounds me, and reminds me why I do the work I do, why community matters, why listening matters, why showing up matters.”  Three Thanksgivings ago, I stood at the back of the attic event hall in Panský Dům,...

Rachel Drew teaches English at Střední odborná škola (Practical High School) in Šumperk, located in North Moravia. The town is known as a gate into the Jeseníky Mountains, a less visited, yet breathtakingly beautiful natural paradise for hikers, bikers, skiers and anyone who enjoys a romantic getaway in an unspoiled landscape. Coming from Boston College with a degree in Elementary Education and Biology and a life-long passion for the environment, animals and nature, the school where students major in agriculture business, hotel management, ecology and environment or state administration was a logical fit. Besides regular English lessons at the school, Rachel also assists one of her colleagues in his biology class. In addition, she hosts a weekly English conversation class for her Czech colleagues. Since her arrival in August 2021, Rachel has smoothly adjusted to the Šumperk way of life. Outside of the school, she has joined a local volleyball club, she frequents ice hockey games to che...