For Matthew Greene '10, it was simple. He loved the Czech Republic. A friend had taken him to visit during the spring of 2009, and Greene was enamored by the country. He wanted to go back and learn more; he wanted to engrain himself in the country, he wanted to learn Czech, and he wanted to help the Czech people better understand Americans. He wanted be a teacher for a year, and he knew that a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship would enable him to do that. He knew it was competitive, but he also knew that if he had just as much to offer the Czech Republic as it had to offer him, he stood a chance to do well in the competition.
Now, he's preparing his lesson plans. Greene was awarded one of two Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships in the Czech Republic for the 2010-2011 academic year. He is one of four UVM students to be awarded a Fulbright this year, and will work as an English teaching assistant for two high schools in the small Czech city of Havlickuv Brod, located in the middle of the country.