News / Interns Voice Opinions about International Experience

Kira’s favorite part about being in Prague is learning about the history of the Czech Republic and how the past affects the present. The connection to the past helps her understand why the current situation in Prague is the way that it is. Czech history helps her gain an even greater appreciation for United States history. She now can look at the United States in a new way that she didn’t see before.

Minh thinks that the Czech Republic in general is nice and beautiful, but she is often shocked by the lack of diversity. This has been a common thought among the diverse team. The Czech census doesn’t require citizens to report their ethnicity or race, so the data is not available online, but the demographics here are relatively homogeneous. This homogeneity contributes to discrimination and negative views of minorities.

Tamique touched upon her opinion on the Mountaintop project as a whole. Mountaintop is referring to the combined efforts of the US and Czech teams. She believes it is an innovative way to explore the cross-cultural comparisons between the countries. These comparisons help her understand the issues of educational inequality and the situation in the United States better. She can see more clearly how institutional racism causes problems in both countries. She enjoys diversity of students working on this project and thinks that it will contribute to the success of calculated action.