Scholarships

Open Society Fund Prague has provided long-term support for Czech citizens to acquire first-hand experiences abroad. Since its very beginnings, the foundation has provided and organized numerous scholarships, internships, and travel grants. Today, OSF provides scholarships for secondary school and university students and offers internships for teacher trainees at private schools in Great Britain.

The scholarship program offers young people the possibility of studying at prestigious foreign schools, learning the language and acquiring invaluable experiences from living in a foreign culture and society. OSF thus contributes to the growth of talented young people, some of whom who may go on to become leading individuals in Czech political and social life or may end up working for international organizations. The scholarship program also encourages students to tell their foreign schoolmates about life in the Czech Republic and to share their experiences with their classmates at home upon their return. The program thus contributes to greater intercultural understanding.

 

Scholarships for secondary school students

OSF provides scholarships enabling first- and second-year students at Czech secondary schools to spend one academic year studying at private schools in Great Britain and the United States. These are prestigious schools that, in view of their high tuition, Czech children would otherwise be unable to attend.

In order to realize this program, OSF collaborates with The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) and with American Secondary Schools for International Students and Teachers (ASSIST). The program also receives funding from Pioneer Investments and from individual sponsors. OSF organizes not only the scholarship applications process, but also maintains a network of graduates and organizes meetings and reunions.

Over the course of the program's existence, more than 3,500 secondary school students have applied for scholarships. Nearly 200 students were selected to spend a year at secondary schools in Great Britain and the United States. Czech students have been exceptionally successful at these schools, and are subsequently admitted to prestigious foreign universities such as the London School of Economics, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton University, Syracuse University, Taft University, and Harvard University. Twelve graduates from this program have graduated from or are currently studying at Oxford University.

In the 2010-2011 academic year, 78 students applied for scholarships. Seven students received full scholarships and four received partial scholarships for schools in Great Britain. One girl is participating in a two-year program in Thailand, and eight students are currently studying at schools in the United States.

 

Scholarships for university students

In 2005, OSF joined with the international consulting company Accenture to establish the Accenture Fund, which provides scholarships to students of technical and economic departments at Czech universities. Thanks to these scholarships, upper-level students and postgraduate students can spend three to 12 months studying at prestigious foreign universities.

Since the program's founding, some 290 students have applied for scholarships, with 56 students receiving scholarships worth a total amount of CZK 2,633,750.

In 2010, 31 students applied to the program, 10 of whom were awarded scholarships worth a total amount of CZK 279,600.

 

Internships for teacher trainees

Since 2002, OSF has collaborated with The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) to organize a program for recent graduates and final-year students from teaching departments to spend one year interning at British private schools. Since then, 32 Czech teachers have participated in the program.

The 2010 winner of the applications process was David Ondruška, who went on to complete an internship at St. Bees School in Cumbria.

 

Contact person:

Zdenka Almerová

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