My name is Madison Mahrlig, and I am a senior studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic for the Fall semester.  My majors are Theater with a concentration in lighting design, Arts Management and German.  I had studied abroad previously in Berlin Germany during the summer semester between my sophomore and junior year.  Ultimately I wanted to go back to Germany to study abroad again, but due to having three majors, I had to pick a program that had the classes I needed and an Internship component.  After looking at every program available, I found this one and due to its central location in Europe, I thought it would be a perfect fit to meet my traveling lust.

I started studying here in the summer semester and continued here in the fall so I had plenty of time to focus on my schoolwork and internship while also reaching my goals while I was here.  My first goal was to learn some Czech Language, which seems really difficult because it is in the slavik group and not the germanic that I am so used to.  My second goal was to explore a lot of the Czech Republic itself instead of going to a different country every trip I take. My last goal was to understand the business culture and atmosphere through my internship and see how it differs from the United States and Germany. I did a ton of research about the Czech Republic in order to apply for some scholarships, especially the Boron scholarship application, in relation to why the Czech Republic could pose a national threat to the United States and why studying here would be beneficial to the United States Air Force upon my return.  I learned a lot about it’s communist ties and why that affects how the older generation acts in a way that they do as well as the current political atmosphere between Russia and the Czech Republic.