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UMM Home > CERP > Abroad > Testimonials > Czech Republic

"I would recommend ELTAP to everyone, no matter where you're from or what your major is. I had traveled quite a bit before, but ELTAP was really something else. If it in was repeatable, I'd do it every year!" Sara Lam, ELTAP, Czech Republic

I'm from Hong Kong, so a question I get frequently is, "why did you choose Morris?" It's all because of ELTAP. ELTAP has sent UMM students to my high school in Hong Kong almost every semester for the past couple of years. I used to see Jen Anderson and Chaz Rice hanging out at my school all the time. They spent a day with me and my family. That's how I heard about UMM and now here I am.

I know I wanted to do ELTAP when I got here but I wasn't sure where I wanted to go and I procrastinated big time when it came to filling out the application form. So in late November, I went to speak to Craig Kissock about it, ready to beg him to take me even though I was applying so late. He said, "hey, do you want to go to the Czech Republic?" "Sure!" And it was arranged in five minutes.

Andrea, Branka, Alena - In Dorm

Michelle and I spent about three months in Kaplice, a small town that's three hours away from the capitol, Prague. We stayed in a dorm with 30 students that went to the school where we were assistant teaching. That was so much fun--we had movie night, painted each other's faces, played card games... School was fun too. The school is around the corner from the dorm.

School

We worked with four English teachers, all of whom are amazing women. They were like mothers to us and spent a lot of time taking care of us, making sure everything was OK. Most importantly, they treated us like equals and wanted to learn from us as well. We helped in classes from 7th grade to 12th grade. The teachers even let us teach the classes on our own a few times.

One great thing about ELTAP is that it's only 11 weeks long, so that gives you four extra weeks out of the semester to work on your paper or whatever you want to do. Michelle and I traveled around Europe for about four weeks and during a few weekends. We were able to go to a lot of different countries with the convenience of having a base in Kaplice to go back to so we didn't have to bring all of our luggage with us.

Mansopust Festival

I would recommend ELTAP to everyone, no matter where you're from or what your major is. I had traveled quite a bit before, but ELTAP was really something else. If it was repeatable, I'd do it every year!

First of all, everything about ELTAP is very personal. I wasn't just a student, or an assistant, but I was a friend to everyone I worked with, including the coordinator in the Czech Republic, the teachers and the principal of the school. Craig knows a lot of the coordinators in the host countries personally and they visit each other sometimes. For example, he is close friends with the Czech coordinator, and that made me feel much more comfortable going there.

C. kinmlor Castle

Secondly, after being a student for so many years, teaching was a very refreshing change. I got to cooperate closely as equals with people from different age groups. Not having to worry about homework assignments and such also gave us more time to just participate in Czech life and be immersed in the country and to travel. For example, we were able to spend time doing extracurricular activities in the school like volleyball and our own discussion sessions. We were also able to go on a lot of trips and attend concerts with teachers.

Thirdly, doing ELTAP can be very economical depending on where you choose to go. Other than the normal tuition for 12 credits, the other expenses are about $800 for the plane ticket, and a few hundred dollars for living expenses for three months (things there are cheaper than they are here). That is considerably less than what I pay for room and board here in Morris.

There are lots of other thing that make ELTAP an amazing program. If you want to know anything more about studying abroad in Hong Kong or the Czech Republic, or about ELTAP in general, please give me a call or e-mail me. I'd be more than happy to talk with you about it.