Helena Kucera

ALMA — Helena Kucera, a member of the Alma College Class of 2025 from White Lake Township, Mich., has been selected as Alma’s 31st Fulbright Scholar since 2003.

Kucera will use the award to teach English at schools in the Slovak Republic (Slovakia). A graduate of Mercy High School in Farmington Hills, she is the daughter of Michael and Lynda Kucera.

“I’m feeling very grateful and peaceful. The application process was long and challenging and I appreciate Dr. Sandy Hulme and the Nationally Competitive Scholarship Committee at Alma College for helping me to complete it and make it my best.

“The Slovak Republic is a beautiful, interesting place, and having this opportunity will open doors for me that were not there before. I’m really looking forward to participating in the Fulbright program,” she added.

Kucera is the most recent Fulbright Scholar at Alma College since Maria Vostrizansky won the award in 2024. Following her 10-month experience in the Slovak Republic, from August 2024 to June 2025, Kucera will pursue a law degree.

Kucera was a political science major and a psychology minor during her time at Alma. In addition to her studies, she participated in a number of extracurricular activities; including Model United Nations, the Catholic Student Organization, Student Congress and more.

She participated in several off-campus activities, as well, including the Posey Global Leadership Fellows Program, which allowed her to travel to Tanzania and Sierra Leone, as well as Spring Term, which brought her to Germany.

“One of the reasons I chose to apply for the Fulbright Scholarship to Europe was because I really enjoyed my class in Germany, where I learned so much from Dr. Marcus Richter,” Kucera said. “I’ve had some very interesting out-of-the-classroom experiences thanks to Alma College.”

Student applications for the Fulbright Scholarship are reviewed and approved by the National Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education, the coordinating body for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The applications are forwarded to the Fulbright commissions in the projects’ countries, which select recipients from all candidates applying in those countries. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board makes the final selections.

The U.S. Student Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State to give recent undergraduate and graduate students, as well as young professionals, a chance for an international experience and personal development.

Alma College’s Nationally Competitive Scholarship Committee helps students search for appropriate postgraduate scholarships, then reviews the proposals and applications. Alma’s committee identifies and nurtures exceptional candidates for nationally competitive scholarships, grants and awards.