Eager for English

Eva Hudecova, 19, just graduated from a Lutheran high school in Slovakia's capital, Bratislava. "At first I didn't think about the school as Christian," she says. "I'd gone to the only elementary school that taught English (British). And when I took the entrance exam, I was one of 90 to be accepted of the 500 who applied."

Hudecova was brought up as a Christian, unlike many young people who grew up in Slovakia before the fall of communism in 1989. She studied religion with Lutheran pastors teaching at the Evangelical Lyceum, as the high school is known. "What I liked was th at you could also talk with the pastors about personal problems. Some students have found their faith here.

"The American teachers develop a special relationship with students, much more than Slovak teachers. The studies are intensive, among the most challenging schools in Bratislava," she says.