Cold-War Era Classrooms to Corporate Leadership: Luisa Alvesová’s ISP Story

From attic classrooms to hand-typed cookbooks, Luisa Alvesová’s ISP story is one of creativity, connection, and international spirit.

Luisa Alvesová attended ISP from Grades 1 to 9 during the 1980s, when the school was located in a villa in Prague 6. As the daughter of a Brazilian diplomat and a Czech mother, Luisa experienced a unique blend of international and local life during a politically complex era. Now Managing Partner and COO at Omnicom Media Group in Prague, she reflects on her school memories, from unconventional learning spaces and garden barbecues to lifelong friendships and the early sparks of a globally minded career.

What are you doing now, professionally, academically, or personally, and what year did you graduate from ISP?

I attended ISP from 1st to 9th grades in the years 1979–1988. I finished high school in Vienna, Austria at the American International School, gained my B.A. from Franklin University in Lugano, Switzerland and my M.B.A. from Rochester Institute of Technology (Prague M.B.A. programme). I am currently Managing Partner/COO at Omnicom Media Group in Prague, part of a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company. I love living in Prague for its central location in Europe as well as its cultural heritage and work-life balance possibilities.

What brought your family to Prague, and how did you come to attend ISP?

I was born in Prague to a Czech mother and a Brazilian father who worked at the Brazilian embassy at the time. Being bilingual, our family was a part of both the international community of diplomats as well as the Czech community. Since my parents did not know if they would stay in Prague or move to another country at some point, attending an international school was the logical choice for my brother and myself.

What do you remember most vividly about the school’s campuses scattered across the city?

Actually, in the 1980s there was only one campus located in a villa on Mylnerovka street in Prague 6. It was built as a family mansion, so none of the space was really designed for classrooms. It had old wooden squeaky floors and very large windows. The kitchen was used as a science lab and the library was in the hallways. The funniest place in which we had a classroom was the bathroom in the attic. ISP at that time only had grades 1–8, but since there were six students whose parents were continuing to work in Prague for another year, the school kindly offered to open a 9th grade for us. As all the other rooms were full, we were placed in the bathroom in the attic. The chalkboard was literally in the bathtub, and we squeezed in around it. Another great feature of the old campus was a small garden house where the music classes were held.

The garden house where music classes were held

Sixth grade Christmas performance, 1986

The old campus school building in Mylnerovka street, side entrance

What are you doing now, professionally, academically, or personally, and what year did you graduate from ISP?

When 9th grade finished, we all had to go to other schools abroad to finish high school, which was quite heartbreaking at the time. It was 1988 and Czechoslovakia was still a communist country, so no local high schools were eager to take on students from an American school system. I personally was sent to the American International School in Vienna and had to live in a boarding house run by nuns… not great when you are 14 years old, as you can imagine.

How would you describe the atmosphere and student community at ISP in the 1980s?

The atmosphere in the school was fantastic. The school was so small (approximately 100 people total) that all the kids and teachers knew each other. There was no cafeteria, so on nice days we would all eat our packed lunches outside in the garden and enjoy the playground. There was also no auditorium, so when the whole school needed to gather together, we had to fit into two classrooms which had big sliding doors between them. I remember great barbecues in the school garden or the teachers inviting the whole class (usually not more than 12 kids) to their houses for Halloween/Valentine’s parties.

Third grade class photo (Luisa, front row, first from left; Rami, back row, third from left)
 

Of course, this was a time before cell phones and the internet, so we would write each other handwritten invitations/messages to events and schedule times to call each other on the landline. I still have a box full of handwritten letters from my classmates which they wrote to me over the summer or when their families moved away from Prague.

Were there any particular teachers or staff members who had a lasting impact on you?

All of them 😊:

• 1st grade: Mrs. Tryon – she was sweet and played the piano a lot
• 2nd grade: Mrs. Warner – she was kind of mean and lost her temper a lot
• 3rd grade: Mr. Mansager – he played the guitar and sang to us in Spanish
• 4th grade: Mrs. Nass – always gave us stickers for good work
• 5th grade: Mr. Frey – the best math and science teacher ever!
• 6th grade: Mrs. Frey – she loved literature and read us The Lord of the Rings when we were tired of reading on our own
• 7th grade: Mrs. Lewis – hosted the best parties at her house and made us cookies
• 8th grade: Mr. Lewis – challenged us to think outside the box and to focus our attention
• 9th grade: Mrs. Devlin – hosted an event at her house at which our class performed Romeo and Juliet. She also helped us earn money for a class ring by putting together a class cookbook. There were only two computers available in the computer lab for the whole school to share, and we took turns typing recipes on them during our lunch break. We then printed the cookbook and sold it to the parent community to help fund our class ring
• Music teacher: Mr. Tony Ackerman – an amazing jazzman and musician, so patient with all of us during every Christmas performance rehearsal
• PE teacher: Mrs. Parun – a great skier, took us to ski week and we had a great time
• Director: Mr. Nass – taught us how to make origami birds on a rainy day
• Bus driver: Mr. Benetka – always happy and smiling

Looking back, what advice would you give to your high school self? And what advice would you offer to current ISP students?

I’d say enjoy the present moment and carpe diem. Sometimes we are so excited to finish school, get our IB diplomas, graduate, etc., that we forget to enjoy each day as if it were a present to be unwrapped with our full focus on it.

Recent family trips around Europe with son Daniel (20) and niece Wanda (24)
 

Did anything at ISP spark your interest in your current field of study or career path?

I really enjoyed the international aspect of the community, getting to know people from so many cultures. That certainly influenced my choice of career, as I chose to study International Management.

Have you kept in touch with friends from ISP? What’s the most interesting place you’ve reconnected?

I am fortunate to have my friend Rami still living here, as we both had a Czech parent and chose to live here. It’s really sad that all of our other classmates have moved away with their families, and it has been hard to maintain contact with them. I have been trying to reach out to others through social media, but have not been very successful in finding many people. Rami and I managed to meet with our Italian classmate Federico, who left after 4th grade. He came to Prague for a visit in the 1990s and it was our biggest reunion ever (just the three of us 😊).

I am also very happy to be in touch with Manish, a classmate from India who lives in New Delhi, and I hope we can find a way to meet in person again soon.

Ninth grade graduation dinner with parents and teachers, 1988. Rami, standing, giving a speech. Luisa in the pink dress.
 

Life in Prague in the 1980s–1990s

What was it like living in Prague under a communist regime during the Cold War?

During the 1980s, the Cold War loomed over us even though we were kids. Our parents were often worried as global political issues escalated and I remember being really afraid that a nuclear war might start at any time. Of course, even the books we read at school at the time were very descriptive of what would happen during a nuclear war, how everyone would die a very painful death. On TV, we would watch large military parades of all the rockets and ballistic missiles which both the East and West had ready. Learning about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII made everyone aware of the possible horrors of such a war. I remember very distinctly when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident happened in April 1986 (we were in 7th grade) and the nuclear fallout cloud travelled across Europe contaminating rainfall across many countries. That had nothing to do with warfare, but we were all terrified and instructed to stay indoors, feeling very vulnerable in light of potential nuclear impact.

Were there any restrictions or unique routines that shaped daily life at ISP because of the political climate?

Nothing specific to ISP daily life that I remember. Of course, there were some shortages of consumer goods in Czechoslovakia at the time, which affected everyone. ISP had access to shopping at the US commissary at the embassy, so we were quite fortunate to have access to things which were otherwise not widely available. For example, we had glitter and crayons and other fun art supplies which Czech schools did not have. Also, ISP had a photocopier and two Apple Macintosh computers which were very rare and considered state-of-the-art technology. Sometimes we even got to play Pac-Man during computer labs 😊.

Looking Ahead

Luisa’s ISP memories paint a vivid picture of a unique time in the school’s history and in Prague’s. Her story is a testament to how an international education, even in modest or unconventional surroundings, can spark a global mindset that lasts a lifetime.