US Participants of Heritage Polonia Programme Visit GMU

The visiting group comprised 33 people in total, including 28 students aged between 18 and 24, and 5 coordinators. The cohort arrived in the Tri-City following a stay in Warsaw, where they visited key historical and contemporary landmarks and met with state and diplomatic officials. A major highlight of their time in the capital was a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Secretary of State, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski.

The Heritage Polonia itinerary includes visits to major sites of Polish historical, cultural, scientific, and social significance. In addition to Warsaw, the participants are visiting Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia, Kraków, and Zakopane. The Pomeranian segment of the tour featured a visit to the European Solidarity Centre, and a meeting with Lech Wałęsa was scheduled for 20 June – a highly significant event for understanding the history of the Solidarność movement and Poland's path to freedom.

A particularly special event during their time in Gdynia was the visit to Gdynia Maritime University, where the guests explored the University's educational capabilities, state-of-the-art training infrastructure, and specialised approach to training personnel for the maritime economy. The students represented numerous American higher education institutions, including Rutgers University, St. John’s University, Manhattan University, Eastern Mennonite University, the University of Texas at Austin, Johns Hopkins University, Northeastern University, Boston University, the University of Houston, Penn State University, Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Suffolk University, Purdue University, the University of Florida, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Fordham University, the University of Virginia, the University of Illinois, Kalamazoo College, Central Connecticut State University, Dickinson College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, and Northern Illinois University.

The visit to GMU was initiated by Associate Professor Dr Joanna Kizielewicz, Head of the Department of Management and Economics at the Faculty of Management and Quality Science, who also hosted the gathering at the Faculty of Navigation. Under her direction, the itinerary was designed to introduce the guests to the University's operations, its degree programmes, and the significance of Gdynia Maritime University as a centre of modern maritime education. 

The American delegation was coordinated by Beata M. Paszyc, Honorary Vice-Consul of the Republic of Poland in Miami and Executive Director of the American Institute of Polish Culture. Vice-Consul Paszyc has been deeply involved for many years in promoting Polish culture, education, and heritage in the United States, supporting initiatives that reinforce Polish-American relations.

During the visit to GMU, Honorary Vice-Consul Beata M. Paszyc also met with Associate Professor Dr Dariusz Barbucha, GMU Deputy Rector for Science. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the University's research capabilities, exchange institutional insights, and discuss the vital role of international cooperation in higher education. 

The organisation of the visit was extensively supported by Associate Professor Dr Przemysław Wilczyński, who serves as Deputy Dean for Maritime Affairs, Cooperation and Developmentof the Faculty of Navigation, the Rector's Plenipotentiary for STCW, and Head of the CST Centre. His involvement highlighted the practical, seafaring focus of the gathering, particularly during the tours of the University's advanced navigational simulators. 

The afternoon itinerary began at 15:00 in the Faculty of Navigation Auditorium with an introductory presentation on Gdynia Maritime University. The guests were introduced to the University's history, its structure, its research and teaching activities, and its study programmes. A key segment of the presentation was led by Jarosław Nazaruk, who outlined the work of the GMU Student Parliament and the various student scientific societies, allowing the Heritage Polonia students to gain genuine insights into student self-governance and student life at GMU. 

Following the opening presentations, the guests attended a presentation delivered by Faculty of Navigation students Ada Lewandowska and Antonina Andrusiewicz at the Antoni Ledóchowski Planetarium – one of the Faculty's unique instructional facilities. The visit concluded with a tour of the navigational simulator laboratories, guided by Hubert Pankowski, where the University showcased the cutting-edge training environments used in the practical training of future officers, navigators, and maritime industry professionals. 

The visit was highly successful in fulfilling its educational, academic, and intercultural objectives. It allowed the international participants to experience modern maritime education in Poland first-hand, while providing the GMU community with an invaluable opportunity to present its degree courses and technological infrastructure to an international group of young people. Gatherings of this nature strongly support the University's internationalisation goals, promote Polish higher education globally, and build lasting networks with academic and Polish diaspora communities in the United States.

We extend our sincere thanks to the Head of the Promotion Office, Magdalena Zajk, and Agnieszka Tessmer from the Promotion Office for providing the photographic documentation of the event. 

Plans are already underway for cooperation with Heritage Poland to continue in the coming years.