Reception to Honor Newest Cohort of Kosciuszko Foundation Fellows

On May 16, Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher hosted a reception at her residence in Warsaw to honor the newest 38 Polish fellows selected by the New York-based Kosciuszko Foundation to conduct research in the United States during the 2019-20 academic year. Together with Marek Skulimowski, the President and Executive Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation, Ambassador Mosbacher personally recognized the 38 new Kosciuszko Foundation Fellows who will conduct research for 3-6 months in the sciences, humanities, law and economy, arts, and Polish studies at some of the United States’ top educational institutions.  These will include, among others, Stanford University, Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Columbia University, the University of Virginia, University of Chicago, The Catholic University of America and the University of California.  Addressing the newly selected fellows, Ambassador Mosbacher called their “breadth of knowledge and expertise inspiring.”

During the reception, Ambassador Mosbacher and Marek Skulimowski also announced the first ever recipient of the “Centennial Award” jointly created by the U.S. Embassy and the Kosciuszko Foundation to honor this year’s centennial of diplomatic relations between Poland and the United States.  The winner of the award is the distinguished Professor Halina Parafianowicz from the Institute of History and Political Sciences at the University of Bialystok.  Professor Parafianowicz will conduct a research project on “We are all Americans: the Great War in the lives and memory of Polish-American women.” The project will explore U.S. women’s experiences — including those of Polish-American women — during World War I and will be published upon her return to Poland to support increased mutual understanding and scholarship on Poland and America’s shared history.  During the reception, Ambassador Mosbacher singled out and thanked the U.S.-Polish company “Collegia” that has funded the Centennial award, calling their support a generous act “that will keep America’s and Poland’s history alive.”

Founded in 1925 on the eve of the 150th anniversary of Thaddeus Kosciuszko’s enlistment in the cause of America’s revolution, the New York-based Kosciuszko Foundation is dedicated to promoting educational and cultural exchanges between the United States and Poland and to increasing American understanding of Polish culture and history.  It annually funds $500,000 in research scholarship for Polish students and young scientists to pursue their research with academic partners in the United States for periods between 3-9 months.  A similar amount of funding goes to other cultural and educational programs also designed to promote friendship and mutual understanding between the Polish and American peoples. In 2010 the Kosciuszko Foundation opened an office in Warsaw in order to boost the foundation’s activities in Poland.

https://pl.usembassy.gov/cohort_kosciuszko/