Last Thursday, at the gala held at the Polish Cultural Foundation in Clark, NJ, 292 young people received scholarships from the Polish-Slavic Federal Credit Union (P-SFCU), the largest financial institution in the Polish community in America. Among the group there were135 high school seniors, who have been admitted to college, and 157 academic students.
P-SFCU representatives Marian Ponanta, deputy head of marketing, and Tomasz Bortnik, chairman of the Board of Directors, greeted bright and gifted young people, accompanied at the gala by their parents. A newly appointed CEO of the P-SFCU, Oskar Mielczarek was also there to congratulate the students on their achievements and pointed out how important young people are to the functioning and the growth of the Union. Krystyna Myssura, vice chairman of the Board of Directors, presented a short history of the scholarship program, while Katarzyna Kowalska, member of the Scholarship Committee, explained the rules and criteria that guided the committee in granting scholarships.
The scholarships were handed first to the recipients in Chicago, where the P-SFCU has most recently opened its branches, while the N.Y. guests of the Clark gala could watch the Chicago ceremony streamed live on a screen.
The scholarships for university students are the most important component of the whole scholarship program offered by the P-SFCU. Through this program 10 students received grants in the amount of $5,000, 20 students got checks for $2,000 and 127 of them received $1,000. Together with the winners of another scholars program, "Astronomy Adventure With Copernicus", who received their awards in May, the P-SFCU gave out $300,000 in scholarships this year.
The 14-member scholarship committee, which nominated the candidates from university students, evaluated the applications according to four major criteria: academic achievements (44%); non-academic activity and achievements (25%); engagement in the Polish community (25%); and future potential (10%).
Five of this year's scholarship winners received an additional $500 as a reward for a substantial use of P-SFCU's products. Additionally, Dawid Guzik from New York and Tomasz Podobiński from Chicago received $100 each for being members of the P-SFCU the longest out of all scholarship recipients this year. Also a special award in the amount of $100, sponsored by Zbigniew Rogalski, director of the Central-Western region of the P-SFCU, was given to Izabela Strzałkowska from Chicago, who uses the most P-SFCU financial products.
This year's scholarship winners will attend prestigious universities including: Harvard; Yale; Columbia; Stanford; NYU; Boston University; Cornell University; Carnegie Melon; Rutgers; Princeton; Wesleyan University; the Catholic University of America; University of Chicago; Jagiellonian University of Kraków; and the Medical University of Poznań, Poland. The young P-SFCU members and scholarship winners will specialize in such majors as: neurobiology; medicine; arts; psychology; biochemistry; music; law; public relations; and business.
Since the inception of the scholarship program in 2001, the Polish-Slavic Credit Union has helped 1,700 students cover the costs of attending college, granting $2.4 million.
