The jubilee Gala of the Entrepreneurship Olympics summing up 10 years of the project implementation was held at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on June 10. The winners received prizes and were congratulated by Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland Jacek Michałowski. Additionally, the winners got admitted to the best Polish universities of economics. During the ceremony the next-year competition slogan was announced: “New competitive advantages – technology, information, community”.
Winners of the 10th round of Entrepreneurship Olympics, their tutors – teachers, principals of the winners’ schools, vice chancellors of universities of economics that co-organized the Olympics, as well as representatives of partners and sponsors, befriended institutions and media took part in the ceremony of presenting the winners with diplomas and prizes at the Column Hall of the Presidential Palace in Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw.
Congratulations to the winners were extended by Jacek Michałowski, the Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland; Olgierd Dziekoński, the Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Minister Ewa Dudek representing the Ministry of National Education, Prof. Eugeniusz Gatnar, member of the National Bank of Poland Management Board, Mirosław Czyżewski, the Polish-American Freedom Foundation representative, and Prof. Marek Rocki, a Senator of Poland.
The Partners that have been involved in the program implementation, that is the Ministry of National Education, the National Bank of Poland, the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, the Educational Enterprise Foundation, Difin Publishing House and Plagiat.pl, received thank-you diplomas from President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski. The vice chancellors of five universities that co-organize the competition, that is Universities of Economics in Kraków, Katowice , Poznań and Wrocław, as well as Warsaw School of Economics received the thank-you letters from Secretary of State Jacek Michałowski.
During the ceremony, Prof. Maria Romanowska gave a lecture on “Innovative enterprise in a non-innovative economy” pointing to the sources of innovativeness of Polish enterprises and to its barriers.
In his welcome address Jacek Michałowski noted that young people participating in the meeting at the Column Hall represent those who will be responsible for the future of Poland’s economy. “Be good managers of our Republic of Poland for the next 25 years,” he appealed.
Eugeniusz Gatnar, member of the National Bank of Poland Management Board congratulated the winners on their success and referred to the studies carried out by the National Bank of Poland which show that lack of knowledge and economic awareness in a society is an important factor contributing to the decrease of financial stability of a country. In that context he thanked the teachers for their efforts to raise the economic awareness among young people.
“We are very proud of you,” Mirosław Czyżewski said on behalf of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. He congratulated the students on their persistence and determination in acquiring knowledge and noted that these are the features very important in professional and educational career. Referring to the 10th anniversary of the Olympics he emphasized that it is a good example of the satisfying and bringing excellent results cooperation of various environments.
The winner of the competition was Szymon Łopocz of A. Mickiewicz Senior Secondary School No 2 in Racibórz. In his address, he thanked his tutors and parents for support, and other participants for high level of competition, which made the victory worth even more. “Winning in the Olympics is for me the best prize for my effort to prepare to it but also a source of motivation for further work,” he added.
The winners received valuable prizes. Additionally co-organizers of the Olympics, the five public universities of economics: Warsaw School of Economics and universities of economics in Katowice, Kraków, Poznań and Wrocław offered them admission to their courses of study and promised to make the qualification procedure significantly easier for them. Whereas the schools attended by the winners will receive the publication and subscription packages which shall help their students prepare to the Olympics in the next school year.
The Entrepreneurship Olympics is one of the biggest thematic competitions in Poland. Over 20,000 students from 1,100 secondary schools all over Poland applied to participate in its 10th round.
The Entrepreneurship Olympics is an all-Poland three-stage competition for secondary school students, aimed at popularization of entrepreneurship among young people. The scope of knowledge needed for the competition includes economy, management, psychology and business practice. The slogan of the 10th round was “The management of the change”.
The Olympics is organized by the Foundation for the Promotion and Accreditation of Economic Education. The universities of economics co-organizing the competition, that is Warsaw School of Economics and universities of economics in Katowice, Kraków, Poznań and Wrocław have offered the finalists and winners of the Olympics making the qualification procedure significantly easier for them. Additionally, the best contestants receive attractive prizes.
Also the winners’ teachers and schools receive prizes. The tutors receive prizes as valuable as the winners. Their schools receive the publication and subscription packages which shall help their students prepare to the Olympics in the next school year. Additionally 25 schools from which the biggest number of participants applied were awarded with a book on the subject related to the slogan of the Olympics 10th round.
The results of the Entrepreneurship Olympics have been considered in the All-Poland Secondary Schools Ranking prepared by the Rzeczpospolita daily in cooperation with Perspektywy weekly.
The Olympics is co-financed by the National Bank of Poland and the Polish-American Freedom Foundation acting as the Olympics Strategic Partners, and gets a subsidy from The Ministry of National Education.
The Olympics is supported among others by Difin Publishing House, Plagiat.pl, the Educational Enterprise Foundation, the Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation, Polish Chamber of Commerce, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, the Employers of Poland, the Polish Economic Society, the Association of Enterprise Teachers and Economic Education and the Student Forum Business Centre Club. The media patrons are Głos Nauczycielski, Perspektywy.pl, NBPortal and Interklasa.
More information can be obtained from the Office of the Entrepreneurship Olympics:
tel. 22 564 9725, biuro@olimpiada.edu.pl
