The diploma ceremony was held at the Head Office of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation on June 26, 2025. The diplomas were received by 32 scholarship holders, participants of the two-semester Lane Kirkland Scholarship Program.
During the 2024/25 academic year, scholarship holders from ten countries pursued individual educational programs in law, economics, management, social sciences and administration at Polish universities in four cities: Kraków, Lublin, Warsaw and Wrocław. Among this year’s Kirkland Program graduates, the largest group were citizens of Armenia (8 people), Ukraine (6 people) and Belarus (5 people), while others came from Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, including academics, public and local government employees, economists, lawyers and culture managers.
This year’s graduates were congratulated by Jerzy Kozminski, President and CEO of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, and Agata Wierzbowska-Miazga, President of the Leaders of Change Foundation. The ceremony was also attended by regional coordinators and socio-cultural animators cooperating with the Kirkland Program.
Graduates listened to a lecture given by Professor Andrzej Blikle on trust and its practical aspects. Thanks to this presentation, the graduates were able to learn more about turquoise civilization and about building a company’s success on trust and an employee’s sense of responsibility.
The Lane Kirkland Scholarship Program has been in operation since 2000, and is designed to bring the Polish experience of political transformation and European integration to representatives of Eastern European, Central Asian and South Caucasus countries during two-semester supplementary studies at selected Polish universities. Currently, the program is addressed to candidates from Ukraine, Belarus, as well as Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Within the framework of individual educational programs, scholarship holders study selected aspects of economics and management, public administration and business, law, social and political sciences, journalism, NGO management, or culture management, among others. Since 2016, the program’s offer has been expanded to include a one-semester study program for academics – Kirkland Research.
About 40 scholarship holders participate in the program each year. Between 2000 and 2025 1109 people from 13 countries, completed the program (1053 Kirkland Program scholarship holders and 56 Kirkland Research scholarship holders), including: 579 from Ukraine; 196 from Belarus; 75 from Georgia; 69 from Russia; 53 from Armenia; 34 from Kazakhstan; 27 from Moldova; 21 from Kyrgyzstan; 16 from Azerbaijan; 12 from Lithuania; 10 from Slovakia; 10 from Uzbekistan and 7 from Tajikistan.
