January 2022 was held under the banner of “Alumnus Carnival”. “Alumnus Carnival” is a series of provincial meetings of Alumni over coffee & tea & beer & wine (of choice). For the first time in a very long time, we wanted to meet in real life, i.e. in a cafe / pub / restaurant, to get to know each other better.
The members of the Alumni Association met, but also other participants of the US State Department programs who had not yet joined the “Alumnus Family”: FLEXers, the youngest of the American scholarship holders; Fulbrighters, who are the largest group of beneficiaries of US Department scholarships, and their American counterparts who came to Poland this year. In January, we managed to meet in four voivodships: Mazowieckie, Podlaskie, Pomorskie and Wielkopolskie, and in February, in Warminsko-Mazurskie. We also managed to organize the first meeting of the members of our Association outside Poland. Alumni who live, work or study in the capital of Belgium have gathered in Brussels.
During the “Alumnus Carnival” we talked about the everyday problems during the scholarship in the USA, the differences in academic work here and there, the contacts made, the benefits of staying in the States. Because everyone has gained a lot thanks to the US State Department scholarship. But during the “Alumnus Carnival” we also planned: next meetings in the same or even extended group and proposals for further involvement of Alumni in the regions.
