embassy events 2008 

Ambassador Welcomes Students Visiting Poland for English Teaching Program

27 June 2008 

Ambassador Ashe with WorldTeach Volunteers and Organizers

Ambassador Victor Ashe met on June 26 with a group of fifteen American university students visiting Poland as part of the WorldTeach Summer Program. The students will be teaching English to middle and high school students around Poland in special summer school sessions and living with local Polish host families. Ambassador Ashe spoke to the volunteers about Polish history and over 230 years of close ties between Poland and America.  He also urged the students to take advantage of their opportunity to see the many beautiful and historical sites in Poland near where they will live and teach over the summer. 

The WorldTeach Summer Program started in 2002, when Polish parliamentarian Zbigniew Chrzanowski proposed that World Teach offer a program to place volunteers in his region. Currently all volunteers live with host families nearby the schools in which they will be teaching. The goal of the WorldTeach volunteers is not only to teach English, but aslo to improve Polish students' understanding of American culture and to engage in community projects. This year the volunteers will be teaching in Maków Mazowiecki, Ostrołęka, Baranów Sandomierski, Stalowa Wola as well as in the small villages of Łaszczów, Krasnobród, and Rudnik nad Sanem. New to this year will be 3 host schools in Nowy Targ and one school in Łancut. For more information about WorldTeach in Poland, please visit the World Teach website on: http://www.worldteach.org/programs/poland_summer/  

WorldTeach is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides opportunities for individuals to make a meaningful contribution to international education by living and working as volunteer teachers in developing countries.  WorldTeach was founded by a group of Harvard students in 1986, in response to the need for educational assistance in developing countries.