Olena Pavlenko, the second year student of Arts and Pedagogics Department at USPU studying "Visual Arts" was competitively selected by the Polish - American Freedom Foundation, "Borussia" Foundation, Collegium of Eastern Europe named after Jan Nowak - Jezioranski, and took part in “Study Tours to Poland” (study visits of students including the talented students from Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia STP coordinated by "Borussia" Foundation in Olsztyn).

The tours were conducted in the Polish academic centers. During the meetings organized by experienced NGOs Olena had a chance to get familiarized with the Polish university environment, community organizations, to meet with the leaders of public life, to participate in lectures, workshops, seminars and cultural events. In addition 5 other students from Ukraine and 3 students from Russia and Belarus were participating in the project.

From the first day the program was eventful and interesting with lots of meetings. Everything started with a trip to the government agencies. The first place to visit was the Marshal Management in Gdansk where the participants met with Lukash Hzhendzytsky, the Director of the Office of the Sejm of Pomeranian Voivodeship.

- At the meeting, - says Olena, - “we were familiarized with the history of state and government, the present political system in Poland, and the economic and social dimension of Poland and the EU. Afterwards, we went to the City Council of Gdansk, met with Oleshek Bogdan, the Head of the City Council who spoke about the effectiveness of local government and the development of infrastructure of the city. But our program was not limited to those visits only. We also visited the Museum of National Remembrance and listened to lecture on "memorable events in the history of Poland in the second half of the XX century" followed by an active and fervent discussion lasting several hours. Later, we were offered a lecture and a documentary about the origin of the "Solidarity" movement. After a historical insight on this movement we had a number of meetings with people who were co-initiators of these events. Among them there were Lech Walesa, Bogdan Borusewicz, Jerzy Borovchak.

- Also, Olena says, “the organizers have put us in touch with the Polish peers with whom we had a nice time together, exchanged experiences and just talked. We got acquainted with the students from three cities - Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopita and visited the Gdansk University. Another important aspect of the program was the visit to the regional media such as "Radio Gdansk." In general, every day was full of new meetings, discussions, seminars, workshops and live communication.

- On returning from the program «Study tours to Poland» I can say that those two weeks in Poland were the most interesting, exciting and the best I could imagine”, Olena says.