Your last name,curiosity,ambition
is a passport.

Heritage Polonia selects 26 high-achieving students each year for ten days in Poland, fully funded for admitted students. Diplomats. Industry leaders. A peer group you keep for life.

Apply now
Watch the film

Duration

10 days in Poland

Cities

Warsaw · Gdańsk · Sopot · Kraków · Zakopane

Application fee

$79, waived for financial need

2027 dates

June 13 to 24, 2027, travel days included

Our alumni come from

  • Harvard University
  • Yale University
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Columbia University
  • Cornell University
  • Brown University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Georgetown University
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Northwestern University
  • Emory University
  • University of Virginia
  • Purdue University
  • Penn State University
  • Rutgers University
  • Fordham University
  • Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • Eastman School of Music
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison
  • University of Texas at Austin
  • University of Florida
  • University of Georgia
  • University of Miami
  • University of Missouri
  • University of Alabama
  • University of Houston
  • University of Cincinnati
  • University of San Diego
  • University of Illinois Chicago
  • DePaul University
  • Dickinson College
  • Grinnell College
  • Kalamazoo College
  • Suffolk University
  • St. John’s University
  • Manhattan University
  • Concordia University Chicago
  • Saint Xavier University
  • Belmont Abbey College
  • Olivet Nazarene University
  • Eastern Mennonite University
  • Central Connecticut State University

Almost everyone
gets this wrong.

People assume a program like this costs what a semester abroad costs. It does not. Heritage Polonia is fully funded for admitted students. Sponsors, partners and donors pay for your flights from Chicago, hotels, meals, transport and every visit.

The $79 application fee is a commitment filter, not a price tag. If that fee is a barrier, say so in your application and we will waive it.

See what's included

What it actually costs to apply

$79

$79 to apply plus the $750 deposit, if selected to participate: $829 before the trip. $500 comes back after the trip once you complete the program. Net: $329, or $250 if your fee is waived for financial need.

  • Round-trip airfare, Chicago to Warsaw
  • All 4 & 5 star hotels across five cities
  • Every meal, including the farewell dinner
  • All ground transport, rail and guides
  • Every museum, site and private visit
  • Travel to and from Chicago O’Hare
  • Souvenirs and personal spending money

How the deposit works

Find your lane.

Poland is not a backdrop. Every cohort member is matched to the pillar that fits their field, then placed in the rooms, briefings and dinners where that field actually operates.

Counts show how the 103 applications in the 2026 cycle spread across the pillars.

Medicine & Health Sciences
Business, Finance & Economy
Culture, Education & the Arts
Engineering, Science & Technology
Law, Government & Diplomacy
Cohort members listening closely during a panel session

Medicine & Health Sciences

Clinicians, researchers and public-health leaders, and a close look at how a national health system is built and run.

Who this fits

Pre-med, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, physician assistant, biomedical research, public health

2026 cycle

21 of 103 applicants

The 2026 cohort at Google in Warsaw

Business, Finance & Economy

Business day puts you in front of the people who built one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, matched to your field.

Who this fits

Investment banking, private equity, accounting, real estate, international trade, entrepreneurship

2026 cycle

20 of 103 applicants

A cohort member performing at the monastery dinner

Culture, Education & the Arts

Curators, teachers, musicians and the people keeping the language and its traditions alive abroad.

Who this fits

Education, performing and visual arts, music, media, publishing, museums, the humanities

2026 cycle

20 of 103 applicants

Cohort members at the helm of the ship’s bridge simulator, Gdynia Maritime University

Engineering, Science & Technology

Follow the infrastructure: ports, rail, energy, and the technology economy built on top of all of it.

Who this fits

Computer science, data and AI, engineering, energy, architecture, aviation, transport planning

2026 cycle

18 of 103 applicants

The cohort around the table at Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Law, Government & Diplomacy

Poland sits on NATO’s eastern flank. Cohort members on this track are in the rooms where that is discussed, not reading about it afterwards.

Who this fits

Law, politics, public policy, international relations, diplomacy, security studies

2026 cycle

17 of 103 applicants

Ten days, compressed.

Ten days that are
scheduled to the minute.

Warsaw to Gdańsk to the Baltic coast to Kraków to the Tatras. This is what the 2026 program looked like; the 2027 itinerary is shared with the cohort once it is confirmed.
See the full 2027 itinerary

The Presidential Palace

Warsaw

The Presidential Palace

Warsaw

Seat of Poland’s president, where the 1989 Round Table talks were held.

The cohort in a state room at the Presidential Palace The cohort in a state room at the Presidential Palace

A city rebuilt from paintings

Warsaw

A city rebuilt from paintings

Warsaw

Old Town was reconstructed after the war. A guided walk through what that took.

A walk through Warsaw Old Town A walk through Warsaw Old Town

Where Solidarity started

Gdańsk

Where Solidarity started

Gdańsk

The shipyards, the waterfront and the European Solidarity Centre.

President Lech Wałęsa in conversation with the cohort at the European Solidarity Centre President Lech Wałęsa in conversation with the cohort at the European Solidarity Centre

The coast and the simulator

Gdynia

The coast and the simulator

Gdynia

Maritime University, the ship’s bridge simulator and an afternoon on the Baltic.

Three cohort members at the helm of the ship’s bridge simulator, Gdynia Maritime University Three cohort members at the helm of the ship’s bridge simulator, Gdynia Maritime University

Business day

Kraków

Business day

Kraków

A panel of speakers, then lunch with them on the rooftop.

A speaker with cohort members at lunch on the Sheraton rooftop in Kraków A speaker with cohort members at lunch on the Sheraton rooftop in Kraków

The monastery dinner

Kraków

The monastery dinner

Kraków

The night cohort musicians perform.

A cohort member performing at dinner A cohort member performing at dinner

Morskie Oko

Zakopane

Morskie Oko

Zakopane

Up to the Eye of the Sea, and a Highlanders evening.

The cohort at Morskie Oko lake The cohort at Morskie Oko lake

The last night

Warsaw

The last night

Warsaw

The farewell dinner, and the goodbyes everyone says are not really goodbyes.

A cohort member at the farewell dinner in Warsaw A cohort member at the farewell dinner in Warsaw

We do not send students on a trip. We hand them a country, a peer group, and a room full of people worth knowing.

Heritage Polonia

Three ways in.

Students.

You want to go. Undergraduate or graduate, with Polish roots or a real interest in Poland, and ready to be selected rather than to buy a seat. Applications are open November 1 to 30, 2026.

How selection works

Parents.

You want the details. Who travels with the cohort, emergency contacts, the code of conduct, what is covered, and where your student will be on any given day.

Ask us a question

Partners.

You want to build it. Heritage Polonia is a registered 501(c)(3). Corporate partners, foundations and individual donors are the reason every seat is fully funded.

Partner with us

Three cohorts in.

Figures reflect the 2024, 2025 and 2026 cohorts.
3

Cohorts sent to Poland since 2024

75
+

Alumni in the leadership network

103

Applications for 26 seats in the 2026 cycle

5

Cities on the ground every year

What they say after.
2026 Cohort
“This has genuinely been so transformative and I wish that I had the opportunity to do this again every single year.”
2026 Cohort
Law, Government & Diplomacy
2026 Cohort
“I loved meeting all the alumni and seeing how Heritage Polonia really is like a family.”
2026 Cohort
Engineering, Science & Technology
2026 Cohort
“I loved it as it was my first time on a plane, and meeting the rest of the cohort is such a blessing.”
2026 Cohort
Medicine & Health Sciences

@heritagepolonia
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Applications close
November 30.

Ready now? Apply before November 30. Not ready yet? Join the Heritage Polonia mailing list for program news.

Apply now

Parents and school counselors are welcome to sign up too.