Krzysztof Cyganik
Myself Third Spirit of New York 2005 Scholarship Winner
Newcomers High School
LaGuardia Community College
"As a student, Kris was impressive in his command of the English language, sensitivity to the subject matter and frequent class participation. … Beyond the classroom, I have really gotten to know Krzysztof through his assignment in my office. In this capacity Kris has shown extreme responsibility and I have been extremely impressed with his initiative to create and maintain a school website and take charge of a school newsletter which he creates monthly."
—Anne Kornfeld, College Counselor
Work, Volunteer, and Extra-Curricular Activities
- Webmaster and Designer, Newcomers High School website
- Webmaster, Polish-NY.com (Internet portal for the Polish community in New York)
- Member, Student Government
Excerpts from Krzysztof's Essay
After school, I do my own community service for Polish people—immigrants who need help to accommodate their new living conditions. I am the initiator, webmaster and owner of the Internet portal for the Polish people in New York (Polish-NY.com). This website is fully dedicated to those in the Polish community who live in the tri-state area. The idea about the creation of such a big website came from my observation of the society that lives in "Polish" neighborhoods such as Greenpoint, Maspeth, and Ridgewood. Once I realized that the level of quality of information about important matters such as American law, immigration, current events, education, institutions and customs among people from my country is very low, I decided to change it.
As a result, after a few months of hard work, a web of information was collected in one place. However, that was only the first part of the success. The dissemination of the website?s existence took me even more time than I spent on the website production. The reward that I receive for spending about 5-6 hours weekly on updating the portal are emails and posts on the portal?s forum where people write about how useful it is. They appreciate the important and honest information that is provided on the website. Every time I receive an email that contains such gratitude, it makes me proud that the service that I do is meaningful to both myself and others.
