About PSO

Do you want to learn something about our Organization?

Here you will find some information about who we are,
what do we do and what our goals are.
 

The Polish Student Organization in New York (PSO) is a non-profit organization uniting Polish student clubs and communities at 16 colleges and universities in New York and New Jersey.

• Founded in 1991.
• Gained non-profit status in 1994.
• Reaches over 500 students at 16 schools in New York and New Jersey.
• Associated clubs include: Baruch College, College of Staten Island, Columbia University, Hunter College, Manhattan School of Music, Montclair State University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, NYU, Pace University, Polytechnic University, Princeton University, Rider University, Rutgers University, St. John's University, St. Francis College and SUNY Stony Brook.
• E-mail discussion list with over 200 subscribers.
• Web page (www.pso-usa.org) visited by about 15,000 people annually.
• Cooperation with the largest Polish language daily in America, "Nowy Dziennik" (circulation of 30,000), and with other Polish-American organizations (Polonia Technica, Central European Business Association).

One of the main goals of the organization is to integrate the Polish-American academic community in the greater New York area. Our activities include:

• Annual Student Balls, with over 300 guests each.
• Minimum three hiking trips a year, with 40 participants on average.
• Annual picnics co-sponsored with NJIT and Rutgers, with over 150 in attendance.
• Coordination of events sponsored by individual member clubs.
• Participation in the annual Pulaski Day Parade in New York, with over 150 representatives.
• Christmas and Easter parties at the Polish Consulate General in New York, co-organized with Polonia Technica, Central European Business Association, and other Polish-American organizations.

The other main statutory goal of the organization is to serve the Polish-American community, especially by disseminating information about higher education opportunities in the United States.

• We organized meetings with people interested in studying in the US; have held at least one such meeting every semester since 1992.
• In 1996 we started our web-page (www.pso-usa.org) with information about education in the USA.
• Since the fall of 1997 we have run an information hot-line at the "Nowy Dziennik" headquarters, answering questions about higher education in the United States; manned two two-hour sessions every week, answering on average 5 phone-calls per session.
• In the fall of 1997 and 1998 co-organized with Polonia Technica an all-day information session, "Studia 4U," at the Polish Consulate General in New York; the event drew over 300 participants, who came to learn about the secondary and higher education systems, financing education, visa issues etc. Guest speakers included admission officers from the City University of New York and Columbia University, and representatives from Citibank.
• In 1994 published a brief guide to the US higher education system (in Polish); sold over 3,000 copies. We are currently working on the second and expanded edition of the guide to US higher education, which is expected to be ready for publication by the end of the year.