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Alumnus Rafal Trzaskowski '91, current mayor of Warsaw to visit campus September 20
Rafał Trzaskowski, or "Ralph" as he was known to his friends in Coulter, will visit campus on Friday, September 20, speaking with students during the day and to families, alumni and special guests that evening. He has served as the Mayor of Poland’s capital since 2018. In 2020, he was the democratic opposition’s candidate for the Presidency of Poland and came in a close second. Along with mayors of other European cities, Trzaskowski has played an important role in the Ukrainian refugee crisis, with Poland finding ways to accommodate two million Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Trzaskowski will interact with students at both the upper and middle schools that Friday, and he will speak at Kingswood auditorium at 6:30 p.m. that evening before an audience of Cranbrook Schools parents, alumni and special guests.
Born in Warsaw, Trzaskowski worked in an election office as a translator as a teenager when a group of U.S. congressional delegates visited. His linguistic skills and poise caught the attention of a Michigan representative, who encouraged him to consider coming to Cranbrook for his senior year. After his graduation from Cranbrook, he studied international relations and English philology at the University of Warsaw. He subsequently graduated in European studies from the College of Europe in Natolin (1997). He was granted a scholarship at the Oxford University in 1996 as well as the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris in 2002. In 2004, he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in political science at the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Journalism and Political Science. He has served as an elected official in Poland since 2009.
Prior to his arrival at Cranbrook, Trzaskowski will deliver the Annual Copernicus Lecture at University of Michigan's Center for Polish Studies.