Stay open, stay curious, and let people surprise you.

Before a Model UN meeting one afternoon, a casual conversation in the Savoy library shifted everything. Dominik ’26 sat across from a Turkish student, half listening, assuming he already knew what was coming. "At first I subconsciously dismissed what he was saying, because I labeled him as a person with very strong hateful opinions about the Kurdish minority,” Dominik said.

As the discussion unfolded, he realized his assumptions were wrong. The argument wasn’t fueled by hostility but by evidence, context, lived experience. He caught himself: he had expected a stereotype to be confirmed. "What he was saying was not founded on hate. But rather on actual evidence.” It was a reminder he carries now; stay open, stay curious, let people surprise you.

That lesson runs through his life. He grew up in Tarnow, Poland, later moving to Kradow for high school, where he thrived in a rigorous academic environment. Admission to Leysin American School (LAS) opened the door to a broader world, one where he could begin shaping the questions he wanted to explore.

Part of that drive comes from watching how political radicalization can fracture families. “My father became politically radicalized. I've witnessed firsthand what that tangible political radicalization can do." His father’s shift toward extreme right-wing beliefs changed dynamics at home and contributed to his parents’ separation. Dominik speaks about it carefully. Understanding over judgment.

Navigating the relationship with his father has taught him patience: the slow work of staying connected to someone whose worldview grows further from your own. This is the root of his impulse not to dismiss people, even when their views feel impossible.

It guides how he engages with peers. At a party last summer, he found himself in a disturbing exchange when acquaintances repeated hateful narratives about the LGBTQ community. "They were spewing the most phobic stuff towards the entire LGBTQ community." Media distortion had shaped their perceptions, and the discussion required caution. "The entire thing felt like balancing on a tightrope with the void of hate on the one hand and the void of the complete lack of understanding on the other."

Instead of walking away, he stayed in the discomfort. He corrected misinformation and searched for the fear or confusion beneath the surface. One misplaced word and the exchange could collapse into hostility. Sometimes the progress is small, but even small shifts matter.

He channels that same instinct into civic work. He has organized United Nations-related conferences, represented Poland in European Parliament youth programs, and collaborated with members of the Polish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. In a political landscape where youth voices rarely shape policy, his presence at the table carries real weight. It's work he takes seriously. "I’m one of the people who represent the youth, working alongside the parliamentarians to bring the voice of the youth to the legislation process in the country." He values conversations grounded in evidence rather than fear.

Education, he believes, shapes how people talk to each other. Real change often starts locally, teaching young people to debate constructively and disagree without dehumanizing. Yet lasting progress requires top-down transformation too. "What I've been doing is a very bottom up approach. But what is necessary to create structural change is someone working not bottom up, but top down." This pushes him toward political science, toward understanding institutions alongside individuals.

A varied university education will be part of that path. “In America, you can take courses from social and political science to philosophy and psychology, which is unfortunately not possible in Poland." He wants a broader intellectual toolkit for navigating complex political systems.

For now, he is grounded here. LAS, he says, allows difficult conversations to happen. "What LAS does best is what it doesn't do; it doesn't interfere." This allows him to experiment with dialogue, leadership, and the quiet work of understanding people.

Dominik doesn’t know exactly where he’ll go next. No certainty about continent, university, future role. But he knows the kind of work he wants, and the patience it requires. Whether through debate, political engagement, or one more unexpected conversation in a library, he wants to help people see one another more clearly, starting with himself.

Ultimately, he wants to help mend fractured communities. "I've seen how these phenomena have torn apart communities on a personal, national and global level. My family, my friends, and my country deserve something better."

What began with learning to stay open and let people surprise him has become the shape of the work he wants to do next.