Starting this fall, the J. Słowacki Polish School in Seattle has a new principal. Maria Grabowska, who has led the school since 2014, has retired and Milena Dickens accepted the position. Thank you, Marysia, for your gentle leadership and especially for keeping the school running during the pandemic. The Polish community is grateful to you!

Milena was born and raised in Poland and is a professional educator. She is actually both an educator and an engineer. She obtained her M.A. in Education with specialization in Social Rehabilitation with Judicial Work from the Old Polish University in Kielce, Poland and an Engineering diploma at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology, also in Kielce, with specialization in industrial design. She arrived in the United States in 2018 and settled in the Seattle area. She is married and has a 2-year old daughter.

Milena continues her professional education here as a postgraduate student of E-Learning Instructional Design at the University of Washington in Seattle and also of Applied Behavioral Analysis at the California State University in San Marcos. She currently works with children and teenagers in a clinic on Mercer Island as a therapist and behavioral analyst treating patients afflicted with the autism spectrum disorder. She also works at a preschool in Burien.

Milena has been teaching at the Polish School in Seattle since 2019. She decided to take over the school to continue the long tradition of Polish education at the Polish Cultural Center Dom Polski. She also teaches Polish as a second language at the school. The torch has been passed to the new generation – thank you, Milena, and good luck! We wish you successes at this important post!

More: Milena Dickens can be contacted at [email protected]