To See the Light
Jerzy Juzoń, a graduate of the Silesian University of Technology, started a foundation that financially supports first-year students. He managed to finish his studies in the difficult 1950s thanks to a scholarship, so after achieving professional success, he decided to share his fortune. The Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation (FEJJ) has already helped over 5,000 young people during its 12 years of operation, and his story inspires action.
In October 1951, the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice inaugurated its seventh academic year. The university already had five faculties - a year earlier, in addition to chemical, electrical, engineering and construction and mechanical, a mining faculty was established. More buildings were being built in the university district, the press reported scientists' research successes and the number of students was constantly growing. 19-year-old Jerzy Juzoń from Skarżysko, together with nearly 500 students, started studying at the Faculty of Chemistry. Like his peers, he was affected by painful experiences from the recently ended World War II. For his generation, higher education was a ticket to a better life, which they wanted to build anew after the trauma of the war. Despite the difficult 1950s, when everything was scarce, there was enthusiasm and hunger for knowledge among students, which Lviv professors were trying to satisfy. The young student Jerzy had classes with, among others, an outstanding chemist, Prof. Wiktor Jakób.
– It was a professor who was very strict and demanding, it was very difficult to pass his exam, most of us took it several times – recalls Jerzy Juzoń. – Once, my friend Czarek and I were literally 2 minutes late. In the building at Strzody Street there was a long corridor divided by a door, which was shut in our faces. My friend was very resourceful, he talked me into trying to get inside through the window, and that's what we did. We waited nervously outside the professor's room. After fifteen minutes, a surprised professor appeared in the doorway. because when he started the exam with other students he didn't see us. We admitted to both being late and the way we entered. The professor took our course books and gave us credit for the subject without examination, saying that students were afraid to come to him through the door, so if we came through the window, it meant we had to be well prepared.
We are talking in Warsaw at the headquarters of the Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation, which our graduate founded in 2012 to financially support - exclusively from private wealth - poor students from rural areas and small towns. Mr. Jerzy, who will be ninety-two this year, impresses with his fitness, cordiality, excellent memory and positive energy. It's hard to believe how he was experienced by difficult life years ago.
– I was born into a family that was doing well, but everything was ruined by the war. My father belonged to the Association of the White Eagle, the first underground military organization, and at the beginning of 1940 he was arrested and shot. We were thrown out of the apartment and placed in a barracks with no water, no sewage system, nothing. As a little boy, I sometimes went to school barefoot in the winter, and there was probably not a day when I wasn't hungry. I managed to finish primary school and later pass my secondary school leaving exam thanks to the help of my family. These difficult living conditions made me determined to complete studies that would allow me to live differently.
He chose chemical technology at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice because he wanted to work in the chemical industry. Studying came easily to him, but it was difficult for him to make ends meet, he had to work physically reloading coal and other goods. After the first year, when he received a scholarship for good academic results, his financial situation improved. It was then that the idea of repaying the opportunity in the future began to emerge.
photo: archive of the Silesian University of Technology, 1950s. of the twentieth century.
– My dad always said that if it weren't for this scholarship, he wouldn't have finished his studies. He promised himself that if he succeeds in life, he will help others, says Aleksandra Sierakowska, who is part of the team of the Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation. – My father's life story is a bit of an "American dream", he achieved great success, now he shares what he got. This foundation was his dream.
In 1955, Jerzy Juzoń completed his first-cycle studies at the Silesian University of Technology, specializing in "Great Organic Synthesis". He did not decide to take up master's studies immediately due to the difficult financial situation of his mother, whom he wanted to support (he would obtain a master's degree later, in the 1960s at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology). The work order that was then applicable to all graduates sent him to the Nadodrzańskie Zakłady Przemysłu Organicznego "Rokita" in Brzeg Dolny. It was a large factory, transformed after taking over a plant producing war gases on Hitler's orders, tested, among others, on concentration camp prisoners. Within a dozen or so years after the end of World War II, "Rokita" became one of the leading chemical industry plants in Poland, producing compounds for civilian and public purposes. Jerzy Juzoń worked there for 24 years, moving from the lowest to the highest position - general director of the plant. At the age of fifty-nine, he founded a private company and later two more. From the money from their sale, the Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation awards approximately four hundred scholarships annually, each worth PLN 6,000.
Jerzy Juzoń with the foundation team. From left: Katarzyna Parczewska, Elżbieta Gajewska,
Aleksandra Sierakowska, Anna Łaniecka-Juzoń, Julia Sierakowska, photo. StudioRyba
I don't need to have more, that's how my parents raised me, in the spirit of respect for people, work, striving for new goals, to help others. I want to help young Poles whose lives are not going well, just like I once did. Higher education is necessary for humanity to move forward, education is the absolute basis. We are giving them this first scholarship so that they can see that they have light and great opportunities ahead of them, explains the founder.
– I am very proud of my grandfather and what he managed to create – says Julia Sierakowska, responsible for communication at the foundation. – At the origins of our foundation is the belief in education and that education changes our lives. We want to equalize the opportunities of people from smaller towns and villages in access to higher education. They have to overcome an additional barrier - moving and staying in a larger city. It is especially difficult for them in the first year of studies, when they start a different way of learning. Our scholarship allows them to take away the financial burden so they can focus on their studies.
– I don't feel like a philanthropist, but I get great satisfaction, and thanks to meetings with our scholarship recipients, I know that we have truly wonderful young people. Our financial support will not cover everything, it's just a fishing rod - says Mr. Jerzy.
The Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation tries to maintain constant contact with its scholarship holders. They meet twice a year, share their successes and pains, and learn about Mr. Jerzy's story. His attitude makes a huge impression on young people, as evidenced by letters and moving entries in commemorative albums.
– Our scholarship recipients tell us that my dad is a role model for them, they write thanks. This is very moving, especially in times of lack of authorities, says Aleksandra Sierakowska. – After a few years, one of them paid PLN 10,000 to the foundation's account, writing in the transfer title that he once received support from us, and now he wants to transfer it to others.
Scholarship holders of the Jerzy Juzoń Educational Foundation also include students and graduates of the Silesian University of Technology. Everyone agrees that the scholarship made it easier for them to adapt to the first year of studies, allowed them to worry less about bills and focus more on learning. One of the students wrote that, inspired by Mr. Jerzy's story, he understood how important it is to share success and help others to build a better future together.
