Nicola Secci from our Faculty received the main prize in the Interstudent competition organised by the magazine Perspektywy. The chapter awarded him in the category of “Polish diaspora student.” Congratulations!

The winners of this year's Interstudent competition will receive their awards on Thursday evening during a formal gala at the Wieliczka Salt Mine. The event is part of the conference “Foreign Students in Poland” organised by the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland.

The jury of the competition, under the leadership of Prof. Marek Pawełczyk, the Chairman of the Commission for International Cooperation at the Conference of Rectors, awarded prizes in three main categories: bachelor's studies, master's studies, and doctoral studies (doctoral schools), as well as a new one: Polish diaspora student.

It was in this last category that Nicola Secci from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology was recognised.

Who is the laureate?

Nicola is currently studying in the third year of full-time first-cycle studies in Applied Computer Science in English at our Faculty.

He is a member of the Youth Polonia Council at the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland. He also chairs the Residents' Council at WUST Student Houses, a member of the Electoral Commission of WUST Students, and an Ambassador of WUST. He is a member of the Faculty Student Union Council, of the Faculty Committee for Assuring the Quality of Education Quality, and of the Faculty Council.

He actively works towards intercultural cooperation and for the local community, demonstrating his organisational skills, commitment to social projects, and desire to represent young people in areas important to them. He is the winner of the Dean's Award 2025 for the commitment and contribution to the development of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology at WUST. In 2023, he was among the laureates of the “Exceptionally Talented at Wrocław University of Science and Technology” programme.

For years, Nicola Secci has also been active in the Italian-Polish community and in promoting Poland abroad. He is a co-founder of the platform PoloniaToMy.pl, which aims to integrate Polish youth living abroad. As part of it, he co-organised, among others, the Congress of Polonia Youth in Italy.

Since the establishment of the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Cagliari, he has been supporting its operations by, among other things, organizing and conducting the first Polish election voting in Sardinia.

He is the originator and organiser of Italy's largest trade fair promoting Polish higher education “Studia in Polonia”, connecting Polish universities with prospective students from Italy. In recognition of this effort, in October 2025 he received the Pro Juvenes 2025 Student Environment Award in the “Studying with the World” category.

From Italy to Poland

– I was born in Sardinia, where I lived until I was 19 years old. I come from a Polish-Italian mixed family. My dad comes from Italy, and he met my mum in Poland during a trip. I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle; when I'm in Poland, I feel Italian, and when I'm in Italy, I feel more Polish – says our student.

During the pandemic, I started looking for a new challenge, and since I know Polish quite well and hold Polish citizenship, I decided it was time to finally get to know the country that I had mostly seen in books so far. I visited Poland quite rarely and only to stay with my mother's family in Cieszyn Silesia.

At high school, I was interested in programming, so I knew I wanted to study computer science. Browsing through international rankings, I quickly realised that my choice was limited to only two Polish universities: Wrocław University of Science and Technology and Warsaw University of Technology.

I chose Wrocław and I am very happy about it, because I think it is a very charming place.

Wrocław needs access to the sea

„First impression? We have a modern and beautiful campus. The city boasts great infrastructure, it is clean and has a well-functioning transportation system. I must admit that Italians still rely on an image of Poland from the 1990s. So I invite them to come over see for themselves how the country has changed. The are usually quite shocked.

I love Italy, but I consider Poland to be a more modern country, which has incredibly developed in the last 20 years. I also have an impression that the Italians are not making much progress. For example, studies in Poland are very different from what you learn in Italy. The emphasis there is on theory, while at WUST we have classes strongly focused on practical aspects. And that’s fantastic.

Furthermore, our university is so vibrant! It's not like you go to a lecture and then come back home, to cram from books. There are student research clubs, organizations, meetings, activities – something is always happening!

I highly value how hard-working Polish people are. There may be less expressiveness and talking, but you definitely do more. And that's good!

One thing I miss in Wrocław is the sea. In the end, I am from the island, and you don't have this sea climate here. Therefore, I am happy that there is the Odra in Wrocław – it's some kind of a sea substitute. The river offers wonderful views, and I especially enjoy looking at Ostrów Tumski.”

I’ll be still active

“What I enjoy the most in the world is being active and arranging things. Therefore even in my free time I engage in further projects.

For a while now, I have been volunteering for the organization AFS (American Field Service). We take care of high school students coming to Wrocław for an international exchange: we organize trainings, workshops, trips for them.

As a student, I do a lot of things at our university. For instance, I work in the student union. With a few other students, we carried out an in-depth analysis of all fields of study and presented it to the authorities.

I am also the chairman of the Residents' Council at WUST Student Houses. At Wittigowo, we do a lot of things, like movie nights. Above all, however, we organize events for new residents and help them settle in. We also have many ideas on how to further change our neighbourhood.

I was also the initiator and organizer of the largest trade fairs in Italy promoting Polish higher education "Studia in Polonia".

I was looking for an idea to connect Polish universities with prospective students from Italy, and since I love events organized at the C13 building of our university, such as job fairs or Student Activity Days, I came up with the idea to encourage the Polish diaspora members to study in Poland. It was a perfect idea, because the event proved to be a huge success and is being continued.

Recently, I have also been working in the newly established Youth Polonia Council at the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland. It was established to hear the voices of young Poles living abroad. I’m really happy about this initiative, because I really care to make it easier for our Polish diaspora abroad to study in their homeland. This is currently my biggest goal and challenge."