Paweł Bartosik

It is with great sorrow that we received the news that a prominent member of the Natolinian community – Mr Paweł Bartosik – passed away on 10 March 2021. Paweł graduated from the Jagiellonian University, and also held Master’s degrees from McGill University and Chulalongkorn University. He spent many years teaching French at the French Institute in Warsaw and began teaching French at the College of Europe in Natolin in 2008. In 2011, he served as the first ever Natolin Digital Media Manager and shortly after he set up the Natolin Communications and Languages Office, which he led until 2013. In the meantime, he developed the Natolin Language Department, which grew under his guidance up to offering language classes in 8 different languages. He always insisted that a good teacher is not just a language expert but someone who adopts a complex, humanistic approach to their students and to the process of teaching. Nowadays, the Natolin Languages and Intercultural Dialogue Office owes its conception to Paweł Bartosik and still relies on a team of professionals assembled by him. Since 2016, he had taken on the role of Head of Development for Asia. In truth, Asia had always been on Paweł’s mind and he was actively engaged in building ties between that part of the world and Europe throughout his whole career at the College of Europe in Natolin, extending a total of 13 years. Paweł was a creative, searching type who embraced the future with optimism, who looked for complex answers to seemingly simple questions, who always tried to raise the bar higher and higher and served as the driving force behind many challenging projects. He will continue to serve as a source of motivation and inspiration to seek development and new paths. He has now departed on another, albeit eternal journey. He will be greatly missed by all his Natolin friends.