Exploring Strategies for Cross-Cultural Innovation in Krakόw, Poland

In Kraków, we ate a lot of zapiekanki. Half a baguette, toasted, mushrooms and cheese, then whatever you put on top. I kept coming back to the same image as I watched my students work through a real problem for Heretto, UNCW Teamship, and Teamship.

Teamship is about getting to the bread.

Too often, when we try to solve problems, we fiddle with the toppings, more software, a new tool, a different process, when the base underneath isn't strong yet.

Pile enough toppings on weak bread and it collapses in your hand.

What the students did this week was harder than picking toppings.

They sat with the problem.

They listened to their business partner say "I'm not even sure the problem is what it looks like," and they took that seriously.

They argued, they got stuck, they tried again.

By Friday they were handing their partner something he could actually test out in real life, because they'd done the slow work of toasting the bread first.

Congrats to all the University of North Carolina Wilmington students that landed a great pitch on Friday!

This years' study abroad started off like we always do ... a tour of Old Town, but lingered longer to explore the nooks and crannies of Kazimierz.

Kazimierz is Kraków's old Jewish quarter, named for King Kazimierz the Great, and for centuries it was the center of Jewish life in Poland.

You can still find the old synagogues tucked between buildings, but the streets around them now hold cafés, galleries, vintage shops, and all kinds of music drifting out of open doors.

My professional writing students went to an AI meetup in Kraków expecting to be completely lost. Instead, they heard what I've been saying over and over again.

We got lucky ... during our study abroad a content community called Content Bytes ran a session on how AI agents actually read content.

Olga Stefaniuk talked about how an AI agent doesn't read like a person. It pulls your content in fragments, converts it, and retrieves the closest match it can find.

Whatever structure you built into the source is what survives the trip. That's what Urzula Szuberska reiterated.

Clear headings. Self-contained sections. Questions phrased the way people actually ask them.

We've treated these as style preferences for years. When the first reader is a machine, they become the line between content that works and content that quietly fails.

The skills we teach aren't obsolete ... they are more important than ever.

A great way to kick off our study abroad!

Some people have exams on finals week. We launch a design thinking cycle with Heretto and UNCW Teamship. See you in Poland soon!

The page for Kraków 2026 is up! See the best Europe has to offer, a global internship experience, and a 8 fantastic meals.

Get your preview here:

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Across Cultures Kraków, Poland

Despite two weeks of rain and clouds, we made it to the top of Krakus Mound on our final evening in Kraków.

This ancient burial mound, dating back to the 7th century, has become our sacred ritual—climbing to the top to watch the sun set behind this incredible city.

Of course, this was the year I forgot to pack an umbrella. But when you're determined to honor tradition, you make do with what you have—in this case, the UNCW English Department flag as a very stylish poncho!

Rain or shine, there's something magical about standing on this 16-meter-high earthwork, looking out over the Vistula River and the city that's been our home these past two weeks.

Some traditions are worth getting a little wet for. Until next year, Kraków!

You know you've got a good tour guide when he says, "I'm the only guide in Krakow with the key."

Meet Kamil Różański our amazing new guide who showed us hidden corners of Kraków that most visitors never see.

A Jagiellonian University graduate, Kamil brings both scholarly depth and pure entertainment to every tour—including magic tricks that somehow make Polish history even more captivating.

This year, Kamil unlocked two extraordinary places for our students:

1️⃣ Mordechaj Gebirtig's Birthplace

Behind an unassuming door at Berka Joselewicza 5, we discovered a basement memorial to a self-taught Jewish composer whose songs became anthems of resistance during the Holocaust.

Gebirtig lived his entire life in Kraków's Jewish quarter, creating powerful music that reflected his community's experiences. His song "Es brent" ("It is burning") warned of coming danger and still echoes through history.

Though he was killed by the N***s in 1942, his legacy as the voice of his people endures ... and you'll hear his music walking by an unassuming window on Berka Joselewicza street.

2️⃣ Wyspiański Pavilion

Here we stood before three stunning stained glass windows that tell the story of life, death, and Polish identity.

Stanisław Wyspiański designed these works in 1900, but they were too radical for church authorities and rejected for Wawel Cathedral.

Over a century later, they finally came to life in glass, featuring monumental figures from Polish history rendered in Wyspiański's bold, modernist style.

Kamil's passion for storytelling and his access to these special places made our exploration of Kraków unforgettable.

(And yes, his magic tricks really do make medieval history more memorable!)

"There is no God … just pork knuckle."

This is what a restaurant owner told my Polish colleague when he gasped "oh my god" at seeing a massive roasted pork knuckle arrive at his table.

On its face, this may seem sacrilegious. But I think there's a profound lesson about connection and culture.

Eating meals together is how we truly experience each other—and perhaps something sacred in the process.

Eating together is a feature of most, if not all, religious traditions.

This year in Kraków, our group meals were a key component of our design thinking teamship with Hitachi Energy and District C.

The trust built over shared pierogi directly translated into stronger collaboration during our design thinking workshops.

That's why I keep adding more group meals each year.

Being a team isn't about sharing workspace. It's about creating moments of psychological safety over bowls of żurek soup and allowing genuine human connection happens.

Some of the most important learning doesn't happen in the classroom—it happens around the dinner table, where cultures meet and community forms one meal at a time.

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For those who've experienced Teamship at UNCW, you know how this reimagined internship transforms students.

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