With almost 40 million people in Poland and more than 10 million Polish Americans, Polish continues to be an important world language. Poland has contributed to world culture and civilization in almost every area, and the tradition of sustaining a rich cultural life is reflected in the output by Polish painters and musical composers and in the number of Nobel prizes for literature won by Polish citizens, including Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905), Wladyslaw Reymont (1924), Czeslaw Milosz (1980), and Wislawa Szymborska (1996).

The Polish program is intended to train students in the spoken and written language and to deepen their knowledge of and interest in the literature, history and culture of Poland.