Stephen Mizwa came to the United States in 1909, aged about 17. His first goal was to reach
Northampton, Massachusetts, where an earlier Polish immigrant, Joseph Stonina, lived. Though accepted at
Princeton University, Mizwa entered
Amherst College, which granted him a full scholarship. In 1920 he graduated
cum laude and
Phi Beta Kappa, and the following year he received a master's degree from
Harvard University. In 1921, aged 29, he became an assistant professor of economics at
Drake University. In 1923, at the request of the Polish government, Dr. Mizwa organized the Polish American Scholarship Committee, among the first exchange programs with renascent
Poland. Five of the first eight students sponsored by the program came to the United States to study
business administration and
economics at prestigious American universities. The Polish American Scholarship Committee was the embryo of the
Kosciuszko Foundation subsequently established in 1925, a scholarly and
cultural institution that Mizwa would head for several decades. When Mizwa gained financial support from
Samuel M. Vauclain, president of the
Baldwin Locomotive Works, which had sold locomotives to Poland, the fledgling foundation was well launched. ==Works==