Wicker

9/17/02

class interview

A fiery personality coupled with unbridled ambition fuel Chris Cymbalak’s quest to make the world a smaller place.

Determined to get what he wants out of life, Cymbalak is driven to become a journalist, awaking others to the problems he sees around him. After elaborating on his career as a world-altering journalist, he adds filmstar to the list of career goals. Cymbalak sums up by saying, “Watch me-I will.”

While born in Charlotte and raised in Raleigh, you get the feeling that Cymbalak would not call North Carolina home. “My parents are both from Poland and I speak the language;” he states with pride, “I spend most of my summers there.”

Raised bilingual, Cymbalak was always conscious of life beyond US borders. Experiencing the contrast between life in Raleigh, NC and his family’s life in Koszalin, Poland, allowed him to see American as an outsider.

“We need to be more aware of the poverty in other countries,” Cymbalak states. “Seeing kids wear the same clothes to school everyday and here we throw around money.” Cymbalak explains that these countries know more about us than we do, and yet we know nothing about their small country.

America’s blindness to the world it dominates drives Cymbalak to tell America, and the rest of the world that they are not alone on this planet.

Cymbalak will undoubtingly make a difference.