Scholars enhance UWC life - United World College of South East Asia

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Dunia
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MICA (P) 194/01/2010 April 2010
Scholars enhance UWC life
National Committee scholars sometimes get away together for short trips. Pictured here are 34 NCs in Tioman
over the recent March break for a weekend of studies and fun. Photo by Gabriel
Abad
This issue of Dunia focuses on our scholarship
programme. In addition to Julian
Whiteley’s column, you can read about
the scholarship programme in general
and hear from a National Committee
scholar, who is now a UWCSEA parent
giving his personal views on the ’78
alumni scholarship effort.
The last article is from the perspective
of teachers who assist in the difficult
process of choosing a scholar from Aceh
who will attend UWCSEA for three years,
starting in FIB.
UWCSEA Scholarship Programme
“Let them (the sons of the wealthy and
powerful) share their experiences of an
enthralling school life with the sons and
daughters of those who have to struggle for
their existence.”
Music
Pages 5-6
Sports
Pages 16-20
Infant School
Pages 21-25
Junior School
Pages 26-32
This quote epitomizes Kurt Hahn’s grand
vision of establishing an educational programme
that promotes a more peaceful
and sustainable world. Hahn understood
the need to bring together children from
diverse cultural, social, economic and
political backgrounds in order to create a
shared understanding of the challenges
that face the world. From this philosophy
the UWC movement was formed and the
scholarship programme enshrined as one
of its core components.
Although there is not one single UWC
model, the majority of scholarships are
awarded to students who attend a UWC
for the final two years of school, prior to
attending university. Students apply to
the National Committee in their country of
origin and are selected on their promise
and potential to make a significant positive
impact. The National Committees are
Middle School
Pages 33-35
High School
Pages 36-39
Parents Association
Page 40
SEALinks
Page 41
responsible for advertising the scholarships
nationally and for conducting a
rigorous selection process, one effectively
described by Enzo, our graduating
Peruvian scholar;
Participating in an unforgettable fivestage
selection process was something
more difficult than what I expected. At the
same time, it was awesome to meet people
from my age that came literally from
all the corners of my country: Peru. Just
in the selection process I learnt a vast
number of things about my country and
how differently people think despite all
being Peruvian. Writing essays, personal
interviews, debates, camping days, presentations,
art performances and other
things were part of the selection process I
participated in. Since the beginning, I was
extremely nervous because all the applicants
deserved to get a scholarship but
at the same time I felt extremely happy
to meet people that were so passionate
about the UWC ideals.
UWCSEA is able to offer approximately
25, two-year, Senior School scholarships
per year. Demand always exceeds our
ability to award new places, so countries
are offered scholarships on rotation; the
aim is always to have a balance from
each continent. Twenty scholarships are
funded from a small percentage of fee income,
with further scholarships awarded
when additional funds are available. The
College is grateful to contributions from
National Committees, other foundations,
corporations and donations from individual
alumni and parents, who continue to
support the scholarship programme.
Alumni
Pages 42-43
The Calendar
Page 44
Continued on next page

Dunia, April 2010
2
Letter from the head
Scholars have been an integral part
of the UWC movement since Atlantic
College was founded in 1962 with just
over 100 students. Forty-eight years
later the UWC movement awards over
1,000 scholarships annually to students
to attend one of the 13 Colleges. The
students are selected by the National
Committees based in over 120 countries
worldwide: the National Committees are
comprised of volunteers including UWC
alumni, education professionals and community
leaders who all subscribe to the
UWC mission and ethos.
We are fortunate to have almost 50
scholars at UWCSEA who come from
diverse backgrounds. They come from
Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and Peru;
from Ethiopia, Swaziland, Sierra Leone,
Zimbabwe and Kenya; from East Timor,
Cambodia, India and Aceh to name but
a few countries. Their backgrounds are
such that they bring with them an extraordinary
range of experiences that greatly
enriches the lives of the other students.
As the College expands over the coming
years with the opening of the East Campus
at Tampines, it is our aspiration that
by 2020 we will have over 200 scholars:
this is part of the reason why we established
the UWCSEA Foundation two
years ago. This will enable us to extend
our geographic reach. Closer to home,
we are also delighted to have been granted
special dispensation by the MoE to
admit a limited number of Singaporean
scholars into Grade 11. The first of such
scholars will be admitted to the College in
August 2011.
We are extremely privileged to have the
scholars in our midst and they are one
of the reasons why UWCSEA is not just
another international school.
Julian Whiteley
Continued from previous page
In recent years the College has been
able to offer a small number of three- and
five-year scholarships to Grade 8 and
10 students from Cambodia, East Timor
and Banda Aceh. These scholarships are
awarded to exceptional students who,
despite spending their formative years in
extremely disadvantaged circumstances,
have demonstrated the potential to make
a significant positive impact in their respective
communities.
One of the aims of the UWCSEA Foundation
is to promote additional support for
the scholarship programme. We are
already very grateful to a number of our
alumni, parents of current students and
parents of our alumni who have made
gifts and pledges to support additional
scholarships. The Foundation will launch
a more formal framework to provide all
community members with the opportunity
to become involved with this initiative
early in the next academic year.
The giving and receiving cycle.......alumni scholars
Class of 1978 at their 30-year reunion, held in August 2008
A UWC student is privileged but there
is a responsibility that comes with this
privilege. Like life, you receive and you
give and I believe the UWC experience
starts from the first trip up the driveway
but lasts forever. I really do believe that
the experience shapes one’s life and that
it doesn’t stop when you graduate. I continue
to be enriched by the students, my
alumni friends and what the school does
with its unwavering mission of international
understanding and social commitment.
It’s like a beacon of hope when the
world is faltering.
Ultimately the effectiveness of the UWC
scholarship model will be judged on its
ability to educate individuals who can
translate our mission into reality. We
are actively collecting the stories of the
impact of our scholarship students and
these are posted on the alumni website
http://alumni.uwcsea.edu and in Dunia.
If you would like to learn more about
any aspect of the UWCSEA scholarship
programme please go to the Foundation
website - http://foundation.uwcsea.edu.
sg.
Dave Shepherd
Like life, one gets out of it what one
puts in.....the school very successfully
preaches “involvement”. Students have
the opportunity to excel academically, in
sport or the arts. Furthermore, they can
be strong all-rounders. No one comes
out believing in mediocrity and that’s why
I like it. The philosophy is one of saying
Dunia is published by United World College of
South East Asia. Reproduction in any manner in
English or any other language is prohibited without
written consent. Please send feedback to
dunia@uwcsea.edu.sg
Editor Joy Stevenson Sub Editor
Kate Woodford Layout Lenca Yew
www.uwcsea.edu.sg
Continued on next page

Continued from previous page
yes to challenges, reaching beyond one’s
limitations and in a setting of international
mixing and cultural harmony.
In creating a scholarship, our 1978
alumni continued this cycle of receiving
and giving. We all see that we have given
an opportunity to a young girl from Africa
but this is only a fraction of the deal! On
the giving side we have also added to
the school diversity with a special student
from a continent underrepresented in the
school population. This gives to the whole
school congregation. Of equal importance
though is that we have given the
gift of encouragement to all who commit
to the school and its ideals; all of us are
potential future supporters of school endeavours.
One can never underestimate
the significance that is support and belief.
A bunch of 50-year-olds from all over the
world getting a Kenyan girl to UWCSEA
30 years after they all left is a message
that is nothing short of very special.
So what do we receive? I have always
believed that the $60k required annually
for a scholarship should be shared by
the alumni group. While it could surely be
covered by wealthy individuals, an alumni
group receive more if it is a team effort.
Our group knows our scholar by name
and photo and receives correspondence.
Several have met her and enjoyed
her company. We get to relive our own
school moments.....at least I do, maybe
for others it’s just something else to email
about! Whatever - it’s a warm feeling
knowing that we continue to be a part of
the receiving and giving cycle for what we
all know is the mission that shaped our
own lives.
At the request of his family and alumni
friends, we have dedicated our giving to
the memory of Rajiv Sachdev. Rajiv’s
passing was sad for all of us. Our special
alumni contribution to the school is now
made even more special for us.
Dale Fisher (NC scholar from Australia
to UWCSEA,1978 and a parent of three
girls at Dover Campus)
Choosing the Acehnese Scholar
The province of Aceh in Indonesia
has undergone a transformation
since the devastating earthquake
and tsunami in 2004. Known for
a long history of civil unrest and
violence, the tsunami brought the
world to Aceh in a humanitarian
role. One year after the disaster,
many of the NGOs and even
teachers at UWCSEA wondered
and feared about the political
future of Aceh. Would civil unrest
return or would the heroism and
humanity that followed the devastation
forever change Aceh for the better?
Dunia, April 2010
UWC is inherently about making the world a better place. So when selecting our
Acehnese scholar the defining quality we look for is someone who will work to make
Aceh better given their experiences at UWCSEA. This is a rather intangible quality and
difficult to define. So to start we look at the mundane things like academic performance
and ability to work in English. From the hundreds of applicants we receive, the Indonesian
UWC National Committee help us to select ten finalists who will then be interviewed
and tested by a panel of UWC teachers and the National Committee. During
the interview process we ask questions about the students’ interests and their involvement
in their community. We ask these questions not only to gauge their personality,
but also their knowledge of world affairs, politics and events in Indonesia. Being a student
at UWCSEA is about so much more than academics and we only accept students
with a strong awareness of the world outside the classroom.
The teachers involved in the selection process are also keenly aware that the transition
from living at home in Aceh to boarding at UWCSEA is a huge shift in language,
academic demands and culture. Thus, we also need to be certain that the student
will have the emotional capacity to handle this shift. To this end we supplement the
interviews with visits to the family and also speak to the parents of the candidates. This
is done not only to gain a better understanding of the candidate but also to ensure that
the successful candidate will have the full support of the family, which is so necessary
in times of difficulty or homesickness. It is also true to say that the UWCSEA teachers
draw upon their experience as educators, alongside their intuitive sense of who would
make a good ‘UWC kid’.
Thus far our selection process has yielded five fantastic scholars who have wholeheartedly
taken on the UWC values and perform valuable service and volunteer work
every time they go back to Aceh. The scholarship selection process is a huge responsibility
for all concerned; from the sponsors of this scholarship, Trafigura Foundation
and UWCSEA, to the interviewers and the candidates and their families. Every time we
award a scholarship, we are very aware that we will change a life forever and this is an
exciting possibility filled with enormous responsibility.
Stefan Merchant and Susan Edwards
3

Dunia, April 2010
4
Little did I realise back in the 1990s
when planning our first OPUS
concert at the Victoria Concert Hall
just how far this concert format would develop.
Originally the OPUS concept was
to allow our senior ensembles the opportunity
to play in an acoustic setting more
fitting to their abilities than that which
is available on campus. Anyone, of the
1,300 strong audience, that witnessed
OPUS 2010 at the Esplanade Concert
Hall on Tuesday, 9 March will be able to
tell you that OPUS is now far more than
that! The OPUS concert has taken on a
life of its own and the tradition of featuring
excellence in music making from all
parts of the College and both campuses
is one that was brilliantly maintained this
year.
To put this all in some perspective it is
worth noting that the Esplanade Concert
Hall is truly a world-class venue. That our
young musicians not only play there but
actually perform as if they belong there
is testament to their considerable talent,
dedication and hard work.
Staging a show at the Esplanade requires
our students to work with professional
staging, lighting and sound crew. As
well as experiencing the thrill of performing
in such a venue, the students get to
see just how much effort and complexity
is involved in staging a professional
concert, from the constant changes of
acoustic settings to the placement of
microphones, monitors and lighting. Staging
such a show is only possible with the
input of a vast array of staff and parent
help and support. The Music Department
staff would like to express their sincere
thanks to everyone who contributed to
the success of this year’s OPUS concert.
The concert itself included highlight
upon highlight. The Jazz Band, directed
by Miles Tranter, opened with ‘Feather
Report’ a laid-back jazz fusion tune
which featured Ward Seeger on tenor
saxophone. Ken Yoneda, playing his final
OPUS concert, was the soloist in ‘When
Sunny Gets Blue’. Ken has developed
into a brilliant young saxophonist and
looks to have a bright future in music
ahead of him once he has completed his
IB exams in May. The Jazz Band closed
with ‘Sister Sadie’ written by jazz great
Horace Silver. This high-energy swing
tune was a fitting climax to the Jazz
Band’s performance.
The next segment of the concert was
dedicated to the College’s enormous
range of vocal talents. Arioso, under the
direction of Michel Fox, gave energetic
performances of three songs; ‘She’s Out
of My Life’, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’
and ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’. There
were beautiful solos from Maya Davidov,
Ginger Mayo, Jessica Ng, Joshua Lutian,
Fiona Fussi, Hannah Shepherd, Isabel
Neve and Raunak Agnihotri.
The East Campus was ably represented
by the East Campus Global Voices who
gave charming performances of two
songs; ‘Heal the World’ and ‘So Long,
Farewell’ under the expert direction of
Maggie Hess. Samantha Francis (Clarinet)
and Tim Seeger (violin) provided
the instrumental interludes in the latter
song. Winnie Lin then directed the Junior
Singers in ‘Hope is a Hidden Star’ and
the much loved ‘This Little Light of Mine’.
All of our younger vocalists produced a
beautiful tone and a wonderful sense of
joy in their singing.
To conclude the first half it was the turn
of our senior choirs. Firstly, Singers,
directed by Helen Rhodes with Michel
Fox at the piano, sang ‘Cantar’, ‘Fields
of Gold’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High
Enough’. This was followed by Karen
Niedermeyer’s Cantabile who sang an
OPUS
extraordinarily demanding repertoire.
Worthy of special note was the wonderful
‘Lux Aeterna’. Based on ‘Nimrod’ from
Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’, this arrangement
demands supreme vocal skill as it
splits into eight separate parts without
any instrumental accompaniment.
After the interval, Ros Lillywhite directed
the Orchestra in Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’
from his ‘Rodeo’ and the ‘Waltz’ from
Shostakovich’s ‘Jazz Suite No.2’. Following
this Helen Rhodes conducted the
‘Fantasia on Greensleeves’ by Vaughan
Williams. The ethereal orchestration was
expertly managed and highlighted the
exquisite harp playing of Aysha Kureishi.
The reflective flute and oboe solos were
delivered with panache by Maymay Liu
and Anisa Kurieshi respectively.
Symphonic Band was next on stage. I

2010
originally composed their first piece, ‘Toccata
Singapura’, for the Singapore Wind
Symphony’s performance at the 2001
World Music Contest in Kerkrade, Netherlands.
It was my privilege to conduct
our young musicians in what was an outstanding
reading of this challenging work.
I’d like to take this opportunity to give
my thanks to them all for their wonderful
playing and musicianship.
The High School Percussion Ensemble
once again amazed us with their ensemble
playing. Indeed, the performance of
Lynn Glassock’s ‘Teamwork’ proved to
be an apt choice by the ensemble’s director,
Carl Jenkins.
As the clock ticked past 10pm the
Symphonic Band launched into the
penultimate item giving a crowd-pleasing
performance of the 1970s hit ‘Music’ by
John Miles. The lyrics, ‘Music was my
first love, and it will be my last. Music of
the future and music of the past’, captured
the mood of the evening perfectly.
Justin Ismael Lutian, Jae Won Choi and
Kenny Lee were the vocal soloists. Our
very own ‘Three Tenors’.
The Grand Finale featured the combined
vocal talents of the Arioso, Singers and
Cantabile accompanied by the Symphonic
Band in a performance of the powerful
‘Dies Irae’ from Verdi’s ‘Requiem’. If you
missed the show you might like to have a
look at some of the ‘unofficial’ videos that
have been posted on YouTube since the
event!
Adrian Hill
Photos by Phil Date
Dunia, April 2010
Global Voices reflections
Global Voices choir members
reflected on their experience
participating in OPUS as an
East Campus choir for the
first time:
‘This was the experience
that let the soul out of me.’
Vincent Smithangura
‘It was one of the most
exciting and memorable
experiences of my life.’
Cara Jenkins
‘It was a once in a lifetime
experience and I’m grateful
to have participated in it.’
Pranav Gurusankar
‘This may be my first and
last time performing in
the Esplanade, but I will
always remember it.’
Lucas Kua
‘It was such a wonderful
night and I never knew that
the applause would be so
loud.’
Monica Lee
‘Performing in the Esplanade
was an honor and I
will never forget it.’
Aditi Poovaiah
5

Dunia, April 2010
6
ENCORE!
The Main Hall resounded to the sounds
of our intermediate music ensembles
on Saturday, 20 March. The capacity
audience was treated to a wide range of
entertaining music presented with energy
and enthusiasm by our younger musicians.
The featured ensembles largely
comprised of students from the Middle
School together with some Upper and
Junior School musicians.
The concert was hosted by Grade
12 students, Aliena Haig and Indiana
Sutanto, who seamlessly introduced the
musical numbers. ‘Encore!’ began with
two Javanese Court melodies performed
on the College’s Javanese gamelan by
the Middle School Gamelan Ensemble.
Adorned in traditional costumes the musicians
looked and sounded spectacular
as they presented ‘Cilolo’ and ‘Majemuk’
under the direction of Helen Rhodes, our
resident gamelan guru.
The Guitar Ensemble presented The
Cranberries famous song ‘Zombie’ in a
special arrangement made by the ensemble’s
director, Stefan Merchant. The
guitarists gave a slick performance and
had the audience tapping their feet along
to their lively playing.
After this the Intermediate Jazz Ensemble
wowed the crowd with their renditions of
four upbeat tunes; ‘Blues for Mr. Bump’,
the Count Basie classic ‘Jumpin’ at the
Woodside’, ‘Bop!’ and ‘Frimmin’ at the
Jim Jam’. Improvised solos were given
by; Keshav Pant (tenor saxophone), Rajeev
Sanjeev (trombone), Naoto Mulligan
(alto saxophone), Josh Kim (alto saxophone),
Dipro Bhowmik (guitar), Andew
Liu (trumpet) and Patrick Coombe (alto
saxophone). Each received warm applause
for their invention and stylish playing.
The whole ensemble and their director,
Miles Tranter, should be commended
for achieving an exceptionally high level
of ensemble playing. The future of Jazz
in the College looks assured!
After a break, the concert continued in
more serious mood with three pieces
from the Camerata, the intermediate
string orchestra made up of Junior and
Middle School students. Under the
direction of Ros Lillywhite, the Camerata
which numbers over 60 players, performed
an arrangement of Mussorgky’s
stately ‘Great Gate of Kiev’ from ‘Pictures
at an Exhibition’, a movement from Telemann’s
‘Concerto in D Major’ and ended
in swashbuckling style with ‘The Pirates
of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black
Pearl.’
Concert Strings, directed by Roos
Seeger, followed with a medley of famous
melodies by Tchiakovsky. This performance
provided further evidence of the
ensemble’s development with a precise
and exuberant rendering of excerpts from
‘The Nutcracker’, ‘Marche Slave’, ‘Romeo
and Juliet’ and, of course, the ‘1812
Overture’. All that was missing were
the fireworks! (Although the bass drum
provided some fairly realistic cannon fire
sounds.)
Another ensemble that impressed at ‘Encore!’
was the Middle School Percussion
Ensemble. Showing great concentration
and determination our young percussionists
gave a thrilling performance of Kachaturian’s
‘Sabre Dance’. Amidst flailing
mallets and whirling sticks Carl Jenkins
and his team emerged unscathed to draw
rapturous applause for their evident skill
and musicianship.
The Band ended the evening with two
dramatic pieces, ‘Rondo for Band’ and
‘Ghost Riders’, under the direction of Carl
Jenkins and Miles Tranter respectively.
Gaurav Thayil on trumpet featured in
‘Ghost Riders,’ taking the solo line in the
more reflective moments in this piece.
Adrian Hill
A little “Chamber Music”
UWCSEA students once again inspired
us with their prodigious talent. This
second chamber concert of the year
was a celebration of their outstanding
musical achievements. The opening item,
Dvorak’s piano quartet ‘Opus 23,’ was
polished and displayed excellent ensemble
playing by Ward Seeger, Tamara
Cave Jones, Haley Jung and Aileen
Gozali. Kaho Hasegawa’s performance
of the first movement of Poulenc’s ‘Flute
Sonata’ was beautiful and displayed real
musicianship. Aileen’s superb technique
was apparent in her performance of
Bartok’s ‘Suite Opus 14’ and Jonathan
Chapman added a wonderful diversity
to this concert with his superb marimba
playing as he performed an arrangement
of ‘The Doll’s Burial’ by Tchaikovsky.
In this concert, it was wonderful to see
Daniel Nishi and Aileen Gozali supporting
their peers whilst developing their
skills as accompanists. A real passion
for playing exuded from the Grade 12s in
their last contribution to Chamber Music
at UWCSEA. Minsu Byun and John Park
will be sorely missed from this event; they
have both been regular participants and
we wish them well as they head off to
new musical pastures.
Helen Rhodes

Celebrating Indian diversity
SAFAR is an entirely student-produced
show celebrating the diversity of India
through its music, dance, fashion and
food. Usually a biennial event organised
by Kolkata Global Concerns, this year so
many students expressed their wish to
take part the decision was made to host
the event this year, somewhat ahead of
the usual schdule!
Therefore, on 13 March, over 300 guests
gathered in Dover Campus’ Main Hall
to listen to the melodious band Work
Function play the opening of the evening,
offering the romantic song ‘Pehli Nazar
Mein’ as well as ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam.’
A brief presentation about Kolkata GC
followed, explaining how we aim to raise
awareness and funds for an organization
that supports visually impaired children
in Kolkata. We work with ‘Voice of the
World’, located in North Kolkata.
‘Off The Wall’
Dunia, April 2010
For the first time, the annual Rock Show, ‘Off The Wall’, was initiated and produced by three
students - Daniel O’Connor, Luis Landas and James Barton. Performances were held in
March in the Exam Hall. The wide range of musical styles and genres presented by High
School students in the two hour show exhibited the depth of musical talent within the College
and also exhibited the huge commitment that these young musicians and singers have to
producing work of an extremely high standard.
Added to the students performing in the show, a number of High School students also shouldered
the roles of lighting, sound and stage management. With a little help from teaching and
technical staff, the three student producers worked tirelessly towards producing a seamless
presentation. Groups ranging from acoustic to
rock played to packed houses of students and
adults, who enjoyed not only the music but the
unique style of William Jamieson as MC.
‘Off The Wall’ was a very successful and entertaining
evening for all. Everyone involved is to be
congratulated for their professional approach to
the project.
Lynne Arrol
A unique patriotic classical dance – ‘Des
Rangila’, a harmonious classical and
contemporary fusion of song, the classical
dance ‘Bharatnatyam,’ and a romantic
duet, ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyaar Ke
Charche,’ were the next performances.
They were followed by the tender love
song ‘Bhaage Re Mann’, a captivating
Bollywood dance performed to ‘Ghazab’
and ‘Twist’, a lively Hip Hop Bhangra and
finally the highly energetic and popular
Bhangra.
The evening ended on a high note with
the truly chic and stylish Fashion Show,
choreographed by Akshita Bhanjdeo. The
show comprised of students of all nationalities
walking down the ramp in ethnic
Indian attire, both traditional and modern.
Throughout the show, the MCs provided
insight into the truly divine culture of India.
Excellent food was served by Gurkha
Photos by Interscol
7
Photos by Ananya Bhattacharya
Palace under the tent after the event,
while the audience was entertained by
the second band – Samosa Chaat.
A big thank you to the lighting crew,
sound managers and backstage crew for
all their help and involvement in SAFAR!
And of course, a big thank you to all participants
and the audience, without whom
SAFAR would not have succeeded. This
year’s SAFAR raised over $4,000 that will
go towards buying land for a new girls’
hostel in the school.
For those who missed SAFAR 2010, look
out for SAFAR 2011 – we hope it’ll be
even bigger and better, and of course,
that we raise more funding for ‘Voice of
the World’ in Kolkata!
Ahana Das and Akshita Vaidyanathan

Dunia, April 2010
8
Meet the East Team 2010
On Thursday, 25 February, the College
held an event at the Ang Mo Kio Campus
attended by over 200 current and future
East Campus parents. The event provided
the opportunity to introduce Head
of East Campus James Dalziel (currently
Middle School Principal on Dover Campus),
who will take up his new position in
August 2010 as well as Stephen Meade,
Deputy Head of East Campus, who will
join the College in August 2011 from the
Jakarta International School.
Student-led conference day provided the
opportunity for the children to discuss
their learning with you, their parents. The
value of student-led conferences is that
they encourage children’s ownership of
their progress in learning, the chance to
reflect on and consolidate their progress
and to share the responsibility of communicating
this progress.
The conferences reinforce the central
role, you as parents, play in your child’s
education and give the parents a further
understanding of how learning takes
place as well as the chance to be actively
involved in the learning process. This
style of conference encourages increased
interaction and develops skills in
organisation, communication and critical
thinking.
The school was abuzz throughout the
day as excited children led their parents
through the Classroom and Single Subject
conferences. In the classrooms the
children were able to explain the process
of their learning in their units of inquiry, literacy,
mathematics and the conferences
concluded with the sharing of the student
Simon Thomas, UWCSEA Projects
Director, also provided an update on the
progress of the Tampines site and the
planned phased opening. Although the
opening of the Middle and High School
is planned for August 2011 (Phase 2),
the construction of all the superstructures
on the site will be completed before the
Infant School opens in August 2010.
When the Infant School welcomes its first
students in August 2010, the self-contained
facility will be completely finished,
Student-Led Conferences 2010 on the East Campus
portfolios. The single subject conferences
enabled the children to demonstrate the
skills they have developed and as with
the classroom conferences, were very
interactive. In some cases these activities
supported the children’s understandings
of their grade level units of inquiry.
These are some of the comments from
the children on the day:-
Charith (K1KMc) - “I’m the teacher today
and the boss!”
Freddie (3HaB) – “They (SLC’s) give my
parents a taste of what I have been doing
at school.”
Victoria (5LWh) – “It is better I share
rather than the teacher because it is work
that I have done.”
Thank you to the parents who took the
time to complete the online evaluation
survey. Your comments will be taken into
consideration when planning the 2011
conferences.
Curriculum Team
and fully operational. Since the
construction of the remainder of
the site is expected to be complete
by February 2011, familiar
construction inconveniences
such as noise and dust will be
minimal. Safety of the students is
our primary consideration.
Grades 2 to 6 will be on the Ang
Mo Kio Campus next academic
year, joining the Infants in Tampines
when Phase 2 of the campus opens
in August 2011. The same year there will
be an intake of students in Grade 7 to
10. Grades 11 and 12 will be introduced
as students progress in the following
academic years.
To keep up to date with progress, please
subscribe to an RSS feed or alert on the
dedicated microsite: www.uwcsea.edu.
sg/tampines.
Text and photos by Kate Woodford
Photos by Kate Woodford

Meeting Greg Mortenson
Over 300 UWCSEA and the wider Singapore
community members were honoured
to listen to and meet Greg Mortenson
at the end of Term 2. An inspirational
speaker, Greg had the audience laughing
one minute, then crying the next. He took
his time to speak with every single person
who queued up to have a book signed.
PACE Schools sold his books and like
Greg, will continue to build schools for
those who desperately want to learn.
On Saturday, 27 March, Greg Mortenson
visited Dover Campus. I was lucky
enough to be able to ask him some questions,
as some background research for
the coming Grade 5 Exhibition. As some
of you may know, Greg is the founder of
the Central Asian Institute and Pennies
for Peace. He was very helpful and answered
all of my questions whilst I made
notes. Here are two of my questions:
1. What inspired you to start this organization?
What really inspired me was my
sister, Christa. She died of epilepsy at the
age of 23, and I tried to climb K2, one of
the world’s toughest peaks, in her honour.
I did not reach the peak, and on the
way down the mountain, I took a wrong
turn and ended up in the village of Korphe,
where I realized they had no school.
In the next few years, I went from the
completion of the Korphe School to the
foundation of the Central Asian Institute.
2. Why do you focus on educating girls
more than boys? I focus on girls more
because if you educate a boy, he goes
off to a big city to find a job. But if you
educate a girl, she stays at home and becomes
a mother, educating her children
and the rest of the community. It is still
important to educate boys, though.
After I had wrapped up these questions,
the talk began. I’m not going to
go through the full details of his talk, but
most of what Greg said is in his books
3 Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.
I strongly recommend these books. He
talked a lot about landmines and the
need to educate children.
The interesting part is what happened after
the talk. We all got in line for the book
signing, and half way down I told one of
his assistants that I was hoping to bring
Pennies for Peace to our school as a
Global Concern. So she gave me a lot of
information on how to sign up for it. When
we finally got to the signing table, I talked
to Greg a lot about the exhibition, and he
was really interested. He told me that his
son had made a PowerPoint on how kids
should be educated, and said he’d email
it to me. Finally, he offered me a job after
I come through College - said I could take
over and do all his jobs whilst he kicked
his feet back and drank tea!
Thomas Carter
Grade 5 - UWCSEA East
Dunia, April 2010
Kalahari Cocktails
Melissa Kim and Olivia Burr with their excellencies,
Mr and Mrs Ripinga
The National Museum stands cool and
crisp. On the evening of 5 March, even
before they turned into the beautiful,
spare venue; African rhythms drifted
towards guests approaching the Kalahari
Cocktail Party. Once inside, the ice-cool
cocktail bar, telling pictures of Kalahari
learners and the smooth sounds of the
saxophone minstrel combined to remove
guests from their Friday night weariness
and send them on a visit to the desert. A
heartfelt thanks for noticing his people’s
need was the substance of the South
African Ambassador, HE Dr Simeon
Selby Ripinga‘s speech, aptly followed
by poignant testimonials from UWCSEA
participants in the Kalahari Experience
’09. The girls’ descriptions of the ways in
this experience changed their consciousness
and touched their hearts set off the
evening with panache.
Guests willingly tasted Diagio‘s expert
cocktails and nibbled elegant canapés as
they relaxed into the event. Raffle tickets
were well subscribed and cries of joy
accompanied the presentation of generous
wine hampers as Mrs Ripinga drew
winning tickets. A small silent auction
and sale of CDs and cookbooks from the
desert rounded off a successful evening
of contribution from the UWCSEA community
and their friends.
To date upwards of $15,000 has been
raised towards the goal of purchasing a
school bus to minimize the considerable
risks of walking long distances to the
isolated Moshewang High School. We
extend grateful thanks to our sponsors
who helped make this inaugural cocktail
party such a joy to hold and to attend.
The Kalahari GC
9

Dunia, April 2010
10
Houses and so much more - Tabitha GC
In just two terms at UWCSEA, the Dover
students have built a total of 36 houses
in one of the poorest regions of Cambodia.
Building a house is the final stage
for Tabitha participants on a journey that
started five to seven years earlier, when
they first joined the programme.
The move for Khmer families from abject
poverty to relative “middle income” is not
based on hand outs. The beauty of the
Tabitha family savings scheme is that
the participants are not given charity by
our students and staff, instead they gain
dignity and self respect by working and
saving their way out of poverty.
Participants start their first cycle of
savings for a simple dream such as the
purchase of a bag of rice or a change
of clothes, and then work up eventually
buying materials for a home. Yet save
as they might, some families will never
manage to save enough to build their
own homes and it’s at this point that our
amazing student groups step in to assist
by providing the labour and sponsorship
to complete the houses. They work
alongside the soon-to-be new home owners
and Tabitha staff. The house building
experience is about so much more than
foundations, floors and walls, it is an
enriching experience for both the builders
and recipients. For example, the Grade
11 and 8 teams who built 12 and 16
houses respectively, planned, saved and
fundraised for months before their trips
taking pride in the opportunity presented
to them to help some of the poorest people
in the world.
The passionate support for Tabitha GC
extends from the Senior, High and Middle
Schools right through to the Junior
School and Infants. Although often too
young to build houses themselves, these
students do amazing things to help
those less fortunate than themselves.
At this point it seems appropriate to
highlight some of our youngest donors
who between them have raised close to
$15,000 in just two terms. They are (in
no particular order): Harry Faulds; Naomi
Schulberg; Mea Stanley; Jun Han Huang;
Rhiannon Durant; Caelinn ÓMaoileoin;
Cameron Warren; Ella McAuliffe; Samuel
Hamilton; Joshua Raj; James Hamilton;
Siddharth Roy and the Grade 2 Tabitha
GC.
It is extraordinary to see how much can
be achieved when the Junior School students
put their minds to it. For example,
Grade 3 student Ella McAuliffe took part
in the CNY Family House Building trip
and commented, “I liked helping build
someone’s home as it’s people who don’t
have houses and they’re not as privileged
as us.” Another student keen to help
those less fortunate is Heather in Grade
2, who asked her mum (Alix Burrell) to
donate 100% of her book sales, I Hate
Peas, to the Tabitha Foundation. When
the founder of Tabitha, Janne Ritskes,
came to speak, Heather presented her
with the sum of $5,000 for books sold
through the school and has since added
a further $2,300 for sales beyond the
College.
UWCSEA students have adopted an impressive
range of fundraising strategies
from sponsored fasts through to lucky
dips. They are an inspiration to others
and should be very proud of all they have
achieved.
Kate Lewis
Above left - Janne Ritskes meets the High
School GC members for a Q & A session.
Above - Heather proudly presenting Janne with
a certifi cate for $5,000
Glofund event raises
$62,000
An auction of ceramic pieces
donated by some of Singapore’s
top artists, including Iskander, successfully
raised over $62,000 for
four Global Concerns projects. The
event, organized by the Glofund
Global Concerns group, was held
at The Asian Civilizations Museum
on a February evening.
This was the second such event
held by Glofund whose purpose is
to help other GC groups fundraise
for the causes they support. The
fortunate GC projects this time
were Safuge, which supports the
rehabilitation of child soldiers in
Sierra Leone; The Mercy Centre
in Bangkok; the BOSCO streetkids
initiative in Bangalore; and
Half the Sky, which helps with the
education of girl orphans in China.
Members of the College’s Jazz
Band provided background music
while students mixed with and told
guests about their projects.
Adi Chand and his Glofund team
are to be congratulated on a successful
and thoroughly enjoyable
evening.
Anthony Skillicorn

Nuclear Awareness Week
I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum in the summer of 2008.
A lady who was an eye-witness of the
atomic bomb explosion gave my family a
personal tour, recounting her own experiences
as we walked through the gallery.
The horrors of nuclear weapons and
their effects were depicted so compellingly
through photographs, video footage
and remnants of objects that survived
the ‘mushroom cloud’ explosion. I was
astounded by the extent of the suffering
experienced by the victims, including
my great great grandparents who had
been living in Hiroshima at the time. I
was deeply moved, and was driven by an
urge to take action and share my experience
of what I saw in the museum.
When I returned home, I began extensive
research on the issue of nuclear weapons,
reading books, browsing websites
and getting in touch with anybody who
could help me. I finally received a response
from a member of IPPNW (International
Physicians Prevention of Nuclear
Warfare) who offered to help me plan
an initiative for my school. It was he who
gave me the inspiration for “Target Tent”;
an adapted version of an initiative started
by the IPPNW to educate the public on
the physical effects of nuclear arsenals.
The display bases around the premise;
“What would happen if a nuclear bomb
was dropped in my city?” allowing the
general public to contextualize the scale
and scope of the devastation at a closer
proximity.
Thus began the long process into the
planning of Nuclear Awareness Week,
held in the first week of March by the
members of Catalyst GC to promote
awareness in the College community on
the issue of Nuclear weapons and the
threat they continue to pose today. I was
also able to ask the Hiroshima Peace
Museum to collaborate with our project
and donate some materials, hopefully
bringing more impact into our display.
During the week, a large red cross was
marked in the middle of the Tent Plaza to
represent “ground zero”, the immediate
surroundings of the hypothetical nuclear
bomb. Google map images showed
a birds-eye view of the physical and
radioactive damage this would cause to
our whole island, and posters donated
from the Peace Museum were scattered
around the X to provide information on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with
several student-made posters containing
information on the current global situation.
High School students completed a
tutor group quiz based on the information
provided during the week to encourage
further discussion and interest in the
issues raised, and the Grade 7s were
given an informative assembly on the
pros and cons of nuclear energy, as
Apple Distinguished Educator 2010
It was an honour to be invited to join the
Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE)
Institute for 2010. The Asia cohort
consisted of 55 educators from around
the region, from primary, secondary and
tertiary institutions.
We were lucky enough to work with three
wonderful mentors throughout the five
day programme:
Rebecca Stockley is an improvisation
guru who works regularly with companies
such as Pixar and Apple to develop a
culture that embraces creativity and new
ideas. She encouraged us to embrace
failure as a learning experience, and to
replace the phrase, “Yes, but…” with the
‘improv’ approach of, “Yes… And!” when
working in groups.
Joseph Linaschke, photographer and
public speaker, coached us on developing
our personal brand. He shared his
own story with personal branding, and
modelled the process of creating a branding
photo. Joseph is an expert on using
Aperture, Apple’s amazing photo editing
software, and provided some tips on how
to use that as well.
Maxx Judd, Senior Manager of Apple’s
Education Advocacy Program, gave us
an introduction to personal branding and
engaged us in Challenge-Based Learning
with our peers. One of the major tasks of
the Institute was to solve a challenging
problem with other ADEs, work through
the issues and present our findings to
others at the end.
Dunia, April 2010
11
Members of Catalyst GC (From left to right) Andrew
Ying, Jun Woo Park, Nicolette Meyer, Chihiro Isozaki
(Chair), Rajeev Sanjeev and Rohan Advani
well as some background information on
nuclear weapons.
As we are a GC of less than 10 members,
the process was long and difficult,
including many hours of research, planning
and preparation. Every team member
put in an immense amount of energy
and enthusiasm to make the week a success,
even giving up a weekend in order
to set up the display. But the outcome
was truly phenomenal; I feel that our hard
work definitely paid off. It was rewarding
to see so many students, teachers
and even parents showing interest to the
displays. We hope that this week has
contributed to a more widespread interest
on the issue of nuclear nonproliferation
within the campus, and that it will continue
as an annual event in coming years.
Chihiro Isozaki
Photo by Chrissy Hellyer of ISB
My group wanted to share best teaching
practice with those wishing to incorporate
more technology into their classrooms.
We created a website www.inoneplace.
org where we have begun showcasing
great examples of technology integration.
I am looking forward to implementing
some of the ideas I gained through the
ADE institute with the students and
teachers I work with everyday.
Keri-Lee Beasley (above on right)

Dunia, April 2010
12
Visiting Cambodia
Over the Chinese New Year break, a
small group of teachers from UWCSEA
East and their families travelled to Phnom
Penh, Cambodia to visit and spend time
with two non-government organizations;
Starfish Foundation and Future Cambodia
Fund. The visit was with a view to
establishing connections for new Global
Concerns projects for the East Campus
students from next year.
Starfish Foundation supports a local
village, where its community create their
livelihood by scouring dumpsites and
rubbish piles for anything that can be
recycled for sale. Many of the children
attend the school that Starfish Foundation
have established, where they have
opportunities to learn, play and enjoy a
meal for breakfast and lunch. We were
fortunate to spend two days working with
the children and staff sharing in games,
music and language.
Over the next couple of days we visited
Future Cambodia Fund located about
20km from central Phnom Penh. In contrast
to the concrete walls and grounds
of the Starfish School, this drop in centre
had a grassy field, open space and two
shelters made from natural materials.
We were welcomed warmly by a small
band of six staff who provided support to
a community that were struggling to deal
with the repercussions of being evicted
from their homes. At the time of printing,
we have just been informed due to lack of
funding, the global downturn and political
complexity, Future Cambodia Fund Directors
had to make the difficult decision
to close down its operations.
Although a brief visit, it was heartening to
meet people with real passion and sincerity
for the community and the smiles and
the warmth of the people of Cambodia
left a truly lasting impression.
Cambodia Team 2010 (Mario Saez, Beth
Saez, Margot Marks)
Grade 5s make a difference in Cambodia
Books are a main key to education. In the Chinese New Year break a handful of teachers
from the East Campus went to Cambodia to make a difference. UWCSEA has
sponsored and helped change the lives of many in Cambodia, but for some reason
everything had to do with money! So Mr. Saez, a Grade 5 teacher, suggested that
students do something themselves, thus the idea for books was formed. All of the
students from Grade 5 made a short book about some easy topics; numbers, vowels,
animals, toys and etc. When the teachers went to Phnom Penh they took the books
for the many illiterate children of Cambodia, so they could learn to read simple English
books. I think that day all of Grade 5 made a difference.
Ameya Rao (5MSa) on behalf of Grade 5
“The reason I made a book for children in Cambodia was that I thought of the power of
books and how poor children may not have access to books. I wanted to make a difference.
It is amazing how a book can change a child’s life.”
Victoria Birrell (5LWh)
“I chose to make a book for children in Cambodia because I thought about my life
without books, and decided that I should make a very simple book to help others in the
world. I choose a numbers as these are needed to think about mathematics. I really felt
that I should make a very simple book to help educate others and make a difference in
someone’s life. Now, afterwards I feel very happy that I helped these children in a very
simple but caring way.”
Al Roger (5LWh)
Photos by Mario Saez and Kate Woodford

Sustainability Dinner
A great big thank you to all the guests
who attended the Sustainability Dinner
and helped in creating an enjoyable and
thoughtful evening on the theme of living
sustainably. All of the 100+ guests made
the evening very memorable by participating
in the spirit of the event through
conversation, questions and even surrendering
their cutlery to eat with their
hands.
The evening began with a screening of
the film “Green” by UWCSEA alumnus
Patrick Rouxell. This is a powerful movie
presenting the devastating impacts of
logging and land clearing for palm oil
plantations, the choking haze created
by rainforest fires and the tragic end of
rainforest biodiversity. The movie has
received many awards internationally
One of the recent units of inquiry in
Grade 2 was Field to Table. During this
unit students were introduced to the
central idea of how the origin, production
and distribution of food involve various
processes and people. Guest speakers
included parent Shawn Warren from
Kraft and Middle School Principal, James
Dalziel. They described, to an enraptured
audience, how Oreos and milk are produced,
respectively.
and features Patrick’s unique approach
with no narration, relying on the visual
images and sounds of the forest. I think it
is fair to say the movie left the audience
speechless.
A sumptuous home cooked vegetarian
meal was provided by parent Mrs
Vinder Kaur with Mr Steven Low from
the Changi Sailing Club also contributing
generously, with salads and a pasta
dish made from produce provided by
Bollywood Vegies. All of the guests raved
about the delicious food available and
the beer donated by Brewerkz. Several
organisations and individuals from within
and outside of the college generously
contributed to the evening by providing
information stalls. The stalls included
Growmax (a local organic food company),
Food 03 (a café that retails fair
trade coffee and tea products), Green
Cleaners, a herb and vegetable growing
display by K1 students, XS Project bags
sold by UWCSEA students and a stall
representing the PAW, ACRES and Tiger
Watch Global Concerns groups. Students
from the Local Environment Action Force
(LEAF) presented tips on sustainable
living with very entertaining skits and announcements
throughout.
Grade 2 Makes “Koo Koo Apples”
The culmination of the unit saw students
form their own food manufacturing company
and spend a day on the production
line. 2AMc chose to make toffee apples
and the process from naming the product
and company through the final quality
control/taste-testing phase was all student
initiated.
Students and a plethora of parent volunteers
spent a busy day engaged in cooking,
packaging, researching, advertising
and transporting “Koo Koo Apples”. In
keeping in line with UWC values, the
children thought of six different ways to
keep their product environmentally-friendly.
Ingredients with proximate countries
of origin were purchased to “keep the
airplanes from polluting the air”. Recycled
paper was used for all labels and bamboo
skewers were elected as the toffee
apple stick of choice since bamboo grows
back quickly.
Dunia, April 2010
13
A special thanks to our very passionate
guest speaker Grant Periera. Grant
is very active in an incredible range of
social and environmental initiatives in
Singapore and Southeast Asia and his
sincerity and commitment to all he does
is truly inspiring.
The driving force behind the Sustainability
Dinner were the students of the
Round Square committee. The students
conceived of the evening and worked
determinedly to successfully host a very
memorable evening in a beautifully decorated
venue.
Pete Kilham and Karen Neidermeyer
Max Van Der Stack, age 8 summed up
the day perfectly: “I don’t want to go out
for break today. I’m making Koo Koo
Fudge with the leftover toffee!”
Andrea McDonald

Dunia, April 2010
14
Drug Awareness week
Drug Awareness week was held in
February and helps to raise students’
awareness about dependency and addiction.
The two major activities of that
week were to tour the Central Narcotics
Bureau’s DRUGBusters Bus and
Grade 6-12s Kick a Habit campaign. The
students were challenge to “Kick a Habit”
from Monday to Friday. Many students
opted not to go onto Facebook or to eat
chocolate.
College Counsellors
Photo by Henry Chang
Round Square Exchange to Canada
Mathilde (left) and friends enjoying the great Canadian outdoors
When I waved goodbye to my family at
Changi Airport in early March, I expected
to miss them. As it turned out though, I
had far too much of a good time to even
think of them while I was away! My first
glimpse of the Rothesay Netherwood
School (RNS) campus in New Brunswick,
Canada, was not a very revealing one, as
I arrived in the middle of the night. After
30 hours of travel it was still the same
day as when I left Singapore! However
I was welcomed warmly into the junior
girls’ boarding house, quite originally
named Netherwood House, and escorted
into a room with my name on the door,
and feel asleep as soon as my head
touched the pillow.
In my first few days at RNS, I learnt many
things about Canadian schools: although
Canada is a free country, you are not
allowed to talk back in class, if you are on
the senior boys hockey team, you are automatically
desirable to the girls, and that
it is not a stereotypical myth, Canadians
really do say ‘eh’ constantly! However, if
there’s one thing that RNS is not, it’s typical.
The warm, community feeling being
at a school with fewer students than there
are in my grade; the way that there is
no distinction between grades, and that,
middle school students, high school students
and IB students are all friends with
each other. Also, this makes for a closer
student-teacher relationship.
One of the highlights of my exchange
was the Grade 8 Outward Bound Winter
Camping trip, which had 18 students and
three adults hiking off into the
vast Canadian wilderness for
three days and two nights. I
have experienced cold temperatures
and snow before, but
only for a few weeks and always
with the comfort of central
heating and hot showers, which
I took for granted. Camping in
the Canadian wilderness, in
winter, deprived me of these
luxuries, and this was certainly
a challenging experience! During
the day we went snowshoeing
and cross country skiing,
and sledding and at night we
zipped ourselves up into two
sleeping bags each, which gave
us the appearance of tacos, as
my friend Val commented comically,
and the rest of us were up
all night laughing at this hilarious
comparison. One of the best things
about going on this Outward Bound trip
was that I got to know the people in my
class at RNS better than I would have
in the classroom, and it was fun to do
something that I would never be able to
do Singapore.
Another few enjoyable highlights were
boarding, and ice hockey. Boarding was
so much fun, it was like living on a street
with all your friends, and on the weekends,
it was like a 24/7 sleepover. It was
really good fun to wake up in the morning
and go to breakfast to find half the school
there! Ice hockey was admittedly a new
experience, and getting into all the gear
took about twenty minutes! But it was
hilarious to my friends to watch me fall,
time and time again, and I enjoyed skating
around, and being goalie.
Going on an exchange was amazing. Being
able to fly halfway across the world to
a country you’ve never been to before, to
a school where you don’t know a single
person, and make so many lovely friends
and have so many amusing and memorable
experiences, is the most exciting and
crazy thing I have ever done in my life. I
recommend it to any and every student
at UWCSEA, because you have so much
fun and you learn so much about yourself,
and it is just generally a fantastic
opportunity.
Mathilde Huybens (8GEs)

Round Square Exchange: from Armenia to Singapore
Koryun (front) with other boarders at Siloso Beach
Dunia, April 2010
Hi! I’m Koryun from Armenia and I had a wonderful opportunity to
do an exchange program through Round Square to UWCSEA. I
was supposed to stay seven weeks. But I was a bit unlucky and
had to come back earlier due to the decision made by the Ministry
of Education of Armenia which said I had to be in Armenia
during exams which I had to take. So my exchange lasted only
four weeks. But that was one of the best months in my life!
UWCSEA was very different from my school. The main difference
was the number of students. We have only 800 students
instead of 3,000. But what I found in Singapore was a very wellorganized
school with a lot of activities, sports and other opportunities
for students and which could offer a wonderful education to
the society.
Although the school was quite big, I managed to get used to it quite fast. By the end of the first week I knew almost all the buildings
and departments. I attended lessons for three weeks, but I learned a lot of new things. My own school is not an IB school and there
are no IB schools in Armenia so I didn’t have an experience in taking IB. But I really liked that program.
I was staying in the Senior Boarding House during my stay, which was a unique experience for me. I didn’t know what boarding life
was before going there. I gained a lot of knowledge and experiences. I made many friends and I was learning new things from them
every minute. They taught me many things without even realizing it. I am so grateful to all the boarders.
During my stay I was doing two services, I participated in Community Fair, Careers Fair, the International Evening and some other
activities. And as we had a holiday for a week due to the Chinese New Year, I also managed to see that magnificent celebration and
do lots of sightseeing. So I really enjoyed my stay.
I just want to say “Thank You” to the school for giving me this wonderful opportunity and all the students, my teachers,
the Senior House Staff and everyone else who helped me to enjoy my exchange.
I promise I’ll try my best to come back to Singapore and UWCSEA in the future.
Ocean Week
An initiative by PAW GC, Ocean Week,
was intended to raise awareness on
marine animals such as dolphins, sharks
and whales. The week was marked by
posters around school, “Ocean’s Jenga”
and screenings of two eye-opening documentaries.
“Ocean’s Jenga” (photo on left) was a fun
and different way of educating students
by representing the delicacy of oceanic
ecosystems. Remove one species and
everything might collapse!
The showings of “The Cove” and of
“Sharkwater” left viewers red-eyed and
teary, but with the stirrings of motivation
and inspiration.
The documentaries showed appalling
statistics about the state of our oceans
and the massive impact fishing will have
on us as well as climate change and on
all marine wildlife.
15
Though the documentaries revealed
depressing and heavy truths, the week
yielded positive results. Kids of all ages
were involved in the week with a marine
life conservation poster competition in
Grade 3. Of the students who emerged
from the screenings with tissues at hand,
many vowed to spread awareness and
do their part in helping conserve our
oceans. In light of this resurgence of
interest in the topic of marine animals,
a GC was reborn. Previously known as
Busy Waters, Poseidon GC has emerged
and will spring into action by Term 3 with
the aim of raising awareness on precisely
these issues.
All in all, the week was a success and
only a footstep forward onto UWCSEA’s
path towards oceanic conservation.
Shaiyra Devi (11LoL) and Amita
Ramachandran (11SMo)

Dunia, April 2010
16
Combined champions at SEASAC Swimming 2010
Supporting teammates, competitive spirit
and giving it their best are just a few of
the positive characteristics of a UWCSEA
swimmer. This was clearly displayed
once again at the SEASAC Championship
meet this year which was hosted by
the British International School of Jakarta.
Once again we were going into this
meet as last year’s champions and we
knew we would have to work very hard
to defend our title. The competition from
our big rival, Patana, was going to be
really tough. It would take each swimmer
digging really deep and giving it their best
in each race to have a chance to take the
over title for another year.
The coaches were amazed at how the
swimmers continued to come out of the
water with personal best times even after
already racing five times during the day.
Top finishes were: Mayumi Raheem (8
gold - two SEASAC records), Constance
Tan (2 gold - one SEASAC record, 3
silver), Mun Yi Yoon (4 silver), Lukas
Ming Menkhoff (7 gold - all SEASAC
records, 1 silver), Jan Hejl (2 gold, 2
silver and 2 Bronze), Jon Quin (1 silver,
2 bronze), Kimberly Alabaster (2 silver),
Phoebe Hutchinson (4 silver, 1 bronze),
Stephen Khalek (1 silver), Beth Lane
(1 silver, 1 bronze), Josephine Lefranq
Frojd (1 silver, 3 bronze), Francesca Ngu
(1 bronze), Christine O’Donnel (1 gold,
1 silver, 1 bronze) and Charlie Quin (4
bronze). These placings are fabulous but
even better was that every team member
put forth an incredible effort in every race.
Our 15 & Over Boys (Ben, Jon, Jan and
Stephen) won two of their relays and the
15 & Over Girls (Mayumi, Beth, Mun Yi
and Constance) team was unstoppable
as they won every relay. The 13-14 Boys
(Alex, Charlie, Bradley and Lukas) came
away with three golds and one silver in
the relays and the 13-14 Girls (Frances,
Francesca, Christine and Kimberly) came
away with three Silvers. The 12&U Girls
(Smilla, Phoebe, Josephine and Grace)
earned three bronze medals for their
relay efforts and the 12&U Boys (Matt,
Harry, Raj and Sohil) put gave everything
they had to achieve a 5 th and 4 th placing.
Top placing individual swimmers were
Mayumi, who won the high point award
for the girls and Lukas, who was the
runner-up in points on the boys side.
On the second day of the competition we
were behind Patana by roughly 40 points.
It seemed like an incredible gap to fill in
order the catch them and to remain the
Championship team. During the awards
dinner, when the organiser announced
that their were only 10 points separating
the two top teams the room fell silent.
“Second place with 921 points… Patana”.
We knew we had won the title for other
year and the UWCSEA swimmers gave
out a loud cheer.
Thanks to Mel and Henry for their dedication
on the coaching front. Thanks also to
all the parents who supported the team
with their loud cheers from the stands.
Jason Bell
Photos by Henry Chang

SEASAC Softball
Boys
The team travelled to Bangkok to take
part in their second SEASAC Championship.
The tournament started off
with an excellent win over the Canadian
School from Hong Kong. Unfortunately,
the next two games against the International
School of Yangon and the reigning
champions, Ruamrudee International
School, were not so easy. Although the
boys gave it all, their experience was not
enough to match the clinical batting and
fielding skills of these teams. After finishing
3 rd in our pool, the boys went through
to a play-off game against Mont Kiara
International School. Although the game
got off to a patchy start the boys came
through displaying some excellent batting
skills to win the game in style. This win
put the boys through to a final 5 th and
6 th play-off. After a nailing biting seven
innings, they narrowly lost by two runs to
finish 6 th place overall.
I would like to commend Varun Saxena
who was recognised for his exceptional
standard of play throughout the SEASAC
tournament, being voted in to the All Star
Team’ by the other coaches.
It has been an absolute pleasure coaching
the Senior Boys Softball team, watching
them develop as individuals and as a
team. A few key graduating players will
be missed next year. I wish them all the
best in their examinations. I would like to
thank all the boys, for their hard work and
commitment this season and look forward
to improving on this result next year.
Congratulations to the following boys who
represented the team throughout the season:
Varun Saxena, Aeneas Lee, Michael
Collick, Shivin Agarwal, Tanay Jalan,
Tom Shepherd,
Jonathan
Puckit, Paraj
Tyle, Mohan
D’Souza,
Yasin Yakob,
Anvesh
Bulusu, Rahul
Menon and
Peter Thomas.
Matt Taylor
Dunia, April 2010
Girls
We travelled to SEASAC with just 10 players - but what a 10! Margo became the heroine
of the hour by switching to first base and playing an almost error free tournament
and making several double plays. Emily matured by five years in two days, learning
how to cope with temperatures in the high 40’s and teams who were determined to
walk. Annabel, Glori, Tasha, Amy, Stefanie and Emily hammered every ball they could
when at the plate, and when on form UWCSEA were definitely the best offensive team
in the tournament. After the six games UWCSEA ended up equal 3 rd but was awarded
5 th place after run average was calculated. To end up 5 th , having beaten RIS who
wound up in bronze medal position, was galling but the girls, as always, took it in their
stride - confident that they would do even better for the next two years. At the awards
ceremony Emily Webster was recognised as the UWCSEA All Tournament player and
Annabel Sharpe was awarded an outfield place in the All Star Team. However, the girls
as a whole were the real stars, it is rare that one comes across a team that genuinely
gets on so well, is so close in terms of performance standard and is as supportive of
each other as this group of delightful young ladies. Congratulations on your achievements
this season both on and off the field of play, you were a delight to coach.
Congratulations to the following girls who represented the team throughout the season:
Amy Fisher, Natasha Han, Emily Webster, Stefanie Merchant, Gloriana Saenz, Karen
Montgomery, Bianca Letele, Annabel Finch, Margaret Cody, Megan Hume, Diwa Cody,
Tanya Sen and Thida Sachathep
Hugh Richards
17

Dunia, April 2010
18
SEASAC Badminton
In March, the SEASAC Badminton Tournament
was hosted and organised by the
Canadian International School of Hong
Kong (CDNIS). The girls team started
their pool games with a comfortable win
over the Alice Smith School (KLASS)
beating them 7-0. They then played two
difficult games against the New International
School of Thailand (NIST) and CD-
NIS, who were the SEASAC champions
from the previous year. The girls played
some wonderful badminton to beat their
opponents 6-1 and 5-2 respectively.
Their camaraderie and work ethic was
impressive. They also beat the British
International School of Jakarta 7-0. On
day two of the tournament they won their
final pool game 7-0 against Surabaya
International School to finish top in their
division. As a result they qualified for the
semi-finals in which they played Garden
International School (GIS). This proved
to be a difficult match, which really tested
the skills and fitness of both teams. The
match was tied at 3-3 going into the final
game. Tracy Nang, who played seed
one, had a fantastic game against her opponent
to not only win the semi-final and
a well deserved place in the final but also
to clinch the Seed One Champion title.
The level of badminton really was outstanding.
The girls played Ruamrudee International
School (RIS) in the final, who
were formidable opponents since they
had won the championship seven times
in the last ten years. Our players were
confident and enthusiastic and certainly
rose to the challenge. They won their two
doubles games and then Ashima Sabhlok
pulled off a 2-1 win in her singles game,
tying the score at 3-3 with the final game
to play. Yet again the match depended
on the final singles seed one game. Tracy
held her composure in a high pressure
game and defeated her opponent with
inch perfect shots. UWCSEA had won the
SEASAC Badminton Tournament for the
first time ever. Congratulations to Tracy
Nang, Jumana Hashim, Aditi Sabhlok,
Ashima Sabhlok and Vanya Saxena, our
captain.
Apart from losing to CDNIS, who had an
incredibly strong team, the boys had a
very successful first day. They won their
pool matches against NIST, KLASS and
Mont Kiara International School with relative
ease.
On the second day, the team continued
to build on their previous day’s performance
and beat the International School
of Yangoon (ISY) 7-0 in their last pool
game, putting them in second position in
their division. As a result, the boys qualified
for the semi-finals and were scheduled
to play RIS who had been SEASAC
champions for the previous seven years.
The boys were focused and positive
going into the match and although the
boys played exceedingly well in their
doubles games, RIS proved too strong
in the singles and beat us by a margin of
three games. The boys then played GIS
in the third/fourth playoff and being full
of confidence and highly motivated, they
went out with all cylinders firing to beat
GIS, 5-2 and finish in a well-deserved 3 rd
place.
Another very pleasing result! Well done
to Sean Ng, Greg Tan, Rakesh Prabhakaran,
Henry Maw and our captain,
Nguyen Vo.
Mandy Neil
U14 Cricketers sweep all
before them
The UWCSEA U14 cricket team enjoyed
a 100% winning streak this year. The first
game was against GIIS when the boys
chased down 144 runs. Captain Kathik
Suresh led the way with 56 not out.
This was followed by a comfortable win
against OFS.
The highlights of the league season were
the tense run chase against Tanglin
Tigers where the boys knocked off 165
runs with three balls to spare. A massive
opening partnership between Jamie Hunt
and Luke Hambly broke the back of the
chase and some lusty blows by the middle
order completed the chase. The next
day the team went even better posting an
imposing 184 vs Tanglin Lions.
In the semi-final the team took on OFS
and things were looking bleak as OFS
posted 134 and UWCSEA slumped from
31 for 1 to 47 for 6 but the team rallied,
as it has all season, and some mature
batting from Amartyo Sen, Harsh Bakshi
and Raam Chandrasekharen eventually
led the team to victory and a place in the
final vs GIIS. This is team with resolve
and they were able to force the victory,
the 100% record and the Championship.
The overriding strength of the squad was
that individuals were always ready and
willing to step up for the team. There
were many impressive individual performances:
the batting of Luke Hambly
and Ishaan Srivastava, the bowling of
Amartyo Sen and Ismaeel Aurangzeb
and the all round performances of Atulya
Ravishankar, Halcyon Price, Jamie Hunt
and Karthik Suresh. Overall, this was
a real team performance and all squad
members can be proud of their achievements.
Simon Bignell

19&U ACSIS Track And Field
The ACSIS Track and Field Championships
were home to many outstanding
performances. The Cross Country
runners dominated the middle distance
events with Jamie Roberts winning both
the 3000m in 10.10minutes and 800m
in 2.10 minutes. Charlie Quin had a successful
day taking gold in the 1500m in
a time of 4.34 minutes and 2 nd place in
the 800m in a very respectable time of
2.12 minutes. Tsuyoshi Yoneda continued
to show his level of competency and
finished in 3 rd place in the 3000m and
1500m. Lodewijk Vriens displayed his
determination and finished in 4 th place
in both the 3000m and 1500m. In the
sprints, Jack Ryan, Kris Gunara, Udit
Chandler, Allen Navasero and Aidan
Meehan all ran well in their races. In the
field events Aidan Meehan secured silver
position in the Long Jump and Tim Adams
and Nikolas Zenieris performed well
in the throws and earned vital points for
the team. Overall the boys team finished
in 3 rd position.
More than 100 students from both campuses
participated in the International
Schools Athletics Carnival in March. They
took part in high jump, shot put, long
jump, 100m, 200m, 800m, 1500m and
relay events against other international
schools.
East Campus Athletics Team
The students were a little nervous at first
but excitement soon took over when the
carnival began. Congratulations to all of
our athletes for showing great commit-
For the girl’s team, Livia Mueller displayed
her strength on the track as a
middle distance runner taking 2 nd place
in both the 3000m and 800m events.
Amy Fisher and Melanie Flury both had
a superb day finishing in high positions
in numerous disciplines. Tayla Murphy
demonstrated her experience finishing
in 4 th place in the 3000m and 3 rd place in
Dunia, April 2010
19
the 1500m. In the sprints and field events
Anthea Cheng, Monique Ellis, Naomi
Hudson, Linnea Borglin, Alice Bigger and
Sonia De Mello all had solid performances
in a variety of disciplines. They gained
valuable points for the team, resulting
in an overall victory for the girls for the
second year running.
Vicki Hill
Success at the International Schools Athletics Carnival
ment and a
positive attitude
towards
a fantastic
event. A
huge thank
you also
goes to our
very supportive
parents
who were
there to encourage
the
students right
throughout
the day.
A special mention goes to the following
students who won ribbons for their
events:
Long Jump
8yrs boys - Edward Peak - 1 st
10yrs boys - Jean-Luc Lefebvre - 3 rd
High Jump
8yrs boys - Edward Peak - 3 rd
9yrs boys - Dylan Gordon - 3 rd
10yrs boys - Jean-Luc Lefebvre - 2 nd
11yrs boys - George Peak - 3 rd
100m
8yrs girls - Mille Bennett - 3 rd
9yrs girls - Ella Prosi - 3 rd
200m
8yrs girls - Mille Bennett - 3 rd
9yrs girls - Alice Wade - 3 rd
10yrs boys - Josh Grant - 3 rd
Vicky Harris-Little
Dover Campus Athletics Team
Each individual competed in at least
three disciplines plus a relay and some
outstanding results were achieved. The
following athletes finished in the top three
in their event: Rhiannon Durant, Tanya
Atal, Alana Chen, Stephanie Harris,
Omar Ramzan, Evelyn Crawford, Patrick
Gullery, George Diggle, Caroline Lund,
Eve Singer, Ally Fisher and Harry Scott.
Congratulations to Tommaso Gibbs, who
not only came 1st in the shot putt but also
set a new international schools record for
his age group. Well done to all athletes
involved.
Vicki Hill

Dunia, April 2010
20
Senior Rugby Season 2009/2010
UWCSEA Senior Rugby team continued
their winning ways taking both the ACSIS
and SEASAC rugby shields in 2010!
They won the ACSIS rugby shield for the
third successive year, scoring close to
100 points and conceding only 14. Two
weeks later they dominated the SEASAC
event, winning all games over the two
day programme and scoring a new SEA-
SAC record final of 31 points to nil over
Alice Smith School. The team amassed
an incredible 140 points and conceded
only 12. Most valuable player awards
were given at each event. The UWCSEA
players who were awarded honours:
ACSIS MVP awards - Angus McWhirter,
Robin Friden, Deigo Garcia and Ross Morris
SEASAC MVP awards - Angus McWhirter.
Robin Friden and Deigo Garcia
Earlier in the season, the squad completed
a very intense and successful first
ever rugby camp at Sebana Cove, Malay-
ACSIS Basketball
14&U Boys ‘A’ Team
The ACSIS Division 1 League entertained
supporters with a high standard
of basketball and exciting matches. A
good start saw the team playing superb
team basketball to lose only two matches
in very close games, finishing 4 th on the
ladder and facing an undefeated Catholic
High School in the semi final. We caused
an upset, winning by 21 points and
cruising to the final. The season came
down to a last match against the SAS on
their home court - it would be tough! We
came out pumped and took an early lead.
SAS had a strong second quarter and
went into the half time break ahead by
12 points. We never gave up and played
our best defense of the season to bring
the game back to a 2-point difference
in the final minute of the game. What a
game…fans were out of their seats as
we just ran out of time to take the win. It
was a fantastic season for the team - the
dedication and hard training resulted in
great basketball and a silver medal. Two
players were in the MVP Awards - Charlie
Quin was awarded the MVP of the league
and Hugh Johnston was in the top 10.
Tracy Quin
sia. This was the equivalent of four weeks
of mid week training and was a good test
of the players skills both physically and
mentally. Then in November, the team
travelled to Kuala Lumpur for the ISKL
rugby tens invitational. Not having all
SEASAC / ACSIS team players, the team
did very well in eventually ending up runners
up in the cup tournament.
Having lost some key, experienced players
last season, the team has developed
a great spirit and demonstrated themselves
to be a much more balanced team
across all playing positions. Well done to
14&U Boys ‘B’ Team
The UWCSEA “B” Team had a great
start to the season with a great win over
Tanglin, playing very well as a team. We
had some tough opposition against the
Canadian School and OFS going down
by quite a margin but the boys kept their
spirits high. We had some very close
matches in our remaining games, with
Felician Dumas picking up some very
well deserved MVP votes. I look forward
to seeing all the boys returning next year.
Most of the team were able to participate
in the International Schools Association
of Kuala Lumpur (ISAKL) U13 Championships.
They had a terrific tournament
finishing 5 th overall, with 10 international
schools competing. It was a great experience
for a team with a great future in
basketball ahead of them.
all 28 members of the squad for an excellent
season. Special mention to a great
captains knock by Angus McWhirter, who
has really grown into his role as player
and Captain this season. The players
who represented the College in the four
major tournaments this year are: Angus
McWhirter, Ping Tomczyk, Jerry Newton,
Daniel Olofsson, Aidan McGregor,
Andrew Lee, Riju Maitra, Deigo Garcia
Luna, Mark Cheong, Robin Friden, Silvan
Koortens, Sean Fox, Ross Morris, Ante
Tadic, Shanouk De Silva, Adam Seston,
Declan Maretens and James Holten.
The senior rugby squad continued the
College’s rich tradition of success in this
demanding team sport, which began
in the early 1990’s. The whole squad
continues to be one of the leading lights
for UWCSEA sports teams now and into
the future.
James Hackett
14&U Boys ‘C’ Team
The UWCSEA “C” Team had a great season
with some very promising basketball.
The boys worked very hard at training
which was reflected in their skill level in
the games. They had a great game in the
bronze medal match but were unlucky to
go down to Green View 39 - 31. Congratulations
to both Brandon and Julian Leo
as well as Adrian Chan who were able
to pick up All Star Player Awards in the
ACSIS League.
Andrew Sharpe

Primary School
Grade 1 Arts Festival
On Thursday, 11 February the Grade 1 Dover campus children surpassed themselves with
their “When I Grow Up” Arts Festival performance. The singing, dancing, fabulous costumes
and great big smiles made it a most memorable evening. In addition to the wonderful visual
display, teachers commented on how rewarding it was to see so many aspects of the PYP
Transdisciplinary Skills, Attitudes and the Learner Profile such as risk-taking, co-operation,
respect, creativity, appreciation and enthusiasm being developed and demonstrated during
the rehearsals and performance. The event could not have happened without the hard work
of the students, teachers, assistants, parents and technical support staff who worked so hard
to make it such an outstanding performance.
Karen Masee
Dunia, April 2010
INFANTS
Photos by Joseph Tan
21

Dunia, April 2010
22
Grade 1 Arts Festival 2010
At the end of March, East Grade 1 children presented their Arts Festival in the Kurt
Hahn Hall. The focus this year was to showcase what the children have been
working on in the areas of Music, Art and Dance within the classroom. As part of their
Communications Unit, children looked at the ways a person could communicate using
different art forms.
Each Grade 1 class began the Unit with focusing on a particular artist: 1BRo looked at
‘The Millinery Shop’ by Edgar Degas; 1MaW, ‘The Goldfish’ by Henri Matisse’; 1CRa,
‘Swinging’ by Wassily Kandinsky and 1CTh, ‘1914’ by Paul Klee
The children offered words and ideas that were stimulated by the paintings and used
this language to create a poem together. They used the thinking routine ’10 by 2’
where they had to look at the painting and write down 10 words which came to mind.
They then had to look again at the painting and write down another 10 words or phrases.
These initial ideas were then used by the class to create the class poems which
were performed at the Arts Festival. Music was selected to accompany each painting
as guided by the ideas of the poem and the children were asked to create a dance in
small groups. The final culmination of each arts activity was presented to parents at the
Arts Festival, opened and closed by the song ‘Colour My World’.
Mandy Whitehouse
Farmers for a day
The organic vegetable farm Bollywood
Vegies was full of budding
farmers on a Friday in March. All
Dover K1 classes, escorted by
experienced farm guides, wandered
the grounds learning about a variety
of plants, vegetables and fruit. Many
had the opportunity to taste some
of the produce and at the end of the
visit were treated to home-made banana
bread and a nice cup of Milo.
Definitely a trip that cultivated a lot
of new understanding!
Tiara Lesslar
Photos by the K1 Team

K2 Shoebox lunch
On Saturday, 6 March, about 50 K2 children
came to school with their parents to
take part in the annual Shoebox Lunch for
elderly people from the Tsao Foundation.
Shoeboxes, filled with toiletries and food
items kindly donated by Infant parents,
had been carefully decorated and packed
by the children in school. The children did
a superb job of interacting with our elderly
guests, singing, playing bingo, tossing the
Lo Hei, eating lunch, and presenting a
shoebox full of gifts to each of our guests.
Service is a big part of the UWCSEA
philosophy and it is fantastic that we are
able to embrace this with our K2 children
and their parents. One K2 parent commented,
“The shoe box lunch is one of
the highlights of K2 and one of the raison
d’etre my kids are in UWCSEA. It is easy
for our kids to be too sheltered but each
time I am there I am impressed by how
open, warm and loving the kids are. They
take their tasks very seriously; act as
great hosts and hostesses yet with such
joy and effervescence. I am so proud of
them.”
Helen Webster
Photos by Dav Rue Media Pte Ltd
To read Dover Primary School’s article on Book Week and Chinese New Year celebrations,
go to page 31. To read East Primary School’s article on Book Week, go to page 32.
Dunia, April 2010
23
Shoebox lunch at East
Students in K2 hosted 18 residents from
the Henderson Home earlier this school
year (Dunia, December 2009), showng
their vistors their classrooms, singing
songs and sharing their work and stories.
Then came shoebox time. Students (with
the help of their parents) collected all the
goodies for their shoeboxes at home and
bought their decorated boxes to school
in preparation for hosting the residents
of the Henderson Home and 50 of their
community members who attend the
centre on a regular basis.
On the day, the students welcomed their
visitors and quickly got to know their buddies.
The students waited on their buddy
by serving them lunch and refreshments.
After lunch they gave their very grateful
buddy their shoebox of goodies. The
Henderson Community members were
very excited to receive an acknowledgement
of Chinese New Year by the K2
students.
Margot Marks
Photos by Poonam Thapar

Dunia, April 2010
24
Grade 1 Shoebox deliveries
A main focus of the Infant social service
programme for both campuses is the
annual Shoe Box initiative which takes
place around Chinese New Year. The
Grade 1 students deliver shoeboxes full
of personal use items for every senior
citizen.
In February the Dover Grade 1 students
travelled to Ang Mo Kio to deliver shoe
boxes to elderly residents at the AWWA
Community Home for senior citizens. The
children certainly had to be risk takers
as the Community Home is very different
to anything they will have experienced
before.
As they entered the one roomed homes
of the seniors, escorted by teachers and
parents, communication was initially
difficult, as many of the residents do not
speak English. However, as the children
relaxed they discovered a common bond
as they began to sing Chinese New Year
songs together.
Delivering shoeboxes
“When I sang a song the old people
responded with a clap and they looked
happy and I was also happy because
all of them looked happy……”
Anabella
We went to the home of the aged now I
know that I am luckier than them and I
hope they have a long life.”
Harriet
“I felt scared before I went and I
thought it was going to be smelly but it
wasn’t”. They were so happy when we
gave them the shoeboxes.”
Willliam
A big thank you must go to Infant parents
for the generous donations of items that
were packed into the shoeboxes. Here
are some reflections….
Chris Fensom
East Grade 1 students have been visiting the Kheng Chiu Loke Tin Kee Home and
building stronger relationships since the beginning of the year. The week after Chinese
New Year, the students delivered their carefully-packed shoeboxes to the residents
at the home. All children had been fully involved in wrapping their shoebox in hand
painted gift wrapping paper and had also written personalized letters and cards.
The residents were delighted to receive their gifts and an email from Wilma, the manager
of the Kheng Chiu Loke Tin Kee Home says: “The elderly were full of smiles when
they received the shoebox gift and interacting with all the beautiful and lovely children.
They greatly appreciate the selection of gifts and also were overjoyed to receive the big
red packet as well. We are very grateful to all of you for bringing so much joy and cheer
to our elderly during this festive celebration. Your kind gesture is deeply appreciated by
all of us in the home.”
Photos by the Grade 1 Team
Children were asked to reflect on the visit
and it is evident that it wasn’t just the
elderly that benefited from the visit:
“I learnt that one of them was 101 years
old and I learned that they give love and
care to us also.”
Tara 1CTh
“I learnt from visiting our friends that having
visitors is fun and you can have grown
up friends too.”
Shweta 1BRo
“What I enjoyed most about visiting
Happy Lodge was we put smiles on their
faces.”
Ella 1BRo
“Something I would like to do now is visit
them again and take them for a walk
around the building. I wonder if they can
go for a walk themselves or does someone
else need to take them.”
Aishu 1CRa
“I enjoyed giving the shoeboxes and singing
songs.”
Aarohi 1MaW

K1 Caring for Living Things
Turtles, fish, hamsters, frogs, worms,
beetles, bean plants, flowers, pig grass,
vegetables - any-one would think that
East K1 had turned into a farm recently!
The Caring for Living Things UOI kicked
off with a fun field trip to the Butterfly
Park at Sentosa, where we were able to
admire these beautiful insects in an open
environment and inquire about how they
live.
Meghna’s special birthday
Meghna of
K2PTh on
the East
Campus
recently
chose to
celebrate
her birthday
with
children
who live
at the
Ramakrishna Mission Boys Home,
a facility for homeless boys. Instead
of a party with her friends, Meghna
and her family sponsored dinner
and celebrated her birthday with
residents at the home.
Meghna said she was happy to not
have a party and forfeit her birthday
gifts as she wanted to be able
to help those less fortunate than
herself.
Kate Woodford
Photo by Poonam Thapur
Photos by K1 team
Over nine weeks the students learnt
about many different living things and
how best to take care of them. We fed
all kinds of creatures and watched them
grow and change over time. It has been
fascinating to see transformations in the
frog life-cycle as well as find out information
about more unusual creatures like
jelly fish and eels. In Science we have
been discussing some food chains that
As a lead in to the
lifecycle component
of our Sharing the
Planet Unit of Inquiry,
all the K1 students
visited the Butterfly
Park & Insect Kingdom
on Sentosa. The
children had hands-on
experience with many
different kinds of insects,
creepy-crawlies
and a variety of other
animals. Most of the children were very
happy to have the insects crawling on
them, unlike some of the adults in the
party! This very informative excursion really
helped the children to understand the
importance of the other living things that
share our environment, even the creepy
ones.
Tiara Lesslar
Dunia, April 2010
25
can be observed in nature and also realizing
the importance of how one thing
survives off another.
The Music programme has also played
a part in the Living Things UOI, with
children having the opportunity to develop
their musical skills such as singing, dancing,
playing instruments and listening
to create a performance piece. Songs
included ‘Tadpole Blues’ and ‘The Three
Little Fishes’. Musical elements such as
beat, pitch and form were demonstrated
on a variety of percussion instruments
and also through performing the poem
‘Wild Beasts’. The concept of ‘form’ was
further explored through the medium of
dance, where children learnt and performed
different dance moves for different
parts of the music.
It has been a great unit for developing our
knowledge and thinking skills and we are
now looking forward to our final unit all
about water!
Sharon Martin
Dover K1s visit the Butterfly Park on Sentosa
Photos by the K1 Team

Dunia, April 2010
26
Grade 4 In the Spotlight
A mazing
R ehearsing Rosa Parkes
T echnology
S cript writing
F un
E xciting
S tomp sequences
T errific
I nteresting
V aliant voices were very loud
A cting
L earning lines
Acrostic poem by 4BHo
Students in Grade 4 on the East Campus
held their Arts Festival performance on
Thursday, 4 March. The performance was
based around the Music programme the
students have been following this academic
year, and the current Grade 4 UOI
‘In The Spotlight’.
The Penguins and Paintings Art exhibition
in the canteen opened on the evening of
the performance, and families enjoyed
the chance to mingle and appreciate the
results of nearly two terms of work in Art
classes while the students readied themselves
for the show.
‘Make a Difference’ saw the children highlight
the theme of helping others, using
real stories and examples of individuals
from around the world who have made a
difference in various ways. The students
created a performance which featured
drama, rap, rhythm, dance and lots of
action. A highlight was the stomp percussion
and the students’ energy was clearly
infectious.
Students were involved in every aspect of
the performance, and showed enormous
enthusiasm and commitment in making
sure the evening was a success. The
value of the evening in terms of learning
and teamwork was also evident in the reflections
of the students. Asked to nominate
someone who had made a special
contribution to the success of the event,
students nominated a number of support
staff as well as their fellow students:
“I am really proud of Aszri because he
had to control all of the music and lights.”
Kaymin (4KrM)
Primary School
“Mr Betts made us really cool props and an
amazing backdrop.”
Daniel (4KrM)
“Mrs Hess because of her great effort. She
chose all the perfect songs and organised
lots of things.”
Chloe (4KrM)
“Ms Adhi was very organised back stage,
she kept everyone in the performance
organised.”
Fleur (4KrM)
“I think that Rok not only used a different
voice, but he was very calm. He was always
ready and very prepared.”
Clara (4RoW)
“Anna did a phenomenal job at rapping with
us. She wasn’t scared and was great at being
loud and dancing to the beat.”
Rahul (4RoW)
“Han Bin was very encouraging when I was
going on stage.”
Ben (4RoW)
“I chose Ben because he was really good at
projecting his voice and using facial expressions.”
Paul (4RoW)
We would like to thank the parents who
came along to support the performance
as well as the PA for providing refreshments
on the night.
Karen Maheshwary, Bruce Home and Roxanne
Walker
JUNIORS
Photos by Wendy Liao

Our Wildest Dreams
The Dover Grade 4 Arts Festival entitled
In Our Wildest Dreams was a resounding
success. The children worked enthusiastically
and with great dedication preparing
for their performances. The shows were
presented over two nights and gave the
children an opportunity to display their talents
in a variety of ways including acting,
dancing and singing, some as a solo and
others in groups or as a class.
“When the spot lights hit me on the night
of the show I was nervous and excited at
the same time.“
Anna (4SZi)
“All of our hard work and practice was
worth it. The audience really liked our
show.”
Mathew (AFo)
“My favourite in our play was the dance.
We all helped create the moves and put
in a lot of effort to practice and learn all
the moves.”
Lucy (SZi)
Scott Ziemer
French Café Théâtre
In early February, the Grade 5 French
language students at the East Campus
hosted a café theatre. Enabling them to
display their skills, the group performed
their play in two acts, as well as sang and
narrated the event in French.
The full company (12 actors, one announcer
and one photographer) obviously
took enormous pleasure in presenting
‘Trois Petits Cochons’ (the Three Little
Pigs). After only six months of lessons,
the students put on an unforgettable
show for the parents and staff in the audience,
who enjoyed both the show and the
refreshments afterwards. The classroom
was decorated in French Café style, with
spectators seated around tables dressed
with red and white tablecloths and
enjoying chocolate breads, croissants,
madeleines and red or white fruit juice.
A huge thanks to all the participants for
their enthusiastic involvement and support.
Details supplied by Michelle Brohez
Dunia, April 2010
27
Photos by Joseph Tan
Photos by Rajat Chowdury and Kate Woodford

Dunia, April 2010
28
Dover Grade 5s make it to Taman Negara
The Grade 5 students finally completed
their postponed Taman Negara trip at the
end of Term 2. Having had our original
plans thwarted by the H1N1 flu bug in
September, we were delighted to finally
make the journey by overnight train, bus
and boat to the heart of the Malaysian
rainforest.
The following student reflections from
some of the different activities, give a
taste of the fun and friendship that characterizes
this long-established trip:
“All around you is an audience of trees;
you can hear insects as if they are on
tape, loud and clear.”
Millie Wright, 5FFr
“I loved shooting the rapids especially
when we were going past other boats and
spraying them with water. Our compartment
of the boat was full of water!”
Cameron Soh, 5FFr
“The night jungle walk was a bit scary
at first because it was very dark and our
guide said that many animals were nocturnal.
We saw many interesting things
like a stick insect, a scorpion, spiders and
we even saw two pairs of mouse deer
eyes.”
Gordon Chan, 5HPo
“The canopy walk was really fun but a
little bit scary because the walkway wobbled
as we stepped on it. Near the end of
the canopy walk I did my bird call and a
bird answered!”
Jennifer Gullery, 5HPo
“On the trek to Teresek Hill, I saw lots
of different types of plants like one that
can be used as shampoo for our hair and
one called a liana we could use to swing
like Tarzan. On the way up I was sweating
like mad and I drank up all my water.
When I reached the top I was relieved
and happy that we made it.”
Justin Chiu, 5CMd
“The sound of waves crashing against a
boat can be quite relaxing. I was enjoying
the scenery on the boat ride up to the
resort and taking a few snaps on my camera.
After a while, the scenery seemed
to replay so I challenged my friends to a
game. Before I knew it I was fast asleep
and someone took a photo of me!”
Hannah Deeley, 5CMd
From “field to table”
Throughout the field to table Unit of
Inquiry, East Campus Grade 2 students
have been investigating the process
food travels through, to get from the
field to our tables. At the beginning of
the unit, we uncovered our thinking by
observing artwork that portrayed some
of the people and animals involved in
food production. We used a variety of
thinking routines to help us consider and
discuss some of the underlying issues
and challenges these people may face.
We also documented our first thinking
about the origin and production of food,
and reflected and discussed our learning
and ideas as they developed further.
We had the opportunity to taste different
fruits from the supermarket, and were
amazed to discover how many countries
produce the food that we eat here in
Singapore.
We worked individually and in collaborative
groups to research and
present personal inquiries. These were
presented as photo stories, books and
posters, and followed the production of
a food product from its raw ingredients
to the finished product. We sourced our
information from a range of resources
and took notes that were relevant to the
process we were investigating.
Hamish Betts

Tampines Workers’ visit the East Campus
Tuesday, 23 February 2010 was a very
special day for everyone in the East
Campus, especially the Student Council.
It was the day when some of the workers
from the Tampines Campus construction
site came to visit.
In anticipation of the visit, the students
had already prepared a gift bag to give
to each of the one hundred workers as
a token of appreciation for their hard
work. We hoped to help the Tampines
workers feel slightly better about working
through the Chinese New Year and
having to leave their families behind in
China. Inside the gift packs were items
like “The Essence of Chicken”, toothbrushes,
toothpaste, etc. These gifts may
just seem like small things to us but were
much apprecaited by the workers.
With the visitors comfortably seated in the
hall, the presentation began. A speech
in Chinese by Monica Lee (4BHo) and
Li Ting (2MGo) from the student council
welcomed them and led to a question and
answer session about the construction
of the site. A few students from Grade 5
stepped up and asked thoughtful questions
to one of the workers, whose reply
in Chinese was translated by Wendy Liao
(Teacher) and representatives from the
constructin company.
At the end of the presentations, Kids
Aloud! (the Grade 2 choir) performed
four songs. They performed Happy Feet,
Why We Sing, Mo Li Hua (a duet by Yen
Yu (Ariel) Chang and Syrah Perrin) and
finished up with Bright Happy Day.
Following this the Student Council distributed
the gift bags and invited the workers
to enjoy a special afternoon tea full of
New Year treats. The workers enjoyed
the food, and it was soon time for them to
leave.
Reflecting on the experience, it was an
amazing and special time. Seeing the
smile on the workers’ faces as they left
made one feel very special. All in all, it
was a great experience to have been
involved in.
Pranav Gurusankar, Student Council
Dunia, April 2010
Ocean Week Poster Competition for Grade 3
Felicity Lane, Natasha Hunt and Smilla Huzell, from the Middle School Promoting
Animal Welfare (PAW) group, approached Grade 3 students asking them
to make a poster to help raise awareness for PAW’s Ocean Week. The results
were amazing! The posters were displayed in the tent plaza throughout Ocean
Week and featured messages about the desperate plight of sharks due to the
growing shark-finning industry; saving dolphins and whales from captivity, illegal
trade in turtles and other important facts and pleas. The Grade 6 girls presented
all participants with a PAW sticker and special prizes were given to the top
three posters, as judged by the girls. Congratulations go to Alana Chen (3SMc),
Lauren Ng (3SMc) and Maia Harrison (3MWh) for their outstanding posters and
many thanks to all the students who participated.
Text and photo by Karen Niedermeyer
29

Dunia, April 2010
30
Media mania at East Grade 3
We have been diving into advertisements
of every kind, finding out how understanding
advertisements helps us to make informed
choices. We have looked at many
digital and print ads and analysed how
advertisers use devices such as hooks and
features to make people want to buy their
products.
We learnt about hooks that make people
notice adverts. Just like a fishing hook,
they grab your attention and draw you in.
Some of these hooks are shock, emotions,
celebrities, trendsetters, expert opinions
and lifestyle. Advertising companies use
these to get you to watch their ads.
We are using these hooks to create our
own ads for Global Concerns products. We
have formed advertising companies and
are having fun putting together our own ad.
We were lucky enough to have some great guest speakers. One of our guests
makes ads for Coca Cola and McDonalds.
We look at ads a bit differently now.
Colman Chadam (3LoD) and Sahil Joshi (3HaB)
The Grade 3 Toys, Games and Books Fair
In March, Dover Grade 3’s held a Toys, Games and Books Fair in the Plaza Tent to raise money for our Grade 3 Global Concern,
Blue Dragon. Before the day of the Fair, a number of things happened. The first step of the process was to get people
to bring in their unwanted toys, games and books. Several Grade 3 students visited different grade assemblies to tell other
students about the Fair. All the Grade 3 students made advertising posters that were put up around the school.
Once the toys started to come in, each Grade 3 class had to sort the donated items into price groups for around 20 minutes
most days. The prices ranged from
20cents to $15.00. The toys, games
and books were put into boxes.
On the day of the Fair, all the classes
in Grade 3 took turns to sell the toys,
games and books in the Plaza tent.
We were all given stations to work
at. We even worked through some
of our break and lunch times! After
the Fair was over, we found out that
we had raised nearly $5,000 for Blue
Dragon. I was amazed that we raised
so much money because we sold a lot
of goods at low prices. I felt proud that
I had helped to raise money for the
Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in
Vietnam.
Jake Intrater (3JRy)

Dover Book Week
What a wonderful week we had! We
started off the Monday assembly with not
just one, but two authors, Alix Burrell and
John Farrell! At the assembly Alix read
her “I Hate Peas” book which is sold in
support of Tabitha GC and John engaged
us all in a couple of his songs.
Throughout the week John worked with
all the grades (except Grade 3), telling
stories and singing songs - I don’t know
how many great comments I received
from teachers and students alike about
how wonderful they thought John was
and about how well he linked his presentations
to the units of inquiry the students
were learning about in class. As well as
being an award-winning author, singer
and songwriter, John has also set up
a project called “Bridges of Peace and
Hope” in which he unites and encourages
students from around the globe to work
together to promote peace. Also, thanks
to the support of the PA, we were able to
have John with us the whole week and
he managed to fit in a thoroughly enjoyable
evening performance for parents and
children.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the Grade 3
students had the pleasure of working with
the author, Margriet Ruurs. She worked
with small groups in a writer’s workshop
setting with the focus on poetry writing.
The children were inspired and they wrote
some amazing poems which Margriet will
post on her website (www.kalwriters.com/
kidswwwrite).
During the week whenever I caught children
reading I gave them a “Caught You
Reading” ticket and at the Friday Dress
up assembly winning tickets were drawn
and the lucky winners received a prize
from none other than Geronimo Stilton!
I must say a special thank you to our
visiting authors, Alix, John and Margriet
for making this year’s book week so exciting....and
keep reading!
Lorena Ferreira
The Lion welcomes the Tiger
Dunia, April 2010
The College lion dancers this year welcomed in the Year of the Tiger with a lively
dance. For a change, the two adult lions were teased by ‘Da Tou Wa Wa’ (literally
translated as big headed doll), a legendary Chinese clown who provokes the lions
to a more spirited display. The Infants, resplendent in their traditional Chinese New
Year colours of red, orange and yellow, were in good voice as they sang popular
New Year songs. This was followed by a Chinese opera song from the Junior Chinese
singers and a stunning peacock dance. The festivities continued at lunchtime
with a mini Chinese fair where Primary students could turn their hand to Chinese
craft,‘kick the shuttlecock’ , try the lion dance or buy a range of Chinese goodies.
This lively day of activities ensured the new lunar year started with a roar.
Dawn Hull
31

Dunia, April 2010
32
“Reading Opens Doors: Step into the Magic”
...was the theme of this year’s Book
Week at the East Campus, where each
day of the week brought a different focus.
The week started with Mother Tongue
Monday, i.e., languages other than
English. Grade 2 students had a visit
with local author Adeline Foo, who taught
them some Baba Malay words during
her presentation on her picture books
which feature the Peranakan culture, The
Kitchen God and The Beaded Slippers.
On Poem-in-your-Pocket Tuesday everyone
shared their favorite poems. The
overwhelming favorite poem was online:
a video of former UK Children’s Laureate
Michael Rosen performing his No
Breathing in Class. Students repeatedly
watched the performance, along with his
rendition of his picture book, Going on a
Bear Hunt on the Book Buzz mini-blog,
which was unveiled in honour of Book
Week - http://bookbuzz.tumblr.com.
Book Award Wednesday was the last day
for students to vote in the Red Dot Book
Awards, an initiative of the international
school teacher-librarians in Singapore
to encourage children to read recently
published quality books from around the
world in four categories: Picture Book,
Junior, Middle, and Senior. Junior students
voted online, while Infant students
voted at the station in the library. Over
7,000 votes were cast in the awards by
students from a number of international
schools in Singapore. The winning titles
can be viewed on the Red Dot Awards
website: www.reddotawards.com.
Get Real Thursday recognised great nonfiction,
while Book Character Dress-Up
Day on Friday made for a very colorful
assembly. Students were entertained by
Garde 4 teacher Bruce Home, a master
storyteller. Throughout the week classes
also enjoyed guest readers and more
D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read)
time than usual. Students had a chance
to increase their home libraries thanks
to APD Books, who ran a sale in the
canteen and to the Grade 3 “Read and
Recycle” sale on Friday morning, with
proceeds going to support literacy in our
various service projects. The cap to Book
Week was a visit by Margriet Ruurs, an
award-winning picture book author from
Canada.
Katie Day
Making new friends
In March, East Grade 5 started their service programme with a visit from the Darul
Ma’wa Jamiyah Children’s Home in Eunos, which cares for orphaned, neglected and
at risk children. We chose a day in the Singaporean school holidays for a group of
residents to come to the campus for a day of friendship, activities and educational
experiences.
The Grade 5s took the lead in familiarising the Jamiyah children with our school
through a series of planned activities centring on the recent Simple Machines Unit
of Inquiry. The activities focused on the
specialist curriculum areas of Art, PE, ICT,
Music and Technology and were thoroughly
enjoyed by all participants.
The Grade 5’s all made new friends and
hope this will be the start of a solid service
link for the future. East Campus runs a
number of service programmes in conjunction
with Jamiyah Singapore.
Luke Whitehouse
Photos by Wendy Liao
Photo by East Campus staff

Middle School
United World College of South East Asia
The Paper Bag Factory Simulation
On a regular day of school at a regular
lunch time we were told to gather into the
Tent Plaza, to create paper bags to pay
for food, rent, health care and sanitation
for our shanty towns. We were briefed
and told where to go and what to do. The
brief was simple; to make paper bags
for the El Hopa shopping districts. If we
could not afford rent, food or sanitation
we had to take a loan from the money
lender and we had to pay it back with a
high interest rate. He would even take
our personal belongings and he would
only give them back if we paid back our
loan.
When we found our mat, one of a sea of
green mats, one member of the group
was asked to come up and learn how to
create the bag. Then that person would
teach us, and we would make paper bags
for what felt like eternity. We had to sell
these bags to the shop owners to earn
enough grots to pay for our rent, food,
medical and sanitation costs. If we had
any spare money, we could try and send
someone in our ‘family’ to school. We did
not get any breaks and the shopkeepers
were very mean. They threw away paper
bags that did not meet the right criteria.
I did not know that people had to work
such long hours in reality and for so little
money. It surprised me how hard we had
to work and by the end of it we were very
tired.
The biggest surprise we got from this
simulation was how little we got paid and
how much the rent was. We had to make
more than 270 grots in only ten minutes
to cover just our basic rent, food and
sanitation costs, but we only managed to
make 200 grots.
We were granted hope when a local
organization came and started giving us
education for a small fee. Now we could
leave our paper bag factory. But, alas,
we were bonded through loans to the authorities
and we didn’t have a chance. It
was a great experience but a tough one.
Charlie, Adithya and Sophia 6EBr
‘I think in reality it would be a lot harder.
‘There would be no fans, nor music and
much harsher conditions. We had to give
our shoes away in order to make enough
money to pay for the rent and some of
us also sold our watches, hair bands,
whatever we had.’
Sophia
Dunia, April 2010
33
‘I learnt and experienced how thousands
of children are living and working every
day and how quickly people get sick due
to the lack of sanitation. There are more
answers to what I learnt, but these are
two of the biggest and most saddening
problems people face.‘
Ysien
‘The way we were treated during the
simulation was very harsh. I was a little
surprised at first, but then realised that
this was what happened in the real world
and how lucky I am not to have to work
at a young age. I get to go to school; I’m
healthy, with a secure home.’
Nicha
‘For the simulation, I Iearnt about the
reality of child labour and it is horrific.
These children have to work so long without
food, water or breaks. Every month
my group failed to pay the rent and we
never had enough for food.’
Charlie
‘I learnt many things from this simulation
such as how boring it was to make paper
bags. I also learnt that if other people
stole our newspaper the police just didn’t
care. There were many things that surprised
me.’
Kritika

Dunia, April 2010
34
Our Country’s Good
I
have always had a keen, personal
interest in Australian history and the
story of the first play ever produced
there in a penal colony by convicts and
marines seemed like fascinating material,
first plundered by Thomas Keneally and
then by Timberlake Wertenbaker. The
play (about the production of The Recruiting
Officer by George Farquar) brings us
dangerously closer to a fiery past and
forces us to scrutinise details of history
that we would probably have preferred
to gloss over; the characters are accessible,
visceral and ultimately real. They all
have problems, dreams, ghosts from the
past and they are all brought together in
a context that creates inexorable tension
and conflict. No one is innocent.
Had you been at the production you
would have noticed by the set and
costume design that we were no longer
in Australia in 1788! For this production
we joined the SS Sirius going boldly on
her voyage into unchartered and hostile
territory. This was great material for
a Middle School cast of energetic and
intelligent students who grappled with the
intense material with astonishing maturity
and found something of themselves in
these frighteningly real, abraded human
stories. The characters seem caught up
in something much bigger and uglier than
themselves. Everyone lives in fear. Everyone
is uncertain of their future.
There is a light in the dark of the constellations
- Our Country’s Good is also
about the power of art to liberate, a
well-substantiated reality in contemporary
educational practices and as a process
for addressing issues of social injustice
more broadly in the community.
“This could affect all the convicts and
even ourselves, we could forget our
worries about the supplies, the hangings
and the floggings, and think of
ourselves at the theatre…we could…
transcend the brutality – remember
our better nature and remember –
home.”
Ralph Clarke
Sincerest thanks to cast and crew. There
were so many outstanding moments and
performances! These would not have
been possible without a competent crew
who gave the magnificent set, provided
by our outstanding set designer, a life of
its own. These would not have been
possible without an efficient stage
and skilled technical crew who gave
the magnificent set, provided by our
outstanding set designers and set
builders, a life of its own. The excellent
costumes complimented the
futuristic setting and further enhanced
the believability of the cast in their
various roles.” Stealing gratuitously
from the last words of the inimitable
Captain James Tiberius Kirk I can say
most sincerely that, “It was fun.”
Photos by Henry Chang and Ishaan Srivastava

“Aprem Tektonik”
In early February, the French Department
held an “Aprem Tektonik” (an afternoon of
Tektonik) for all students in Grade 5 and
Middle School who are learning French.
In the build up to the event, the students
learnt all about the French cultural phenomenon
“Tektonik” during their regular
French classes. They watched videos of
young people in France, meeting up on
a Saturday afternoon to dance Tektonik
style in outdoor venues. They learned the
vocabulary for the very particular Tektonik
dress code which includes fluorescent
colours, chequered shoes and fingerless
gloves with hair styled into a Mohawk.
They also learned the lyrics of the techno
songs so that they could sing along to
their favourite numbers. The students
also practised the Tektonik dance form
which predominantly involves the upper
body and very fast arm movements.
On the day of the “Aprem.” our young students,
fully accomplished in the Tektonik
dance style, were kitted out in Tektonik
fashion - skinny jeans, tektonik t-shirts,
long flourescent socks and fluorescent
belts and bangles! The students had really
taken this afternoon seriously. Once
in the hall, they gathered around the large
video screen to watch tektonik dance
videos and to practise all their moves for
the big dance competition!
BBC News School Report at UWCSEA
BBC News School Report is a world-wide project organised by
the BBC where Middle School students get the chance to work as
professional journalists. This year news teams worked towards the
deadline of 11 March 2010 when their work went live to the world.
Seven budding journalists from Grades 7 and 8 set up a news team
at UWCSEA. They produced some impressively professional work
and their news website went live on BBC World Class.
After several weeks of training how to
write interesting, well constructed, ethical
and unbiased articles, they set to work
composing their masterpieces. Benjamin,
Jane and Petra focused on national news
stories including the Singapore Youth Olympics,
the opening of Universal Studios
on Sentosa and casino crime in Singapore.
Chae Hyun opted for a school-based feature
article celebrating the Grade 8 Chiang Mai
expedition. Apoorva also reported on South
The Aprem kicked off with a performance
of the Can Can by a group of High School
students, followed by a Tektonik dance
choreographed and performed by Upper
School students - two very different styles
of French culture! The Senior School
students then taught their Tektonik dance
moves to the Grade 5 and Middle School
students.
All the different year groups were invited
up onto the stage to show off their dancing
skills and their singing voices. The
dancing was amazing and, after much
deliberation, the Upper School students
selected Giulia Bardelli (Grade 8) and
Daniel Djerf (Grade 7) as best dancers.
For the singing, Simone Bhagat and
Elinor Walker (both Grade 6) are to be
commended for learning all the French
lyrics and for singing a Tektonik song in
French in front of everyone! Well done!
The most difficult decisions were the
prizes for the best dressed students
because everyone had made such a
Dunia, April 2010
35
fantastic effort. Finally the judges chose
Isabelle De Bruin (Grade 6) and Shray
Pahwa (Grade 5).
Not only was the ‘Aprem’ a great success
for the students of French but over $400
was raised from the sausage sizzle by
two Grade 11 students and members of
UCOV GC. They took the money raised
to the Blue Dragon shelter in Vietnam
where they worked during Project Week.
Sharon Tett
East Asia, writing about the plight of the orangutan in the palm
oil forests of Borneo and Indonesia. Elisha decided to spread
her focus further afield and reported on a toy tourism company
in Prague. Finally, Rahul wrote a science-based article about a
sea slug which is both a plant and an animal. It was certainly an
eclectic and interesting range of topics.
I congratulate the students involved for
all of their hard work and hope to see
them writing in international broadsheets
in the future!
If you want to read their work for yourself,
please log onto the school microsite at:
http://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/bbcreports.
Annie Jilbert
The UWCSEA BBC News Team!

Dunia, April 2010
36 High School
United World College of South East Asia
Adversus
This year’s dance production Adversus was, once again, an astounding fusion of some
of UWCSEA’s most talented performing artists. Just like the dance shows of previous
years, Adversus was choreographed entirely by students - but this was not the clumsy or
far-too-ambitious event that one might expect. Far from it. In fact, the large success of the
previous dance shows ensured sufficient enthusiasm from the student body that Adversus
was sold out almost, it seemed, as soon as the posters went up.
I was one of the lucky few able to buy some of the last tickets, and I can say with complete
conviction that it was worth every second. The show started with a contemporary blend of
lyrical and hip-hop styles of dance, and nineteen pieces later ended with a grand finale,
showing off for a final time the dancers’ skilled movements and precise coordination.
At the end of the show, I walked away with a firm impression that this dance show was a
tremendous success. Apart from the wonderful dancing and choreography, the lighting
was fantastic and enthralling at every point, and there was even live music for one dance.
And of course, the biggest indicator of success made itself evident during the show itself –
audience members clapped and cheered at throughout. Adversus added a much needed
dash of energy as the end of term approached, meeting, and in some ways surpassing,
previous standards in a way both extraordinary and typical of UWCSEA.
Prerna Bakshi, writing for The Other Side
The show was produced by two Grade 12 students, Natalie Walker and Erina Jones, who co-ordinated
a team of talented student choreographers. Technical director Daniella Ball was supported by
students who operated sound and lighting. Hair and make-up design was conceived and executed by
High School students who gave the performers a very distinctive appearance.
The Mystery of Irma Vep
‘The Mystery of Irma Vep’ was directed
by Irene Malone and performed by two
Senior School students, Fraser Barton
and Nicolas Carter, in the Small Hall in
March. The play, by Charles Ludlam, is a
satire of several theatrical and film genres,
including Victorian melodrama, farce
and the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘Rebecca’.
The play also includes references to (and
appearances by) vampires, ghosts, mummies
and werewolves.
The show requires an impressive number
of sound cues, props, special effects, and
lightning-quick costume changes, all of
which were achieved in a completely professional
manner. The two actors played
eight roles of both sexes. The speed at
which they exited and reappeared in a
different costume as one of the many
characters they played literally astounded
the audience. Both performers achieved
an excellent level of energy and standard
of commitment to the characterisation of
their many roles.
However, the contribution made by
the invisible workers, who made it all
possible with their efficient work behind
the set cannot be ignored. Led by Scho
Wolers as Stage Manager, the backstage
crew consisted of Jacopo di Marco, Lara
van der Heijden, Sally Carter and Estee
Leigh. Joaquin Gonzalez Milburn and
Nikhil Sambamurthy completed the team
as sound and lighting operators respectively.
Hitomi Iwamoto supplied occasional
music on keyboard. Outstanding
performances, assured direction and slick
backstage and technical support ensured
that audiences enjoyed a light-hearted
and hilarious evening’s entertainment.
Lynne Arrol
Photos by Jose Carlos Zavarse Pinto
Photos by Kalyani Priyadarsh

One Young World
I
was standing in front of a crowd of
journalists holding the Sierra Leone
flag with some 500 other flag bearers.
When I turned around, behold - I saw
Desmond Tutu and Bob Gelfdof flanking
me on either side. I immediately turned
towards them and with a sense of boldness,
I initiated conversation right away.
This is not a fairy tale but the reality of my
One Young World (OYW) experience.
The first day was hectic but amazing.
Lots of delegates arrived full of passion
and enthusiasm for the conference.
During the inaugural ceremony, I had
the privilege to talk to many prominent
personalities in the world stage; it was
indeed a ‘wow’ moment talking to Desmond
Tutu and Bob Geldof as we posed
for a photo taking session. During the
interactive sessions I met many eminent
personalities such as Former President
Alejandro Toledo of Peru and HRH Prince
Fredrick of the Netherlands (the founder
and president of the World Youth Forum)
who appointed me as Sierra Leone’s representative
to the World Youth Forum and
a potential delegate of the World Youth
Forum conference in Costa Rica 2011.
Inspirational and motivational speeches
from Bob Geldof and Desmond Tutu were
the highlights of the Opening Ceremony.
When I heard of the OYW Summit, I
thought it was just any other minor summit,
but seeing the names of the people
involved and its objective, I realized that it
was far more than I had imagined. I was
curious to determine the probability of me
attending the conference, so I went to the
website and started reading the profiles of
my fellow applicants. I was astonished to
discover that most of them are Presidents
of their countries Youth Parliaments, human
rights activists, playwrights, authors
and the like. Knowing that there were not
that many donors out there, I was pessimistic
about my chance of being chosen
for sponsorship among the many fine
applicants.
It was not just about meeting eminent
personalities, but the honor of securing
a spot for Sierra Leone and the African
continent cannot be over emphasized. I
know for sure that the inclusion of Sierra
Leone’s name among the 192 countries
to take part in the world’s first OYW summit
is the greatest gift I can offer at this
point in time to UWCSEA and my nation.
So I wrote my profile and posted it on the
One Young World Website and then waited
anxiously for the outcome. For some
reason, I was one of the lucky ones. I was
fully sponsored by Christian Svesas for
the 3000 Euros I needed to attend.
During week before the conference other
delegates and I became friends on Facebook.
There were also online discussion
forums on the six major issues to be discussed
at the conference. This was effective
in creating a large-scale community
intellectual debate prior to the summit.
I arrived in London and my first day was
centered on making new friends and
doing further preparation for the debating
sessions. It’s so inspiring to learn what
your fellow delegates have accomplished.
What an opportunity to be in the midst of
young leaders from all spectrums of life.
They were from all walks of life and every
corner of the globe with their hearts longing
for world change.
The second day of the summit was really
intense and challenging. We had plenary
and debating sessions on: the environment
and its protection, interfaith dialogue
and the role of global business, together
with presentations from keynote speakers,
Professor Mohammed Yunus and
Senator John Kerry. The atmosphere was
alive with inspiration and motivation - to
the extent that countries within each continent
started merging together to form
their own One Young World Network.
This gave birth to the One Young World
African Network (OYWAN), whose aim is
Dunia, April 2010
37
to “create a global meeting point for those
passionate about the African people.
Through the power of social media and
interpersonal networks, OYWAN will
serve as a practical platform from which
young African leaders can launch projects
and share ideas.”
Finally I came in contact with students
and alumni of other United World Colleges.
The advice that most stays in my
mind, though I cannot remember the
words exactly, came from Kofi Anan who
suggested that “If leaders fail to lead then
we, the followers, need take up the reins
of leadership.” This was more than sufficient
to substantiate the roles of youth in
politics at this point in time.
During the final day of the summit, we did
plenary and debating sessions on changing
the power of the media and global
health and politics for a positive future.
We then broke into groups that would
facilitate concrete actions. Then finally,
we listened to the farewell speeches that
climaxed this historical event.
In times like these when the world is
faced with natural disasters, conflict, terrorism
and economic meltdown; there is
a need for young people who will eventually
become leaders in their respective
countries to engage in a dialogue with the
sole aim of finding solutions to tackle the
problems that lie ahead of us. This was a
significant part of the OYW Summit. With
all this, the OYW means a lot to me in
terms of political relations above all and
was an extension of my UWC experience.
These two years at UWCSEA are
intertwined with fascinating memories that
will linger in my mind when embarking on
future journeys.
Pandit Mami (12Abe), Sierra Leonean National
Committee scholar

Dunia, April 2010
38
Cheshire Homes Visit
We recently had the pleasure of visiting a home for severely disabled adults called
‘Cheshire Home’. One of our goals was to gain insight into Upper School student
involvement in local service and to find out about the challenges of communicating with
people who have disabilities. Take John (pictured), a resident at the home, who understands
English, but is unable to speak; he is able to make his wishes understood through
a series of facial expressions and nods. Through trial and error, we eventually managed
to help him water his beloved plants in the back garden! John was encouraging and constantly
had a smile on his face, making helping and talking to him all the more rewarding.
Here are the thoughts of some of the Grade 9 students we spoke to:
“It’s a great experience working with these people because it gives me such gratification
to know that I am making a difference” and “In my previous schools we never had
the opportunity to work with disabled people so I found it interesting and felt a sense of
achievement after seeing them smile”
Our visit to Cheshire Home is one that we will treasure forever because to walk into a
room and have so many faces smiling at you is truly a once in a lifetime experience.
Talking to all the students that regularly visit the home showed us how much the students
enjoy it because not only does it make the people happy but it makes the students
happy because even doing some small act kindness like watering plants makes them
feel like they have made a difference. This truly was a pleasurable and heartwarming
experience and we hope that we can go back to Cheshire Home again.
Danielle Iserlis (10JLC), Ambika Chanrai (10DWi) and Yuka Shimizu (10JLC) - Service Initiative
Awareness Group
Dutch trip to Melaka
The time to leave to Melaka had finally
come for us, the Dutch students of Grade
9 and 10. There were nine of us - seven
students, our teacher and a parent on a
weekend to study the Dutch cultural heritage
in a town occupied by the Dutch from
1641 to 1825.
Welcomed by a big billboard “Selamat
datang ke Melaka”, we drove into the
town and our attention was immediately
drawn to the brilliant red buildings, many
of them built by the Dutch, including the
Stadthuys and Christ Church.
After checking into our hotel, we had
a very satisfying meal, then roamed
through Melaka’s night market. The next
day, we went on the ‘Dutch trail’, a trail
leading to old sites built or influenced by
the Dutch. Our first stop was Saint Paul’s
church built by the Portuguese but later
turned into a Protestant church, where we
located and analyzed gravestones with
Dutch inscriptions. We continued our walk
to the Porta de Santiago, originally built
in S-shape by the Portuguese to avoid
direct cannon fire. After the Dutch conquered
Melaka from the Portuguese in
1641, they added the year ‘1660’ on the
Photo by Elly Kreijkes
gate as well as the symbol of the VOC,
the ‘Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
(United East Indies Company).
As we walked on, we passed the Dutch
cemetery for high-ranking VOC officers
and their families, and we also found
British gravestones from the 19 th century.
There were about 30 graves in total, and
it was our “job” to find a particular one of
a Dutch woman. Fortunately we did have
a map. Then we visited the most interesting
site of all, the Stadthuys, which was
once the residence of the Dutch gover-
nor, and has now been transformed into a
museum. Inside we could see how people
lived a couple of centuries ago, and how
the drainage system was built from the
house to the Melaka River. Our last stop
before lunch was Christ Church, built by
the Dutch in 1741, to commemorate 100
years of their presence in Melaka.
After a short rest, we visited 8 Heeren
Street, a house built by the Dutch and recently
restored with the help of the Dutch
Government. Our tour guide mentioned
that the Dutch were masters at building
houses that were strong and durable, and
they knew how to vary the height of the
houses to combat fires that could easily
destroy whole streets.
The Melaka trip was fun and interesting,
and I believe that Dutch students
will enjoy this trip in the future, as we
learn about our country’s influence in
Asia and how layers of different cultures,
Portuguese, Dutch, British, Chinese and
Malaysian, are intertwined.
Michiel Vriens

An Astounding Experience
“I woke up this morning, thinking what is MUN? What the heck am I doing here?”
claimed the delegate of Ghana during his opening speech. He expressed the thoughts
of many of us in the room, who were about to embark on one of the most exciting
activities we would ever participate in. Months of preparation had boiled down to this
opening day of the 6 th Annual Singapore International Model United Nations (SIMUN)
Conference!
Dressed in office wear and ties tied like nooses around our necks, the 15 UWCSEA
Grade 10 delegates awaited anxiously for the start of the SIMUN conference. Our
hard work leading up to the conference included researching the foreign policy of the
country assigned to us and drawing up a resolution for a global issue. The resolution
represents an “action plan” to solve global issues, in accordance with the foreign policy
of the assigned country. After months of research, preparation, and shopping for the
perfect suit; it was time for the delegates of each country to separate into their different
committees. Here they would find other like minded nations and attempt to gain support
for their resolution. After the first day of preparation and networking with others,
student delegates then had to defend the views of their country and the points offered
in their resolution. This is truly the highlight of the experience, with fast paced debate
and well crafted (or not so well crafted) questions voiced by others. The formalities of
the parliamentary procedure followed at the conference, such as always speaking in
the third person, provided some comic relief and made the experience memorable.
This style of debate and many other aspects of MUN conferences replicate actual UN
procedures and allows for delegates to gain an appreciation for the UN.
The three days of SIMUN conference were a journey taking us from being confused
students to well versed delegate. This experience is one that I challenge all UWCSEA
students to undertake.
Akshay Chauhan (10JLC)
South East Asia Mathematics Competition
Near the end of February, a group of six
Grade 9 students, consisting of Chantal
Chevroulet, Eugene Choe, Jae Ryoung
Koo, Justin Lee, Akari Mikita and Timothy
Thong departed for Hong Kong, to
partake in the 10 th annual South East
Asian Math Competition (SEAMC). It was
an unforgettable event, where hundreds
of young mathematicians across Asia
came to compete. From the moment we
walked into the opening ceremony, we
knew that this was going to be a math
competition like no other. The scale of the
competition was much larger than we had
come across before and it was a two-day
competition.
The competition was composed of
several varied rounds and most were
team-based, involving quick thinking
and mathematical creativity. There were
rounds based on sequences and some
involved unconventional mathematics
- such as origami and knot tying. One
interesting round was the Island Challenge,
in which we went around the island
of Hong Kong, following a pre-determined
trail and completing activities at certain
locations. During this challenge we visited
many interesting locations - such as the
Peak and local markets. Also during both
nights, we stayed up late trying to solve
the ‘Long Questions,’ challenging questions
assigned to us in the beginning and
meant to be solved during our spare time.
Every round offered something unique
and was both challenging and interesting.
On the last day of the competition, we
attended the gala dinner held at the Hong
Kong Football Club. During the dinner we
reflected upon what we had done in those
two days and although we didn’t gain a
place in the top three, we came away with
a sense of achievement. We had also
met lots of new people with a common
interest - mathematics.
SEAMC was originally created to bring
young mathematicians together and it
did meet its purpose. However we came
away having done more than just that
and I’m sure it is a memory that we will
continue to cherish in the future.
Eugene Choe (9SMa)
Dunia, April 2010
39
“I loved it! The experience was intense! I
have newfound respect for international
negotiations between countries”
Erica Jensen (10VHi), representing Brazil
“This experience enhanced my skill of
thinking on my feet, whilst addressing a
large crowd”
Daryus Medora (10BMW), representing Sri
Lanka

Dunia, April 2010
40
Parents’ Association
Dover Parents’ Association Early Christians Walking Tour
Dear Parents,
Message to Quiz Lovers: Never mind. It’s not over. Quiz Night will be back in first term
of the new school year! With so many great events planned at school and in greater
Singapore I was only a little surprised that we had to postpone our Caribbean Quiz
Night last month due to lack of numbers. Our Quizmaster and parent Julia Russell has
put together a quiz full of fun and challenge and can’t wait to see you all at Quiz Night
later in the year.
Our Seniors are in their final throes of school now. As the last weeks approach, I am
looking forward to Spirit Week this month and seeing what surprises the Seniors have
in store. I also wonder what group of Grade 11s will get the corner black table in the
Tent Plaza.
On a personal note I say farewell a number of many Senior’s parents whom I have
enjoyed knowing during these past ten years. I think we will have had as many shared
experiences during our time at the College as our children will have to take with them.
As parents we can all feel for the Seniors as they say goodbye to this meaningful and
important phase of their lives and look towards the next exciting episode, with some
rather gruelling exams in between.
For the younger students the future is a
little further off but it was made to feel a
little closer for many who attended the
Careers Fair 2010 in February. Hundreds
of students from High School and their
parents attended the Fair to meet and chat
with around 80 professionals who kindly
gave up their Saturday afternoon for the
students. There was plenty to grab everyone’s
interest from the free ice-creams to the realisation that you can make a career
using Social Media like Facebook! Meanwhile the University and Counselling teams
put together some useful presentations to help the younger students gear up for their
subject choices and beyond. It was wonderful to see so many members of the Alumni
who volunteered to come along. Those who had experienced Careers Fairs in the past
stressed how valuable it had been for them. There are many to thank for making this
event so successful. We offer sincere thanks to our school heads, teachers, counsellors,
alumni, and especially the parents for supporting this worthwhile bi-annual event.
The PA is fortunate to have the support of so many parents for its activities. We have
an active group of Grade and Nationality Reps who help us get our messages out and
liaise with their own smaller parent groups. One parent who has been a powerhouse
for the Korean Community is Rany Han. Rany, better known as ‘Korea 911’ has helped
in countless ways with her own nationals and the wider community from giving advice
on Korean academic matters to assisting with socialising and fundraising. Rany will
be sorely missed by the PA once she ‘graduates’ in May and we hope she can find a
replacement from her dynamic nationality group.
So the year gallops on to third term and there is still a lot left in store for the students
and parents. If you would like to find out more about the Dover Parents’ Association,
want to help out or have any feedback or comments please get in touch with us at
pauwc@uwcsea.edu.sg.
Finally let me wish the best of luck to all the Seniors in their final exams and hope they
remember what our wise friend Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until
it’s done.”
Best wishes,
Photo by Sunghye Joo
In early March, 10 parents from
East and Dover Campuses went on
a three-hour walking tour to several
of the Singapore’s first churches,
including St Joseph’s Church, Cathedral
of the Good Shepherd, Armenian
Church and St Andrew’s Cathedral.
The churches, all in the historic part
of Singapore between the Padang
and Fort Canning, represented the
Portuguese, French, Armenian and
English foreign communities in Singapore
from the mid 1850s.
Guide Claudia Klaver gave a very
informative tour about the arrival of
the pastors, the nature of their work,
the manner in which the churches
were funded and built and the construction
and details about the actual
structures. We learnt how the people
like Paterson, Sarkies, Coleman and
MacPherson - who all have roads
names after them - were very active
in their churches at the time.
The Armenian Church was the
oldest, with a small circular hall
preserved in its original form. Several
churches still retain a vibrant
community, now composed of a mix
of Chinese, Eurasian and Indian
Singaporeans as well as migrant and
expat communities such as Koreans
and Filipinos. In fact, while we were
at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd,
there was a Korean language
service taking place!
The idea of the walking tours was
to provide way the participants from
both campuses can come together
on common ground to walk, talk
and bond. This was the second of
a planned series of walks and the
event once again lived up to its expectations.

SEALinks
PACE Lihuk Philippines Visit
Together with my PACE colleagues, Leng
and Shernaz, we recently visited Cebu
City in the Philippines, where the PACE
community sponsors underprivileged
scholars and runs a feeding program for
50 children in local squatter areas. PACE
helps in two areas of Cebu City - Calamba
and Talisay, in conjunction with Lihuk
Panagihuisa and the Spanish community.
Never having visited the Philippines
before, I was completely open about what
to expect. I know the country is impoverished
and the stench and squalor was
sometimes extreme, but I was overwhelmed
with the warmth and generosity
of the local people we met. The centres at
Lihuk are well-run and the social workers
and staff care deeply about the students
and their families.
We visited an elementary school where
we run a feeding program - the classrooms
are so overcrowded by our standards,
but PACE parental help has converted
a disused, dirt-floored area, into a
room where our scholars are fed twice a
day during term time. This is sometimes
the only meals these children have and
staff monitoring has shown huge improvements
in growth, concentration, grades
and self-esteem.
Most families were open to us about
their situations and their needs, and
are extremely grateful for our support of
When hands reach out in friendship, hearts are touched with
joy.
Chinese New Year was celebrated with loud shouts of “Lo
Hei” while tossing the prosperity Yu Sheng salad high!
Thank you to the Gek Poh Ville CC Troupe who sang
traditional Chinese New Year songs in dialect & Mandarin
& danced which brought the appreciative old folks down
memory lane. They also distributed Lai See (lucky red packets
and Mandarin oranges).
We also thank Imperial Treasure Restaurant for their very
generous donation of five platters of Prosperity salad and
the wonderful and healthy lunch which fed the HCA folks,
staff and volunteers.
their children. On more than one occasion
I was overcome with emotion at the
sharing of unimaginably tragic family
situations. Every family had a story to
tell - illness, poverty, broken families,
grandparents struggling to raise children,
unemployment and hunger.
The key to helping these families is education
and it was pleasing to see many
of the scholars doing so well. We were
treated to concerts which showcased
some incredibly talented young individuals.
Many of them were brimming with
confidence whilst telling us of their hopes
and dreams, which our sponsorship has
helped them strive towards.
The wonderful community spirit was
evident at both centres, with the high
school and college students mentoring
the younger children. A playgroup has
started at Talisay with parent involvement,
which is helping the whole community.
Some of the mothers we met are
trying to get micro-businesses started by
making recycled bags and beaded jewellery
- a small beginning, but their enthusiasm
and confidence was apparent.
We also visited a squatter area in Calamba
where a fire ravaged homes in
early December 2009, affecting many of
our scholar families. The UWCSEA community
was very generous in raising over
$10,000 towards the rebuilding costs,
PACE at HCA Hospice Day Care
Dunia, April 2010
41
which we witnessed and is probably halfway
completed.
Our recent school backpack drive was
clearly a huge success - everything we
sent was very much appreciated and
in evident use! We hope to repeat the
success this year. The communities have
had their first “Gap Year” students visiting
from the College and were really excited
about the impending visits of two groups
of Year 11 “Project Week” students.
It was extremely gratifying to see firsthand
how sponsorship is helping these
children and that directing funds to exactly
where needed is helping families and
communities as a whole. We were overwhelmed
with messages of thanks and
appreciation to the UWCSEA community
for its continued support. Personally, it
was an incredible experience which I
can’t wait to repeat and I’d encourage
any of our community to become involved
in this worthwhile cause.
Alison Kennedy-Cooke
In March after all
the excitement and
merrymaking of
Christmas followed
by Chinese New
Year it was time
to focus on good
health. Thank you
to Serena Tan for
introducing Gentle
Yoga so cheerfully
and with great humour and making it so much fun for all.
The folks were very determined to keep up and so were the
PACE volunteers!
Leng Holz

Dunia, April 2010
42
Alumni
Alumni Newsbites
Alumna plays in Netball Europe Open
Championship 2010
Asha Tett, Class of 2004, will play for
England in the Netball Europe Open tournament,
April 2010. All the best to Asha.
Young alumnus plans to break a solo
sailing record
Conrad Manning, Class of 2011, plans
to embark on a record breaking solo attempt
to circumnavigate the globe in July
2011- a total of 21,600 nautical miles, in
under five months. We wish Conrad success
in his preparation and sponsorship
goals.
One°North, the Alumni Magazine of
UWCSEA
The first five issues of the UWCSEA
alumni magazine are available in print
and online pdf versions. If you would like
to receive a copy, please write to alumni@uwcsea.edu.sg.
The sixth issue will
be available in July.
Alumni Website Updates
The UWCSEA alumni website has
over 6,000 registered members. It is a
password-protected site keeping alumni
up to date with UWCSEA news, events
and alumni services.
The Career section of the site contains
permanent, intern and volunteer opportunities
from around the world which are
regularly listed as they come to our attention.
Registered members of the site are
able to sign up to receive alerts as new
postings are added to various categories.
Please feel free to advertise your openings
through our site.
The new Mentor section of the alumni
site lists the names and contact details of
alumni who are willing to be contacted by
current senior students or recent alumni
for university, programme of study, location
or career advice. Alumni and senior
students are welcome to sign up to access
or join the Mentor programme.
The Friends of UWCSEA website is available
to parents of UWCSEA students,
current and past. It is located at http://
friends.uwcsea.edu.sg. Please feel free to
visit or join.
Recent Reunions
Third annual Singapore December Holiday Alumni Reunion, 21 December
2009.
Over 125 alumni and guests who were either back in Singapore for the holidays, or
who live and work here, gathered at the Singapore American Club for an evening of
mingling and reconnection. The event grew quite
significantly this year, and we are already looking
forward to seeing everyone back again next year!
Fourth Annual London Alumni Reunion, 22
January 2010
The Fourth Annual London alumni event drew
more than 320 alumni and guests who joined the
Head of College and other staff for the evening, meeting and reconnecting with other
former students now living and working in the UK.
First Annual New York Alumni Reunion, 23
January 2010
Our very first alumni get-together in New York
was held at the Singapore Mission to the UN in
Manhattan, with more than 150 New York and
area alumni registered for the event.
San Francisco Alumni Reunion, 29 January 2010
Our first US West Coast get-together took place in San Francisco at the end of January.
We look forward to having these get-togethers become annual events.
Kuala Lumpur Alumni get-together, 24
March 2010
We most recently held a Kuala Lumpur gettogether
which attracted over 65 alumni. What
an amazing turnout!! We look forward to more
events like this in the future.
Upcoming Reunions
2010 22 May Atlanta Alumni get-together - Atlanta, Georgia, USA
27-29 August Reunion 2010! Celebrating the Classes of 1980, 1985,
1990 and 2000 - Singapore
October Melbourne Alumni get-together - Melbourne, Australia
2011 26-28 August Reunion 2011! Celebrating the Classes of 1976, 1981,

Dunia, June 2007
Dunia, April 2010
UWCSEA graduate Kirsten Scott, Class of 2001, runs a marathon
and a medical charity for Zimbabwe by Karoline Popp, Class of 2002
Originally from Zimbabwe, Kirsten
attended UWCSEA from 1999
to 2001. Since graduating from
UWCSEA in 2001, she has been living
and studying in the UK, first in Edinburgh
and currently in London where she has
recently completed a medical degree at
King’s College. Most of Kirsten’s immediate
family has by now taken the decision
to leave Zimbabwe, but Kirsten continues
to feel attachment and concern for her
home country and its people. And there
is much to be concerned about: the news
coming of out Zimbabwe has been more
than bleak, but while the world’s attention
is easily captured by statistics of inflation
and economic meltdown, it took a cholera
outbreak in late 2008 to alert the international
community to the dire state of
Zimbabwe’s public health system. Figures
for prevalence of HIV/AIDS and TB, rising
maternal mortality and a plummeting
life expectancy paint a bleak picture of
a country at the brink of collapse – but
mask the many personal stories of patients,
families, doctors, nurses and social
workers who make up the defiant fabric of
Zimbabwe’s civil society. Kirsten’s work
links into this web of individuals who, both
in Zimbabwe and abroad, will not shrug
their shoulders and resign themselves to
the destitution that the statistics seem to
lay out for them.
Kirsten is a trustee and founding member
of Zimbabwe Health Training Support
(ZHTS), a UK-based group of diaspora
health professionals who support health
care provision and training in Zimbabwe.
Affiliated with ZHTS is “Project Zimbabwe,”
which Kirsten and a group of
fellow students at King’s College founded
in 2007. It aims to establish links with
students from all heath care disciplines in
Zimbabwe and to encourage and facilitate
collaboration in learning and research
between students in Zimbabwe and UK.
Medical students in Zimbabwe often lack
basic textbooks and with support of Virgin
Airways, Project Zimbabwe has sent
almost 1,000 books to university libraries
in Bulawayo and Harare over the past
two years. Project Zimbabwe has also
set up a ‘buddy system’ between medical
students from the National University of
Science and Technology in Bulawayo and
those from King’s College. The contact
between the students sparked the initiative
“Medyouth” in which medical stu-
Kirsten with nurses and TB staff, Murambinda Hospital
dents from both universities take part in
facilitating sexual and reproductive health
education sessions in schools around
Bulawayo.
While chairing meetings and organising
film evenings and concerts to broaden
Project Zimbabwe’s support and finance
base keep Kirsten on her toes, her latest
fundraising stunt had her literally running
– a 42km marathon in the south of
France that raised £4,800 – also thanks
to the contributions of many of Kirsten’s
UWC friends. The funds were destined to
support the TB program at Murambinda
hospital in the Buhera district, about four
hours drive from the capital Harare, which
cares for HIV patients and those with
TB. Kirsten herself visits Zimbabwe on a
regular basis and spent part of a medical
elective in 2006 at Murambinda hospital,
where she learned from and assisted
the local doctors, and helped organise a
workshop on TB for the hospital’s nurses.
“I feel like my trip qualified as a life changing
experience,” she says. “I realised that
I have a passion for medicine, people and
Zimbabwe, my home country. I hope to
return there one day in the future when I
have a few more qualifications. Perhaps
I will even return to the dusty beauty of
Murambinda hospital.”
If you would like to know more about
Project Zimbabwe and/or support
43
Kirsten’s efforts, please get in touch with
Kirsten at kirsten@zhts.org.uk and/or
have a look at the ZHTS website: www.
zhts.org.uk.
The above is an excerpt from the full
article written by Karoline Popp, Class of
2002, which appears in the December
2009 issue of One°North, the Alumni
Magazine of the United World College
of South East Asia. Karoline and Kirsten
played the oboe and the flute together
in Symphonic Band and various music
ensembles while at UWCSEA and have
kept in touch ever since. Karoline wrote
the article to spotlight the remarkable and
inspiring work that Kirsten has done so
far for her home country of Zimbabwe.
We are honoured to have Kirsten Scott as
the guest speaker at Graduation 2010.
Kirsten with fellow participants, Beaujolais Marathon

Dover Campus
MAY
1 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: LABOUR DAY
3 Principal’s Forum (Junior School)
Grade 7 Tioman 3 and 4 this week
Grade 11 STS, EcoSys, Biology Field Trips this week
4 GCSE Drama Exams end
7 Infant Ray of Hope Evening
10 Primary Art Exhibition starts
Principal’s Forum (Infant School)
Middle School Concert
Grade 7 Tioman 5 and 6 this week
Grade 11 Geography HL Field Trips this week
12 Grade 2 Arts Festival
FIB SOEs
17 Kindergarten 1/Kindergarten 2/Grade 1 Art Exhibition
this week
19 Senior Chamber Concert
FIB Parents’ Evening
Grade 11 Geography SL Field Trip
20 Kindergarten 1/Kindergarten 2/ Arts Festival
Grade 9 Geography Trip
21 IB Exams end
24 Open afternoons for new infant students this week
Grade 7 Tioman 9 and 10 this week
GCSE Art Moderation this week
Grade 11 Applications in for FIB
25 Grade 12 Graduation
25-26 Grade 5 PYP Exhibition
26 Grade 3 Arts Festival
27 Middle/High School Asian Culture Day
Grade 3 Arts Festival
28 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: VESAK DAY
29 ACSIS Badminton 14U/Tennis 12U/Basketball 10U
31 World No Tobacco Day
Grade 7 Tioman 11 and 12 this week
Middle School Maths Challenge Week
JUNE
2 Middle School Drama Production
3 Infant School Swimming Gala
Middle School Drama Production
4 Junior School Day of Sport (Swimming)
Primary Art Exhibition ends
5 Junior Concert
SAT
7 Middle School Art Exhibition 2 starts
8 Grade 9 Drama Production
9 Grade 9 Exams start
10 NYAA Awards Evening
Grade 1 Sleepover
Grade 9 Drama Production
11 Grade 9/FIB Day of Sports (Athletics)
13 Senior Concert
14 Middle School Day of Sport (Athletics)
16 Primary School Reports go home
17 UWCSEA Revue
18 END OF ACADEMIC YEAR
School ends at 12 noon
Middle School Art Exhibition 2 ends
East Campus
MAY
1 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: LABOUR DAY
6 Grade 3 Arts Festival
15 PA Summer Festival
20 Kindergarten 1/Kindergarten 2 Arts Festival
24 Grade 2 Work Sharing
25 Grade 4 Work Sharing
26 Infant Aquatics Day of Sport
27 Family Breakfast
Grade 5 Exhibition
28 PUBLIC HOLIDAY: VESAK DAY
31 Kindergarten 1 Orientation for new students
JUNE
2 Grade 3 Work Sharing
3 Grade 1 Sleepover
9 Juniors Day of Sport
14 End of Year Reports go home
18 END OF ACADEMIC YEAR
School ends at 12 noon
Saturday, 15 May
Come and have fun with your family and friends at the
first UWCSEA East Parents Association Summer Festival.
There will be food, games, activities, entertainment, stalls
and much more at this afternoon event to be held on the
East Campus grounds.
Ray of Hope
Friday, 7 May, 7pm-9pm, Tent Plaza of Dover Campus
Including silent auction, raffle and attractive prizes, Tickets
available at the Dover Infant School office.