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

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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
Page 1: Content Dunia earth world universe
Page 5 and 6: 2010 originally composed their firs
Page 7 and 8: Celebrating Indian diversity SAFAR
Page 9 and 10: Meeting Greg Mortenson Over 300 UWC
Page 11 and 12: Nuclear Awareness Week I visited th
Page 13 and 14: Sustainability Dinner A great big t
Page 15 and 16: Round Square Exchange: from Armenia
Page 17 and 18: SEASAC Softball Boys The team trave
Page 19 and 20: 19&U ACSIS Track And Field The ACSI
Page 21 and 22: Primary School Grade 1 Arts Festiva
Page 23 and 24: K2 Shoebox lunch On Saturday, 6 Mar
Page 25 and 26: K1 Caring for Living Things Turtles
Page 27 and 28: Our Wildest Dreams The Dover Grade
Page 29 and 30: Tampines Workers’ visit the East
Page 31 and 32: Dover Book Week What a wonderful we
Page 33 and 34: Middle School United World College
Page 35 and 36: “Aprem Tektonik” In early Febru
Page 37 and 38: One Young World I was standing in f
Page 39 and 40: An Astounding Experience “I woke
Page 41 and 42: SEALinks PACE Lihuk Philippines Vis
Page 43 and 44: Dunia, June 2007 Dunia, April 2010

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