Service Learning at UWC Maastricht

Service Learning at
Service learning is a
method of teaching,
learning and reflecting that
combines the academic
classroom curriculum with
meaningful service
throughout the community.
The service learning
projects currently running
at UWC Maastricht include
keeping our school clean in
year 1, developing the
Jerusalem castle garden in
years 5, 6 and 9 and
maintaining a WW2 war
grave in year 10.
This year‟s Service Learning
Ambassadors are Beba
On 18 March 2011, UWC
Maastricht held a Service
Learning Day, where every
student in the College took
part in various activities all
over Maastricht, with the
exception of Years 11 and
13 who are busy in their
studies for their IGCSE and
IBDP exams. Year 1
redecorated our learning
environment by planting
trees and flowers. Years 2
and 3 learnt about the
UWC Maastricht
habitats on our planets,
Cibralic, Omar Mansour,
Saskia Craine, Hannah
Year 8 students working on
their ‘pi’ projects.
Verheul, Vijay Dayalani and
Rafi Hayat. They work with
lower year levels to develop
and maintain service
projects.
CAS is short for Community
such as rainforests and the
Arctic. Year 4 helped clear
up the neighbourhood by
picking up rubbish. Years 5
and 6 took part in the
Jerusalem Project, where
they cut down trees and
cleared the area. Year 9
also took part at Jerusalem,
where they took soil
samples in conjunction with
their Science and
Humanities studies. Year 7
worked on a community
project with local Dutch
F R I D A Y 1 8 M A R C H 2 0 1 1
The concept of service learning
Action and Service, which is
an essential part of the
International Baccalaureate
Diploma. Today‟s Service
Learning Day relates to the
service aspect of CAS.
The College community
would like to extend our
sincere thanks to all the
staff and volunteers who
made the day possible. Mrs
Vandewege, Ms Adams and
Ms Dauphin deserve a
special mention for their
hard work and initiative,
without which the day
would not have happened!
PJ Stevens and Mathieu
Dreano, year 12
What is Service Learning Day?
students and Year 8
created a recycled artwork
in conjunction with the
Maths Department. Year 10
participated in the
Margraten Cemetery
Project. The Year 12 class
was divided amongst the
different year levels and in
addition to this some
students participated in
projects at Mama Alice, SGL
and at the convent gardens.
Ales Varabyou and Sara
Esser, year 12

P a g e 2
Year 4 students get
started on their litter
clean-up.
“It was a great
experience and I
really want to do this
again.” Ehmid Ashrif,
year 12
Year 7 international
fair stalls
Hands-on jobs for years 1 and 4
“I thought it was going to
be boring, but then I
realized it was awesome!”
said Betty Akinyi (year 12)
when asked what she
thought of helping year 1
students planting and
gardening. They were at
Formido (a hardware
shop near the school),
buying supplies to plant
trees and flowers around
the school campus. While
the supervising year 12s
were paying for the
supplies, a year 1 student
known as „Little
Superman‟ picked up a
bag of soil and carried it
back to school all by
himself.
Also helping the
environment were the
year 4s, who spent time
cleaning up litter on and
around the school
campus. Just before they
began, representatives
from the Gemeente made
sure that there were no
syringes, pieces of glass,
or any other dangerous
substances that the
Learning about our planet
Service Learning Day for
years 2 and 3 was based
on cooperation between
primary students and year
12 students at UWC
Maastricht.
The two primary year
levels learnt about the
different regions of our
planet. Year 2 learned
International π’s
“Children love all the
shiny and unusual stuff” -
Ms Blain, Art teacher.
Year 8 students
participated in a project
involving circles based
on Bharti Kher (an Indian
artist) artworks, using
recycled materials. In the
afternoon they built
circular teepees. The
S e r v i c e L e a r n i n g a t U W C M a a s t r i c h t
about the Arctic region
with help of Luize
Eihmane, who stated, “I
really like this project; I
love the little kids and
helping their learning.”
While year 2 was being
taught about the cold
regions of the world, year
3 was learning about the
students‟ art pieces will
be exhibited outside the
Art room, most likely on
the bridge in the College
atrium. They also had a
quiz, the aim of which
was to learn as many
digits of pi as they could.
Meanwhile, “I love it!”
were the words that Beba
Cibralic (year 12) used to
students could
accidentally pick up. The
year group was split up
into five smaller groups,
each of which took a
different part of the
neighborhood. When
asked, one young student
said that she had learned
that “there are many
disgusting people on
earth” and that “it‟s
important to keep our
planet clean.”
Federico Spera and
Lawrence Shehata, year
warm and humid regions
and tropical rainforests,
helped by Pumla
Maswanganyi and Ehmid
Ashrif. Ehmid thought that
“It was a great experience
and I really want to do
this again.”
Mathieu Dreano, year 12
describe the mini
international fair
organised by Year 7. The
students set up small
stalls to help local Dutch
children of the same age
understand different
cultures better by
introducing them to their
country‟s food, hosting
workshops and talking to
them.
Federico Spera, year 12

After a long trek...
After a long trek, the
environment changed from
roads and cars to an old
building surrounded by trees
and nature. The Jerusalem
service learning project takes
place near the Hoge
Hotelschool Maastricht, at an
old castle garden.
Years 5, 6 and 9 were
involved in this project. Mr
Richard Hine stated, “…real
science is not taught in
classrooms, but in the real
The Margraten Cemetery is a
war memorial to the
American soldiers who gave
their lives in WWll. This burial
ground is the resting place of
8301 soldiers. On Service
Learning Day, year 10 took a
visit to the Margraten
Memorial Cemetery, guided
by Mr Stadler, the cemetery
superintendent.
world,” as he took the year 9s
out to collect soil samples
and make mappings of the
site in order to see which
places had superior soil to
plant flowers in.
Years 5 and 6 cheerfully
cleaned up branches, cut
down trees and planted
flowers in order to make the
garden a beautiful place yet
again. Year 12 student
Franky G. Aritz stated,
“Working with these kids not
A visit to our past
We began our day with a
Mama Alice is an
organisation in Peru with a
very specific aim: to help poor
children left on the streets.
“Many of them have no place
to go to, they have no family
and no home”, says Ms Best,
the coordinator, “and the
situation in Peru is the same
as in other countries in Latin
America.” Today year 12
students translated the
Mama Alice organisation
lovely breakfast and a talk by
Vjjay, Hannah, Natalia, and
Hussein, our Service Learning
Ambassadors and year 12
helpers. The day continued
with speeches from Mr
Stadler, Mr Tonnaer and Mr
Roijen. The year 10s then
went to the Margraten
Cemetery where they viewed
the graves, the chapel and
the monument. They also
Mama Alice saves Peru
brochure into Spanish and
English. “We are learning to
interact with each other
without getting annoyed,”
said Katja.
So what is written in the
brochure? This paper
contains an explanation of
what the project is about. The
brochure also encourages
people to donate money to
help the Peruvian children,
only teaches them how to be
responsible, but
also teaches them
how to stabilise
the environment”.
The students and
staff members
working at this
project are all
interested in
participating in
another service learning day
in the future.
PJ Stevens, Year 12
visited the grave of Edward J.
Konefal, which has been
adopted by UWC Maastricht.
Each student placed a flower
in the vase on his grave.
The experience was very
touching and memorable for
the students. As Mr Stadler
said, “Studying history is
important but not enough.
You have to feel it,
experience it.”
Sophie Rottenberg, Illeana
Pirozzi, and Dominique
Naude, year 10
because the fact is that even
10 euro is enough to allow a
child to go to school for one
year. After the
translation is
completed, our
students will
distribute it and
sell small Latin
American doll
key chains to aid
the organisation.
Ales Varabyou,
year 12
P a g e 3
Jerusalem...the site of much hard
work by years 5, 6, 9 and 12.
“In memory of the honor
and the sacrifices which
hallow this soil.”
These key chains will be sold to aid
the Mama Alice organisation.

Stichting Gehandicaptenzorg
Limburg (SGL) is a centre on the
outskirts of Maastricht which
provides housing, employment and
leisure activities for adults with
physical and mental disorders. Year
12 students went to the centre to
help with tasks which needed to be
done. Activities were divided among
the students such as painting,
gardening and carpentry.
Postal address:
PO Box 1187
Getting dirty in the convent garden...
A group of Year 12 students took part
in renovating the convent garden,
which is part of Philadelphia, an
organisation that provides support
and guidance for people with
intellectual disabilities.
During their time there, the year 12s
received a tour of the renovated
convent which includes a dining
room, chapel, the convent‟s own
museum and – after our year 12s are
done with it – an invigorating and
Nijverheidsweg 25
6227 AL Maastricht
The Netherlands
6201 BD Maastricht
The Netherlands
Phone: +31(0)43 367 4666
Fax: +31(0)43 367 0809
E-mail: admin@ism.portamosana.nl
Website: www.uwc-maastricht.com
inviting garden. They were also
shown the residents‟ rooms, which
were described as “very
luxurious” (Laurens Dominicus, year
12) and “even better than a hotel
room” (Amna Moukhyer, year 12).
Our Year 12s worked together with
Philadelphia residents to transform
the garden into a comfortable
environment for future residents.
They planted various plants and
cleaned the wood decking. A
...and at SGL!
When we arrived, five students
were hard at work, plowing in the
parking lot. Inside, three students
were painting the smoking room
pale yellow. “My hands hurt, and
my shoulders - I‟m tired, but I
definitely like it,” said Lisanne
Bosch. The students worked hard
painting the walls, each other and
us! Outside on the patio, students
sanded the garden chairs and
later were going to treat them.
Alejandro Dotras, part of the
sanding team, said “It‟s nice
working. I‟m tired, but I‟m happy to
work.” On another side of the
building more students were
gardening and trimming the trees.
The supervisor from the centre was
really glad of the help our students
could provide, as the clients in the
centre were not able to do the
activities which UWCM students
and other volunteers worked on.
Lawrence Shehata, year 12
The United World College Maastricht provides high
quality education focusing on the specific needs of
internationally mobile students within a
multicultural setting.
For information on the College‟s Service Learning
program, please contact our Service Learning
Coordinator, Mrs Tine Vandewege.
supervisor said that the only
slight problem was that not
everyone knew the basics of
Email: t.vandewege@uwcmaastricht.com
gardening! As Samreen Fatima
from year 12 admitted, “I didn‟t
know how to water plants
properly before.” Despite this,
everyone involved is looking
forward to completing the
garden and are confident it will
look great.
Sara Esser, Year 12