The Kurt Hahn Circle Where Innovative Education, Leadership and Philanthropy meet
Contents 4 Turning The Tide 6 A Vision for the Future People, Purpose and Place 8 Guided by our Elders, Supported by our Friends 10 The Power of Community 12 Initiatives and Priorities 18 Profile 20 Recognising Your Support
Turning The Tide For nearly 60 years, young people from more than 150 countries fuelling their fierce hopes and bold dreams to step out into the world and to leave a powerful and positive footprint. You may have been one of those young people.
There is more to us than we know. Kurt Hahn
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e r sona l exam n|P pl tio ce | Ac t i ve e | P i v r e E S |
Deliberately diverse, engaged and motivated community in pursuit of the UWC mission
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The UWC movement offers hope and never have our values been more necessary, or our mission more relevant or resonant. We are focused on how we can best equip our students to live meaningful, impactful lives and to become the ‘difference makers’ the world needs.
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The world is a very different place to the one Hahn knew, characterised by complex social, environmental and economic challenges. Hahn would recognise that there is still an urgent need for capable, compassionate leaders to bring local, national and international communities together.
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Kurt Hahn’s convictions continue to set the course for UWC Atlantic today. We remain one of the world’s most pioneering, engaged and impactful places of learning for 16 to 19 year olds.
“ I regard it as the foremost task of education to ensure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion.”
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That spirit is the UWC belief that education should be a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.
UWC Atlantic is at the heart of a powerful movement. It is the point of reference for all United World Colleges that have followed it. At the vanguard of the UWC network, but also of progressive education worldwide.
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urt Hahn, our founder, knew that an innovative educational model could unite a deliberately diverse group of young people from across the globe, sharing their aspirations and sharing one purpose - to embody a spirit, to challenge cynicism with courage and belief, to learn, to grow, to influence, to serve, to lead and to shape and change lives and make the world a better place to live. These roots and our future growth are underpinned by exactly the same spirit.
Experience Mission
UWC Educational Model
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A Vision For The Future As we look forward to the next 60 years for UWC Atlantic we must be guided by the past and the three foundation principles of the College – to provide opportunity to deserving students from around the world to access this education irrespective of ability to pay, to be an innovator in education; and for this education to take place in a unique and exceptional setting where the entire campus is the classroom.
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entral to the early success of the College was the phenomenal pioneering spirit which inspired the staff, the students and society as a whole. We need to recapture this culture of experimentation. While bringing students from around the world to live, serve and learn together was seen as an effective antidote to the rising divide between the East and West, it was also the start point for a much more profound experiment - to transform education for the 20th century in service of the greater good. UWC Atlantic is the ultimate ‘laboratory for learning’ - a place where if we fully leverage our assets of campus, students, staff, alumni and supporters we can push the envelope of progressive education and (re)claim UWC Atlantic’s position as the flagship of the UWC movement. And with this in mind we are back at work. As partner of a wider UWC group, we are working to reinvent education for the 21st century developing a reformed, skillsbased educational programme which will provide the means for our students to pursue individualised programmes while giving them the opportunity to exercise autonomy, to develop mastery, and to feel purpose, three factors which are at the heart of intrinsic motivation. Such an approach will allow each student to embrace their programme, one which will allow them to develop the resilience necessary to overcome the inevitable setbacks that will come their way. For what is a quest without challenges to overcome?
The months and years ahead will be exciting times for UWC Atlantic. We have an opportunity to reclaim our position as educational leaders both within the UWC movement and international education as a whole. With our distinct, deliberately diverse student populations – drawn together from around the world based on their demonstrated promise and potential – we are uniquely placed to be leaders in educational innovation. And of course to deliver on our core mandate: to provide opportunity for the world’s most deserving students to benefit from this exceptional place and community. As with all critical endeavours, we look to our community for counsel and support to guide our ambitions. These are exciting times at UWC Atlantic and the UWC mission to make education a force that unites people, nations and cultures for a sustainable future is perhaps more critical than it has ever been. As member of the Kurt Hahn circle, I invite you to take part in the transformation of our movement and to turn the tide once more at UWC Atlantic.
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Guided by our Elders,
Supported by our Friends Kurt Hahn knew well the value in bringing people together to collaborate and to serve others, to solve problems and to support each other and the wider community.
The support of passionate individuals and organisations has always been integral to the development of UWC Atlantic and it remains essential to the work we need to do to underpin our future. Peter T. Howe
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The Power of Community The power of the UWC community is in its diversity, and in its extraordinary reach across cultures and continents, professional spheres and life experiences.
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he Kurt Hahn Circle will bring our global community closer together, uniting supporters, like-minded peers and philanthropists who share our values, and understand the potential in our direction of travel, and how they can help shape it. It’s not just about giving, it’s about sharing. The Kurt Hahn Circle will bring valuable intellectual as well as financial investment into the heart of the UWC movement, ensuring the future of its pioneering work at UWC Atlantic and beyond.
Many of you, our closest supporters, spent cherished years as UWC Atlantic students and have taken the lessons learned into your lives as political, social and economic leaders. We now need your leadership, your ideas and your support to ensure we continue to develop new generations of change leaders for a more peaceful and sustainable future. Let’s celebrate the power of diversity together!
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Initiatives and Priorities Our priorities at UWC Atlantic will always be our People, our educational Purpose and our Place. Peter T. Howe
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We are calling on members of the Kurt Hahn Circle to help us lay the foundations for transformational change in the following areas:
People: Transforming lives At UWC Atlantic our students are drawn from the most diverse backgrounds and are drawn towards a shared purpose - to help shape a better future for the world. We are proud to develop a unique peer group of potential changemakers, ground breakers, risk takers, idea generators and innovators whose fierce hopes, bold dreams and courageous actions demonstrate that education can be made a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. We want the UWC Atlantic education, this unique, transformative experience, to be within every young person’s reach and, with your continued support, this can be achieved.
Our young people in turn will become role models for the millions of young disadvantaged students aspiring to make a difference locally, nationally and internationally. You can help us transform lives, and transform society by supporting the following initiatives: • A far-reaching student support system to open our doors to more talented students, doubling the number of scholarships offered to students in the next five years • Efforts to increase participation of young people from areas of conflict
£5million per annum would secure our scholarship programme ambitions
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Purpose: Building educational excellence and innovation at UWC Atlantic At its foundation, UWC Atlantic was described by The Times as ‘the most exciting experiment in education since the Second World War.’ We are focused on reclaiming this headline, re-asserting ourselves as the flagship college of the UWC movement and recapturing the culture of experimentation - so that we will once again lead the way in the world of education. The world has changed immeasurably since we first turned the educational tide, but our ambition for education remains as insightful and radical as ever.
£3.5 million would support the development of our new Science Hub
You can help us to develop our profile even further as we work to reclaim our pre-eminent position as experimental and innovative educational pioneers, both within the UWC movement and beyond: • We are already in the process of re-imagining the International Baccalaureate for the 21st Century • We are exploring the possibilities of more endowed staff positions to drive our educational excellence including a Director of Learning Innovation and Associate Schools Programme Manager and education strategy developers • We are creating a new Centre of Innovation and Educational Excellence • We are developing new training provision for teachers and mentors to encourage innovative teaching both within and beyond the UWC network
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Place: Building for the future A sense of place has always been at the core of the student experience at UWC Atlantic. Students from more than 90 countries every year come together to live and work in St Donat’s idiosyncratic and dynamic learning landscape. Our 12th Century castle, our coastal Atlantic Outdoor Centre and our 20-acre working farm are part of a learning environment unlike any other. The ‘magic of place’ that exists is commented on by everyone who visits us - it is at the heart of the student experience. We are privileged to be able to live, learn and work in such an exceptional setting and we are focused on protecting and preserving what makes UWC Atlantic so unique.
£6 million would build two new student houses
You can support the unique student experience at UWC Atlantic by investing in: • Fit-for-purpose student housing, providing the core of our engaged living experience • Redevelopment of the seafront and our Land Sea Stewardship programme that will place a living landscape at the heart of the College • Projects that have sustainability embedded at their core • Maintaining the fabric of our Castle buildings • Developing The Academic Precinct, the new Science Hub at St Donat’s to support teaching of the new curriculum
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Sowing the seeds of sustainability: Building the UWC Atlantic Endowment We want to make sure we build a sustainable future for UWC Atlantic, so we can continue to lead the movement, and transform the lives of thousands more young people well into this and the next century. Building our endowment will give us future financial confidence, make us less susceptible to external financial shocks, and better able to plan.
Critically, an endowment will give us the security – and freedom – to be more responsive to the needs of everyone within the College community. With this flexibility will come greater power to innovate, to explore new educational methodologies, and support the students of the future with the best education experience, fit for the world that welcomes them.
£250k would fund a 21st Century classroom £5 million would fund our Centre for Excellence
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Jenny Grinblo Born in Siberia, raised in Israel, Jenny came to study in Wales in 2004.
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UWC people have been changing the world for more than half a century. For many of our students, a scholarship to UWC Atlantic has opened the door to a lifetime of opportunity, and impact on a truly global scale.
“ My scholarship to UWC Atlantic was the beginning of my life today. I was able to study what I truly loved for the first time. I took art, humanities, and design technology, and they opened a new world of possibility and laid a foundation for my career today. UWC Atlantic empowered me to bring my commitment to diversity and social responsibility to my role as a female leader in technology. The lessons UWC taught me have become the fabric of my value system and inform my decisions and conduct within my team, our company, and the industry as a whole.”
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fter graduating from AC in Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as a Kofi Annan Scholar and completed a B.A. (Hons) in Sociology and Global Citizenship, focussing her training on qualitative research. After finishing her B.A., Jenny had an idea for a mobile app that would improve the lives of sexual violence survivors. It won honours at a global Nokia competition chaired by leading business women and got Jenny noticed by leading technology product company, Future Workshops in London, where she is now Head of User Experience and Design.
Jenny’s job today is to bring empathy into technology products through facilitation, ethnographic research, and business thinking. She leads the research and design of apps and platforms for companies like Bloomberg, IBM, The Open Championship and The Money Advice Service, as well as startups in mental health, travel, and fintech. She is a volunteer with the Apps for Good organisation, providing mentoring to IT students across the UK, and has set up partnerships between Future Workshops and community organisations like “I Can Be…” which introduce students from underprivileged backgrounds to role models in industry. She frequently speaks at industry conferences and community events on the topics of empathy, mental health, and collaboration. Jenny is passionate about how design can impact social change - through products and ways of working. As part of her management role, she has worked to inform company policy on mental health and wellbeing, neurodiversity, and ethical responsibility, all the while promoting multiculturalism and diversity through hiring and training practices.
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Recognising Your Support As a member of the Kurt Hahn Circle, you will play a leading role in how we take our legacy forward. You’ll be part of an international community of thought leaders who share a common goal. Your ideas, time, connections, and financial support are urgently needed.
This is an opportunity to be a change maker for an organisation that nurtures change makers as its primary purpose. Jill Longson, Governor
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We are seeking to build sustaining and dynamic relationships with our closest friends.
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s a member of the Kurt Hahn Circle, you will play a pivotal role in an international community of thought leaders and influencers who share a common goal – to be at the heart of the transformative journey of UWC Atlantic. It is within the embrace of this ‘circle of friends’ that we will continue to prosper and deliver on our promises. The possibilities to amplify your support through the collective endeavour of the Kurt Hahn Circle are truly powerful. Your contributions will, in turn, fuel the endeavour of those young people who will benefit from the UWC Atlantic experience. In return for your generosity we offer an invitation to attend our special annual event in London as a guest of honour; listing in the UWC Atlantic Annual Review and in our ‘Kurt Hahn Circle’ honour board if requested and opportunities to network with like-minded philanthropists and other significant global UWC stakeholders.
We also welcome bespoke conversations with you as individuals if you wish to contribute a Principal Gift, with the knowledge that you will have a unique perspective on how we take UWC Atlantic forward. UWC Atlantic has a truly global reach, and as such, we can offer a number of ways for you to give tax efficiently, wherever you are in the world. Thank you in advance for your continuing support.
To join Kurt Hahn’s Circle, contact: Andrea Diez de Sollano Director of Philanthropy UWC Atlantic c/o UWC International, 55 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BS T. +44 (0)2030 77 59 27 M. +44 (0) 7951 01 26 25 Andrea.Diez@atlanticcollege.org
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Philanthropy and Partnerships UWC Atlantic College St Donat’s Castle St Donat’s CF61 1WF Wales UK United World College of the Atlantic Ltd. Registered in England No. 673076. Charity No. 525761.