UWCSEA Dunia Term 1 2017/2018

December 2017

FRAMING THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE

UWC DAY: THE POWER OF DIVERSITY

CELEBRATING THE IMPACT OF GIVING

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UWCSEA changed the way I see the world and make sense of contemporary events. It made me realise that we’re participants in history, not bystanders—and we should never believe that it’s the responsibility of others to right the wrongs of society.”

Pandit Mami ’10 Sierra Leonean scholar Read about Pandit’s journey to found a scholarship programme in his home country on page 22.

December 2017

02 WAGING HEAVY PEACE Chris Edwards, Head of College, reflects on the UWC movement plan announced in November

04 FRAMING THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE Nathan Hunt, Director of Sustainability, defines sustainability in UWCSEA’s context

06 MEET THE PRIMARY PRINCIPAL Pauline Markey reflects on her first term at UWCSEA East

07 SPOTLIGHT ON …

12 UWC DAY

UWCSEA welcomes UWC ISAK Japan, the 17th UWC

Celebrating the ‘Power of Diversity’ with the UWC movement

08 INITIATIVE FOR PEACE

14 LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD

Student Kavya Nayak provides an alternative perspective on peacebuilding

Tim Davies, Head of High School History on Dover Campus, discusses the relevance of History

10 MEMORIES OF GUNUNG LEDANG Grade 3 on East Campus share their reflections on the Forest Adventure Camp in Malaysia

15 TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY Kurt Wittig, Teacher Librarian on Dover Campus, explains how we help students make sense of the world today

16 INNOVATIVE SPACES Explore the features of the Dover Campus Main Library

18 A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER Samay Bansal ’16 crafted a Gap Year based on his passions

20 CELEBRATING THE IMPACT OF GIVING The College community comes together for the first ever UWCSEA Foundation Week

22 TAKING RESPONSIBILITY: AN INTERVIEW WITH PANDIT MAMI ’10 A Sierra Leonean scholar describes how he is ‘participating in history’

24 AMIS JAZZ FESTIVAL Learning though hosting an international event

COVER IMAGES

Front: East Campus Grade 5 Outdoor Education trip to Malaysia Back: Dover Campus Grade 12 IB Chemistry Internal Assessment

Dunia is published three times a year by UWC 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.

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Visit: https://perspectives.uwcsea.edu.sg

Editors: Courtney Carlson, Sinéad Collins, Molly Fassbender and Kate Woodford Photography: Sabrina Lone, Dave Caleb (front cover) and members of the UWCSEA community Design: Nandita Gupta UWCSEA Dover is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) CPE Registration No. 197000825H | CPE Registration Period 18 July 2017–17 July 2023 | Charity Registration No. 00142 UWCSEA East is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) CPE Registration No. 200801795N | CPE Registration Period 10 March 2017–9 March 2023 | Charity Registration No. 002104 Printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks | MCI (P) 113/03/2017 | 053COM-1718

By Chris Edwards Head of College UWC South East Asia What would my Board of Governors, or any board of governors, do if I said I wanted to change the mission statement to the following: “Every pupil will know beauty when they see it, for the rest of their lives”? I suspect that when everybody had stopped laughing they would book me a one-way ticket home from Changi and throw in some psychological counselling for good measure.

But hold that laughter for a moment.

I used to work at a school in the UK called Stowe. Though the palace and grounds in which the school is housed are marvels of past centuries, the school itself was set up only in 1923 by a most interesting Headmaster called JF Roxburgh. It was he who decided that the pursuit, recognition and understanding of beauty should be integral to a Stowe education. And why not? A little over a hundred years earlier, the poet Keats had famously said “Beauty is truth; truth beauty”.

Many people thought long and hard over what he might have meant by that, and some grounded their lives in the search. None of this is really so long ago, but today, surrounded by all the getting and spending, and the obsession with what can be measured rather than valued, these echoes of the past sound like foolish whimsy. (Just as so much of what we angst over now will be whimsy for future generations.)

Now please allow me just one more reference from the English literature canon before I get properly to business.

The play is Julius Caesar, and Brutus is saying to Cassius, before an important battle, that they should seize the moment because the time is right: There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life 2 | Dunia December 2017

WAGING HEA Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat …

The thought is familiar enough and is especially well known to Elvis Presley fans—It’s now or never—but Shakespeare’s unforgettable metaphor amplifies and energises the idea.

I cite Roxburgh, Keats and Shakespeare because an opportunity has just arisen for the UWC movement, and for UWCSEA, to avoid the shallows and miseries of irrelevance and instead take advantage of the tide. As I write this I am in my fourth year as Head of College at UWCSEA, and in those four years, four new UWCs have opened: Dilijan in Armenia; Changshu in China; Thailand; and ISAK Japan. But as the movement swept east, 55 years after the founding of the first UWC college, it felt a need to clarify the role UWC ought to play in today’s world. Furthermore, it sought to identify UWC’s strengths and opportunities and critically question itself on the challenges to be tackled in order to increase UWC’s impact. Sounds suspiciously like a strategic plan.

And at this point my eyes glazed over.

Humankind survived for millennia

without strategic plans. How much more wonderful to do what Roxburgh did. There is something cramped and confining in the notion of a long term plan which disciples follow with unswerving reverence. And there are obstacles. First, we need to get past Peter Drucker’s ubiquitous and all conquering “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” mantra: UWC has a strong and resilient culture, so who needs a boring old plan? And secondly there’s that nagging sense that strategic plans turn real and messy challenges into similar but fundamentally different problems that can be solved. By rooting the plan in known quantities, the result is often emergent strategy (which is reactive) rather than deliberate strategy (which is intentional).

But UWC is a risk-taking movement, and when I was asked to help with the drafting of the new strategy, I thought I might be in for something different. I wasn’t necessarily expecting “Beauty is truth; truth beauty”, but I was hoping for some bold thinking. I wasn’t disappointed. I would not be writing this if my experience had been same old, same old (though had that been the case

OPINION

obvious. The opposite of what is cited above is not nonsense. So, in one convoluted sentence, one could make a perfectly good case for having a chain of academically selective schools with didactic teaching models, high fees, socio-economic homogeneity and curricula rooted in national systems, which eschew holistic, experiential education and instead deliver only academics and entrance to Ivy league, Oxbridge and equivalents with an expectation of their alumni becoming high earning professionals. No harm in that, some might say, and the fact that such places thrive in abundance is proof of the model’s popularity. UWC is offering a different map.

AVY PEACE I would of course have kept a dignified public silence while fighting like a wildcat behind the scenes). I quote from the plan intermittently in this article.

Modern strategic planning began at Harvard (where else?) in the 1920s.

But the word ‘strategy’ comes from the Greek (where else? again) strategos which means ‘general’. UWC did not look to a grand leader: instead, at the start, it went to the people.

The strategy was two years in the making and gathered the thinking of thousands within the UWC community.

I remember, in the half-term break of 2016, looking at a huge wall full of post-it notes at the UWC Congress in Trieste, Italy. On that wall, alumni, staff and students were celebrating successes, sharing ideas, positing scenarios and sometimes venting anger (usually about our failure in the domain of sustainability). In true UWC fashion, nothing was off limits. It was a passionate, not a professional, start.

Good. What followed, was a highly consultative and participative UWC movement-wide process involving all constituencies and inviting input from all UWC community members.

Now is not the place to share the finicky details on financial transparency, mutual responsibility, accountability and such like. I shall simply say here that the strategy is built on three pillars called SEEK, EDUCATE AND INSPIRE. UWC will seek a deliberately diverse group of students and strive to enable access to a UWC education for these students, independent of socioeconomic means. We will educate our students based on trust, responsibility and autonomy in order for them to develop agency, experience values and gain the attitudes and competencies to be forces for peace, sustainability and social justice. We will inspire members of the UWC community to live and act in accordance with the UWC mission and we will inspire our partners and other actors in education to embrace values-based education celebrating diversity and promoting peace, sustainability and social justice.

Now I am a great believer in considering the opposite of any supposedly inspiring pronouncement, and if the opposite is nonsense then your original statement is likely to be bland or embarrassingly

Concurrent with the UWC movement’s plan, UWCSEA has embarked on our own new strategy. Many parents and colleagues responded to the stripped down questionnaire we circulated, and the leadership teams are now at work (student groups will follow). Where thinking is completely aligned we will introduce protocols to encourage divergence and play out opposite scenarios. But every strategy needs to start from an axiom, and ours was the guiding statements. Our high grade averages are a welcome and happy by-product of something much more important: we will be values driven and holistic. Over the coming months we will be connecting the UWC movement plan to the UWCSEA plan, focused on our particular Singapore context. There will be opportunities for our community to provide further feedback and our plan should be ready for the Board of Governors in March.

But my planning is inspired most by a cartoon I once saw. Two cavemen are staring at the wall of a cave on which one has drawn the famous images of stick men hunting bison. The other caveman says to the artist: “OK, enough of the strategic planning: just get out there and kill something.” Hear, hear.

Except we will be waging heavy peace.

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FEATURE

Framing the sustainability challenge

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals

By Nathan Hunt Director of Sustainability, UWC South East Asia As you read this are you are already raising a cynical eyebrow at the irony of an article about sustainability being published in a magazine on high quality paper and delivered free to over 5,000 people, some of whom will not even read it and even if they do, neither know how nor care to recycle it? Good, for if you are then you are already engaged with the virtually unsolvable problem UWCSEA faces: how do we expand our positive impact through education while reducing our negative environmental impact?

In the words of the new UWC Strategy, how do we live up to the pledge to ‘Teach the right thing – do the right thing’?1 In a series of articles on Sustainability (of which this is the first), we hope to show some of the development of thinking and planning that the College is undergoing to address this challenge. This is not just to showcase our efforts or justify our actions but a means of bringing wider and more critical engagement into the issue from our whole community. For it is not too dramatic a claim to say that the entire integrity of UWCSEA depends on us successfully dealing with this challenge and, it might be argued, the fate of the world too.

For if we, with all our financial and intellectual resources and commitment to shared values cannot succeed, then who will?

This first article outlines the scope and context of the challenge ahead and how our conceptual understanding of Sustainability is developing. Subsequent ones will show how this thinking is being embedded in our Learning Programme, its implications for our wider community of parents and alumni, as well as for our buildings and operations.

A global and local challenge Firstly then, the scope and context: what frames our perspective and shapes our desire and capability to act?

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Those in our community will have heard references to the centrality of our mission many times. But it is worth reiterating, because many of our parents, teachers and students might have a perfectly understandable scepticism of the role of schools in addressing global issues, when the more pressing issues of achieving competence in Mathematics, making friends, teaching how to write, or getting accepted at a good university might seem to be the most germane to our daily experience. We will explore more reasons why we think the two are perfectly compatible later in this series, but we have said our ambition is not to become a great international school, but a great UWC and that means having a consistent, dedicated focus on the movement’s mission. Educating for Peace and Sustainability is what defines us. It is not our Corporate Social Responsibility or the extra we do on top of academics, sport, etc. It is the sole reason for our existence.

As well as being guided by our global outlook as part of the UWC movement, we also view the world from a local context, and the challenge that Singapore itself faces brings our quest even sharper into focus. Singapore’s ambition to ensure its own transition to a sustainable society where it can deliver continued economic prosperity while safeguarding its quality of life and the natural environment on which much of this depends, is the main focus of national strategy. And in aspiring South East Asia where population and economic growth are dominant factors, the challenge, just like that of the growing UWC movement, is particularly acute. For despite the incredible technological commitments to resource reduction that Singapore is famous for (our own campuses are examples of this), the large ecological footprint of Singapore (and UWCSEA) means its pathway to development is simply not globally replicable. At least not unless we have two spare planets. In a College that educates for a sustainable future, we need to be very clear that both the present states of the school and the nation and their current trajectory of growth

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qPAeAY9CNNPtX92LYwjhw7CwkQP45Bgl/view

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are unsustainable; they are not yet models to follow. But the world is following. For, despite the warnings, the agreements, and the education about sustainability in the 25 years since the first Earth Summit in 1992, humanity’s ability to support its own development has reduced every year.

Given these realities it is no wonder that the Institute for New Economic Thinking has commissioned Nobel prize-winning economists such as Joseph Stiglitz to review the entire governance of the global economy so it can more successfully address issues like these. So while we will always highlight hope and the many positive stories of change, our framing of education for sustainability must come from a deep understanding of the current situation globally, nationally and within our own community. The achievements of the past are laudable, but they have created the very conditions that means business as usual is no longer possible.

much a focus on reducing inequality and promoting human dignity as it is safeguarding the Earth’s living systems. The greater resonance for the UWC movement is that the UN has shown through the preamble to its agenda that the goal of Peace is inextricably linked to the other elements, “There is no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development”3 and indeed that integration of all these elements is necessary for the agenda to be realised. Furthermore they stress the need for a true global partnership to work towards sustainable development—we will need to collaborate across borders and disciplines to realise the agenda—and this speaks powerfully to us as a community and as a movement with a global reach. (In the next article on sustainability practice at UWCSEA, we will show how this understanding is being embedded across our Learning Programme.)

A well-being approach This is true for education as well as development and is one of the reasons why we have rethought our own understanding of sustainability. While many conceptual approaches exist in different courses at the College, we are trying to shift thinking by adopting the definition ‘Well-being for all within the means of Nature’2 across the curriculum. This moves the focus away from the notion that sustainability is about ‘saving the planet’—a conceptual short-cut that masks an arrogant assumption that we could destroy 4 billion years of evolution, let alone save it. It even moves away from the widely held concept that sustainability requires a three pillar— Environmental, Social and Economic—approach.

It is not that this framing has not been very useful, but it can reinforce several very misguided notions: that economies and societies are somehow separate from the environment, only occasionally overlapping in some idealised Venn diagram; and that it is desirable that they are sustained even when clearly they are not delivering the well-being that they are designed to do. Economic growth or social cohesion, so often seen as sustainability goals, do not necessarily guarantee well-being nor respect for planetary limits. The focus of the definition on well-being reminds us that this is the chief driver of human existence and that this is deeply connected to and ultimately limited by, the health of the planet’s ecosystems.

A global partnership for a better world Since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 we also have both a broader and more detailed framework for understanding sustainability and subsequently for us, our UWC mission. The United Nations’ five pledges underlying the concept of Sustainable Development (refer to diagram) highlight that achieving sustainability is as 2 3

Adapted from the UN graphic – The 5Ps of Sustainable Development

If achieving those hugely ambitious goals by the 2030 target seems daunting and our own organisational and individual efforts irrelevant by comparison, it is worth remembering that personal transformation, whether by leaders or followers has always been the key to collective change even if this seems to happen invisibly. So while Dunia remains a print magazine, please do pass it back to your children for recycling in classrooms or even better, first pass it on to others to read so we can expand our impact using those same resources and start working towards solving one of the major challenges of the 21st century.

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/sustainable-development/ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf December 2017 Dunia | 5

INTERVIEW

Meet the Primary Principal Pauline Markey joined the College in August 2017 as Primary School Principal on East Campus. Before the start of school, she spoke with Alexandra Beukers, student intern in Communications and Marketing; Alex’s excerpted article follows. … When asked for her vision for the East Primary School, Pauline told me that the first step toward settling in was familiarising herself with the school’s ‘culture and terminology’.

She is excited to join the College at a time when the UWCSEAwritten concept-based curriculum will become fully embedded in the Primary School across all five elements of the Learning Programme. The K–12 curriculum articulation project, she says, and the resulting concept-based curriculum is the product of the most progressive forward-thinking philosophy of any school she’s worked in. She believes this is the best way forward and finds it exciting to be part of something that will equip students with the skills, understanding and commitment to make a positive impact in the world.

Her favourite aspect of UWCSEA’s learning programme? The importance of service. Pauline spoke … of being especially A few months into her first school term at UWCSEA, we asked Pauline some follow-up questions about her experience at the College so far.

Dunia: How would you describe your first few months?

The first term … has both flown by whilst also making me feel I have been here forever. I truly feel that I have come home and that I have been working towards this school my whole teaching career. It really is a privilege to be part of such an inspiring, vibrant and learning-focused community. Already I have been fortunate to participate in many moving events, from the scholar dinner and their presentations as part of our class buddy system, a trip to our Infant Global Concerns partner, Kuma Cambodia, attending the amazing Blue Dragon exhibition, performances such as CultuRama and Unplugged, and most importantly the many opportunities 6 | Dunia December 2017

moved by a video in which a UWCSEA graduate described the impact 12 years of diverse community work had on him.

The way in which UWCSEA sincerely values each aspect of its learning programme, be it learning in class, through outdoor education, the Arts or sports, is something that made joining the College an irresistible opportunity. … Getting to know students individually has always been significant to Pauline—she emphasises that the relationship between teacher and child at such a formative time is invaluable. Pauline believes in recognising from early on “not just their needs, but their talent”, and that what makes her job the best in the world is “finding the thing that makes each child tick, and then nurturing that to let them flourish and grow”. Prizing individuality in the students in both their interests and ways of learning is fundamental to her view of education …

To Pauline, guiding a child in this stage of their learning journey is a real privilege and makes being a Primary teacher a very special vocation …

for parents to share in their children’s learning … Talking with parents and hearing their views about what they love about the school, why they chose it, and the impact it has had on their children and family, is incredibly uplifting.

Dunia: What has been most surprising about UWCSEA so far?

In a school that is so busy, the amount of energy and enthusiasm that is evident every day from all members of the community is incredible. Staff genuinely want to learn from each other and grow as professionals, constantly honing their craft to better improve the opportunities and experiences for students. Not a day goes by that I do not learn something from a child or adult in our community.

Dunia: What has been most challenging about working at UWCSEA so far?

Pacing myself! I so want to attend every event, participate in every service, attend

all the parent workshops and classes on offer, and enjoy every performance and celebration. Sometimes my day job really gets in the way!

Dunia: Based on your experience to date, what would you say differentiates UWCSEA from other international schools?

UWCSEA stands out in a very strong field of high quality, world class international schools for its complete commitment to its mission and vision.

It really does do what it says on the can! … The notion that education is a force for good in the world is alive and kicking in all aspects of life at the College.

The engagement of all stakeholders in bringing the mission to life and making it really mean something for our community is both inspirational and aspirational and makes it such a privilege to play a small part in realising this for all our students.

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT ON …

WELCOME UWC ISAK JAPAN The College joined with fellow members of the global UWC movement in welcoming UWC ISAK Japan as the 17th UWC school ahead of their official opening ceremony on 23 and 24 September. Founded by Pearson College UWC alumna, Lin Kobayashi, UWC ISAK Japan adds another dimension to UWC’s collective power of diversity.

FEATURE

IfP

An alternative perspective on peacebuilding

By Kavya Nayak Grade 12, East Campus For most Grade 11 students, the end of June brought the end of classes, the start of the long vacation, and (perhaps most importantly) sleep after a rigorous year of the IB Diploma Programme. For others, it meant traveling to Mae Sot or Timor Leste, regions of conflict, to run an Initiative for Peace (IfP) conference.

IfP is a programme offered to Grade 11 students focused on facilitating peace amidst conflict, both globally and locally, through youth empowerment.

The conferences contain simulations and discussions on issues which face these communities, our own identities, and ways that we can make a difference.

Founded by UWCSEA students and staff in 2001, IfP runs across both campuses, with half a year dedicated to training and the other half to conference planning.

The idea is that by working with youth in areas of conflict and fostering an active dialogue to understand differences, we can initiate effective peacebuilding from the bottom up.

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The aim is summed up neatly by the IfP mission: Youth connecting youth to build sustainable peace.

With this in mind, I embarked with a team of 21 students from both campuses to Mae Sot, Thailand. Situated on the border of Myanmar and Thailand, Mae Sot is the home to the largest of nine refugee camps, with a diverse but somewhat divided population. We sought to work with youth in the region, from a variety of countries (Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, India) and ethnic groups (Karen, Kachin, Mon), and help them ‘build a sustainable peace.’

and Thailand, as well as from Vietnam and India. For an entire day, buses drove in and out of the hotel, ferrying delegates from the airport, train station, refugee camp, and aptly titled ‘Friendship Bridge’ crossing between Thailand and Myanmar. As more and more delegates arrived, our goal became increasingly tangible yet more distant than ever. In planning our conferences we easily threw around terms such as ‘intercultural understanding’ and ‘breaking barriers,’ but we had yet to realise the sheer magnitude of the task and number of people we would be interacting with.

When I explain this goal, or IfP, to my peers, adults, or even my family, I’m met with scepticism: How can a group of high school students make such a big change in the world? What is the role of a one-week conference in addressing the global movement for peace? Isn’t this incredibly optimistic?

The first day was a stream of names and faces of eager, yet timid, delegates, with more ahead of us than we had imagined in our months of planning. And then we started talking. At mealtimes, after dinner, in our rooms, our conversations eroded away the many differences which seemingly separated us.

The sheer magnitude of what we were trying to do occurred to me when delegates began pouring out of buses and arriving from all over Myanmar

Our days were filled with sessions on themes such as Identity, Diversity, and Community Building. In between these sessions, we discussed everything from

Photos by: Azhara Assanova, Grade 12, East Campus and Dasha Maliauskaya, student, UWC Thailand

These conferences are not something we regard as a single experience, but a first step in a peace process much larger than ourselves.”

favourite TV shows to the political climate in Myanmar. Ask any IfP-er about what made their conference special, and they will tell you the story of a conversation. At the end of the day, IfP comes down to the relationships forged between people who would have otherwise never met.

And through building rapport and confidence amongst ourselves outside the classroom, and discussing topics of peacebuilding within it, IfP creates leaders. By the end of the conference, delegates transitioned from discussing issues with us to creating solutions.

On Service Day, delegates taught English and teamwork to local Karen schoolchildren. By the end of the conference, delegates from different towns discussed working to create IfP conferences in their respective regions.

refugees. We weren’t there to ‘fix’ or ‘improve’ them but to support them with resources and knowledge to further their initiatives. Our goal was to connect them with each other and connect with them ourselves.

simultaneously fills us with confidence and forces us to escape our comfort zone. Delegates’ perceptions were challenged, and so were ours. Delegates were encouraged to speak up and face challenges, and so did we.

This aspect of diversity, not only of ethnicity but of thought and opinion, was ingrained into every day of the conference. A cultural show on the final night featured performances ranging from Vietnamese dancing to a Mon culture talk, a Karen performance to an Indian dance. We roomed with delegates from different countries, we openly discussed our differences, and the result was transformative. As one delegate said, “I always thought that Burmese weren’t smart and couldn’t speak English; I have learned that this is not true.”

IfP intrinsically changes the lives of all that are involved. For facilitators, IfP does not start or end with this conference. Behind the week-long conference in Mae Sot were 24 weeks of planning, rushing from East to Dover and Dover to East, and eating pizza during late night sessions. Just because we went to Mae Sot, or Timor Leste, or Cambodia to make a change, does not mean we can’t bring the values of IfP home.

Many of these delegates have already done amazing things with their lives and would have done them regardless of their involvement in IfP—they’ve set up youth organisations, worked to further their own education against all odds, volunteered to help Rohingya

At the end of the conference, I had the opportunity to interview some of the delegates to record footage for next year’s conference planners. The phrase that I heard most often was “IfP has changed my life.” IfP has the power to shape our outlook because it

Our IfP experiences started in Singapore, in our community and extended into theirs. These conferences are not something we regard as a single experience, but a first step in a peace process much larger than ourselves.

Even after our conferences have ended, peacebuilding remains a process that we facilitate in our daily lives.

December 2017 Dunia | 9

MEMORIES OF GUNUNG LEDANG

An interview with Grade 3

COMMUNITY NEWS

By Lisa Plamondon Head of Grade 3 East Campus For the past two years, the Grade 3 students have extended their learning into the beautiful surroundings of Malaysia.

Traveling two hours north of the Singapore border, the students spend three days exploring, growing and supporting one another as part of UWCSEA’s Outdoor Education programme.

What was the best part of camp?

Leonardo C: The two things I enjoyed the most on camp were the river tracing and the fun local games.

Ms Kelly: The best part of camp is seeing the children successfully experience so many ‘firsts’. For many of them it is the first time they have been away from their parents for more than one day.

For many it is the first time river tracing or their first time building a campfire.

Watching the kids work together and support one another through all of these firsts is really a joyful thing to see.

Can you share an experience during camp when you demonstrated resilience?

Bella H: I showed resilience when hiking because it was really hard but I tried really hard to manage the steep mountain.

Mrs Plamondon: River tracing offered our students the opportunity to demonstrate resiliency as the current was strong, and even though the students were in a supported environment, some slipped and scraped themselves. We called these bumps and scratches ‘river tracing souvenirs’. What was so inspiring to watch was how the students persevered and encouraged one another. It was incredibly motivating!

Describe an experience that was new to you while on camp.

Sam B: It was my first time doing coconut bowling. I never knew that bowling was so hard!

Mrs Valenzuela: My new experience was to go on camp with my Grade 3 students! It was truly an amazing first experience. I really enjoyed it, from the moment we got on the bus, to the

The Forest Adventure Camp is designed to offer exciting and age appropriate experiences, such as river tracing, campfire building and shelter construction. Through these learning experiences, the students grow as individuals, and develop a deeper and stronger community together.

I asked the students and teaching team who travelled with them to share some of their experiences and reflect on the learning that took place during their forest adventure this year: river walk, building shelters, making fire, drumming, playing games, to watching my students be independent and collaborative throughout the whole three days of camp.

In what ways did you grow on camp?

Olivia C: I grew on camp as I had never been away from my parents for so long and in a different country.

Mr Withington: I developed my commitment to care by taking action.

Steps are already in place for next year to ensure that we are caring for the environment and making Gunung Ledang a better place for the future.

Tell about a time you were collaborative during camp?

Tilly R.G: I was collaborative working with my team during tent building.

Mr D: It was great working with the instructors from the service provider and the PE department during the river tracing activity.

What is your favourite memory from camp?

Marina T: My favourite memory from camp was serving food for the other classes.

Mrs Duffy: The river tracing was incredible! I also enjoyed the meals with the team.

What is one piece of advice you have for a future camper?

Abuka: Always help other people and be kind.

Mrs Whitehouse: Be a risk taker and push yourself to your limits. There is more in you then you think—‘Plus est en vous’ as Kurt Hahn said!

Photos provided by: Grade 3, East Campus December 2017 Dunia | 11

Usually UWC Day is much more focused on our immediate community, but this year it felt like we were connected to the movement as a whole and the impact our words and protest can … have on our world.”

UWC DAY The College joined the global UWC movement in celebrating the ‘Power of Diversity’ and the UWC mission through UWC Day events and festivities on 20 and 21 September.

Dover Campus student

Dover Campus students (K1–G12) and staff were involved in activities including a yoga and mindfulness session (Infant School), seed potting and t-shirt printing (Junior School), a gumboot dance and scavenger hunt (Middle School), and awareness-raising discussions about gender inequality, refugees and advocacy (High School).

I thought it was fantastic that we had a chance to connect with other UWCs across the globe, and work together to fight for a cause that matters!”

Dover Campus student 12 | Dunia December 2017

COMMUNITY NEWS

While I used to think that the UWC mission was something that we would achieve through Service and Global Concerns, I now know that it is something we can work towards in our academics as well, using the skills we acquire to comprehend and perceive other cultures, perspectives, and issues that we face in and around the world.�

IB Global Politics student, East Campus

On East Campus, students and staff came together to celebrate our unity in diversity with cultural celebrations, assemblies, lessons and activities focused on the UWC movement and its member schools, as well as sustainability and peace. From staff and students donning cultural dress, to Service booths and activities in the plaza, to specialty food from countries where UWCs are located, students were able to celebrate diversity and to learn about how to make a difference in areas such as the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar.

In IB Global Politics, students discussed and blogged on the relationship between their studies and the UWC mission.

December 2017 Dunia | 13

INTERVIEW

Looking back to look ahead:

THE STUDY OF HISTORY In September, the High School History Department at Dover Campus hosted a public lecture that drew over 200 people.

The lecture by Dr Rana Mitter, Professor of History and Politics at Oxford University on ‘How China’s most famous sage is shaping society today’, highlighted the importance of Dunia: You have recently introduced some changes to the History curriculum at Dover. Tell us more about the changes and how they came about.

A key consideration was that we wanted the curriculum to reflect a wider range of human experiences and to promote a sense of international mindedness among our students. A new IB topic called ‘Independence Movements’ allows us to explore the emergence of nationalist movements and the challenges of newly independent states, such as India. Another new topic, Rights and Protest, looks at the history of racial inequality in the United States and South Africa. In High School, we now cover aspects of South Asian, African, East Asian and Middle Eastern History as well as European and American topics. What we have is a curriculum which better reflects the diversity of the UWCSEA community and also that of the wider world.

Dunia: What is the relevance of History in 2017? Why isn’t it enough to just follow the news?

We encourage students to read the news but without knowledge of the historical context, news stories can be difficult to follow or we can become too easily influenced by one opinion.

It would be difficult to understand the situation in the Middle East today for example without having considered the causes and impact of the two world 14 | Dunia December 2017

History for providing vital context for better understanding and evaluating current-day issues and events. Dunia sat down with Tim Davies, Head of High School History, to discuss recent changes to the curriculum as well as the relevance of History to today’s world.

wars. The American historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr once said that “History is to the nation what memory is to the individual” and I like that analogy.

Furthermore, in a world where alternate facts and fake news have the potential to disrupt democratic processes, it is crucial that we are clearly able to distinguish fact from opinion. Through analysis of different types of historical sources, History students are very well equipped to do this.

Dunia: It is often said that History allows us to learn from the mistakes of the past. If so, why does the world continue to have so many problems?

Well a quick answer to that question is that maybe the world would be in a better place if more people studied History. The longer answer is not that simple. Historians would first have to agree on what the mistakes of the past were if we are to avoid repeating them. I do not see this happening soon.

That does not have to mean that, in Henry Ford’s words, “History is bunk”.

Take Hindu-Muslim relations in the Indian subcontinent for example, part of our IB unit on India. Students can sometimes start off with quite fixed views, but by using History to consider how and why different perspectives have come to exist in the first place, we can deepen understanding of the nature of both historical as well as present day issues. Our (I)GCSE unit on the

Arab-Israeli conflict is another excellent opportunity for this.

Dunia: Do you think that History can be a force for good in the world?

Yes, absolutely, but it is important to be aware that History has the potential to be a force for good or bad. Politicians know better than most about its power.

I am reminded of Orwell’s comment in 1984 that “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. For History to be a force for good, it is important to have a culture of openness and respect for academic freedom.

At UWCSEA we are lucky to be able to draw on a diverse range of perspectives in a community which places a high value on honesty and integrity. The study of History helps us to understand different identities and beliefs, whilst the disciplinary emphasis on evidence and reasoning helps to avoid prejudice. Finally, History’s ironic reminders of human frailties, follies and achievements, show us that we have more in common than some would have us think. For me, it lies at the very heart of a UWC education.

FEATURE

Teaching information literacy in a world of fake news

By Kurt Wittig Teacher Librarian, Dover Campus When I was growing up and had a question about the world, I turned to a trusted set of encyclopaedias for the answer; but how times have changed!

In 2010 the Encyclopaedia Britannica went out of print and online sources of information have been growing in prominence since the early 21st century.

Today, when we look for ‘answers’ to questions, they arrive in a variety of formats and quite often these are contained within social media or online news articles. Our need for source evaluation has moved beyond the confines of academia to every waking moment—how do we make sense of what we are reading?

The most important question to ask is ‘how can we identify fake news’?

Unfortunately there is no set formula; the most successful fake articles build on assumptions and forgotten specifics; Benedict Carey of the New York Times states a ‘false initial connection’ and repetition can be particularly effective.

We all know the example of “Is Barack Obama a Muslim?” And then, “I seem to remember that …”. In 2016 the Stanford Graduate School of Education published a study measuring students’ ability to judge the credibility of online content.

They discovered that more than 80% of the Middle School students surveyed could not correctly identify ‘sponsored content’ from a real news story and that 60% of undergraduate students surveyed (including Stanford) could not explain how ‘tweeted’ content from a political action organisation could bias the content of the tweet. When the study was published, the world of academic research was jolted awake and much discussion followed.

At UWCSEA information literacy is an integral part of the College’s unique curriculum. Starting in Grade 1, Pamela

The CRAAP test for evaluating information

C urrency

the timeliness of information

R elevance

the importance of the information for your needs

A uthority

the source of information

A ccuracy

the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content

P urpose

the reason the information exists

Males, Head of Libraries at Dover, works with students during their weekly Library time, discussing different types of books, and refers to reasons why it is important to remember to say where the information has come from when writing their own work. Grade 3 classes work with sources in their ‘Informational Fiction’ writing unit when producing a short story that includes accurate and factual information. And during the Grade 5 Expo project, students produce a formal bibliography to support their research, which is displayed alongside their final showcase. Starting from a very young age, our students are taught how to conduct research, evaluate what they read, and source it properly.

Middle and High School students learn how to spot unreliable sources online; examine URLs, check the contact pages, examine authors’ credentials, read articles closely, scrutinise sources, look at ads, triangulate information, and check for ‘sponsored content’. They maintain bibliographies in Modern Language Association style to demonstrate where their ideas originate and they learn about the (aptly named) CRAAP test as a quick

tool to apply when reviewing any article.

IB students learn strategies to create a dynamic workflow between research, essay planning, writing, and citing and learn to evaluate their sources by looking at the author’s professional credentials, analysing the research methodology, and identifying possible biases, weaknesses, or strengths of the source. IB students also use university level databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, JSTOR, Project Muse) to locate peer reviewed and scholarly articles to complete their Extended Essays, Internal Assessments, and Theory of Knowledge coursework.

The result of this process are UWCSEA graduates who thrive in university and the world. When reading the news, our students come prepared with a very critical eye (and a CRAAP detector). When their university peers struggle with research assignments, our graduates will have already experienced a properly referenced 4,000 word research essay in the form of the Extended Essay and countless rigorous research assignments. Times may have changed, but our students are certainly keeping up!

Please see the online version of this article in UWCSEA Perspectives for a list of works cited and further reading.

INNOVATIVE SPACES

Dover Campus MAIN LIBRARY A flexible space for the UWCSEA community to study, collaborate, and connect.

The T-Wall booths, with their magnetic whiteboards, create flexible collaboration spaces for small groups.

The T-Walls are on locking castor wheels which allow them to be moved around the library to create various configurations to meet the needs of different users.

The Library Pods are constructed out of sound dampening eco-board.

They are popular areas for small groups of students to study and collaborate. The Pods are positioned along the windows facing the inner courtyard of the High School building to allow for natural light.

The Library Stage is a dynamic space, used to host visiting authors, speakers and project live broadcasts of news events. During the broadcast of the 2016 US Presidential election, students gathered here to watch the announcement of the results.

The Library is home to three Digital Literacy Coaches (DLC). The DLCs support teachers by sharing their technology skills to enhance learning throughout all levels of the school in connection with the Academic Learning Programme. Based in the Main Library, they also visit classrooms by appointment.

The Middle School section is organised by genre following a book store model of classification, rather than a traditional Dewey Decimal System, making it easier for students to find books of interest. For students visiting the Library during break time, board games are also available to borrow.

ALUMNI STORIES

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER

My Gap Year

By Samay Bansal ’16 UWCSEA Dover alumnus, Tufts University Class of 2021 Gap years are an opportunity to grow, to learn about yourself, to travel the world, to give back to the community, to make mistakes, and so much more. Every gap year is different; each option offers something totally different, and there’s no ‘right answer’ to the common question, “What should I do in my gap year?”

I decided to make my gap year not about one thing, but many things. I combined many of my different interests to explore a variety of experiences before I headed to university to study Economics and Entrepreneurial Leadership. After graduating, I travelled the world for the next 16 months.

I undertook a Semester at Sea, volunteered at the LaValla School in Cambodia, worked in the electronics markets of Dubai, motorbiked through Vietnam and furthered my own philanthropic project, The Million Meals Challenge.

I want to focus here on the philanthropic work I did during my gap year, as UWCSEA really helped develop my passion for service. The idea that I can positively impact someone’s life is something that I will just never stop being excited about, and my seven years of Service at the College with LaValla Global Concern (GC) gave me an opportunity to explore this passion.

When I was planning my gap year, I knew I wanted to spend

18 | Dunia December 2017

LaValla GC raises funds for the LaValla School for physically disabled students located in Takhmao near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded by the Marist Brothers, LaValla educates 100 students aged 10 to 19 years. A number of the students are boarders.

The LaValla students are amputees as well as victims of landmines, polio or have mild cerebral palsy. In Cambodia, these vulnerable children are often reduced to begging in the streets and so the LaValla School is an educational sanctuary for the children.

For more information on LaValla visit: https://www.uwcsea.edu.sg/gc/lavalla-and-yodifee time at the LaValla School in Takhmao, and I was so happy when I was able to spend six weeks there teaching English to children and assisting the teachers and kitchen staff. I loved being on the ground working in Cambodia, really living day to day with the staff and children at the school. My time at the LaValla School reinvigorated my passion for philanthropic work, and it was really hard to say goodbye at the end of the six weeks.

My own current project, The Million Meals Challenge, started in the summer of 2016 when I was in my hometown,

Ludhiana, India. The weather was hot and I noticed that labourers had no respite from the sun and were malnourished.

I contacted as many people as possible in Ludhiana to arrange to set up a food stall and the preparation and distribution of meals. We purchased food from Ludhiana’s own markets, not just to reduce costs and transportation, but also to give the local economy a boost. We organised the food ourselves by either preparing it for cooking or packaging for distribution. I was inspired by the book The Shed that Fed a Million Children

by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, and by Ludhiana’s own chabeels (family-run stalls that distribute free refreshments) which I noticed had a constant positive impact on the city’s community. To date, The Million Meals Challenge has provided over 30,000 meals and the hope is that this reaches 50,000 in the next few months. As per the name of the organisation, the end goal of the project is to provide a million meals to individuals in need through three channels: a free food distribution stall, subsidised food provisions and donations of foodstuffs to a larger organisation.

Taking a gap year was almost certainly the best decision of my life—it gave me a better perspective on the world, taught me to be spontaneous, to stay calm in tough situations, and to truly value the people I met as much as the places I saw.

At UWCSEA, we have a unique opportunity to go to school with students from over 80 countries and learn about their

backgrounds through our interactions. However, travel allows you to learn about people while you are in their everyday life. I learned so much just through talking and developing relationships with new people.

Before my gap year, I was fairly certain that I wanted to explore business and economics at university and my time away only solidified this sentiment. Through my travels, I had the opportunity to interact with businesses of all sizes and this increased my understanding of how global differences lead to both similarities and differences and how businesses are adapted specifically to their local environment.

I am pursuing this topic further in my academic studies at Tufts University and am currently majoring in Quantitative Economics and carrying a minor in Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies.

It is easy to think that university is the natural transition after high school, but I would ask you to reconsider this for a second. Taking a gap year allows you to push the reset button after years of academic study and to dive headfirst into the real world, seeing what works and what doesn’t and that feedback has been invaluable. As Dr Seuss wrote, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

Photos provided by: Samay Bansal

December 2017 Dunia | 19

COMMUNITY NEWS

Celebrating the Impact of Giving Foundation Week, 6–11 November The first ever Foundation Week was conceived as an inclusive event for our community to highlight and celebrate the wide range of ways that giving through UWCSEA Foundation positively impacts the College.

From interactive sessions to immersive experiences, students, parents and staff had the opportunity to gain a better understanding of how giving strengthens the UWC mission and supports the strategic aims of UWCSEA. Open to all members of the community, 28 different events and activities were scheduled in the weeklong showcase, including: • dinners with the scholar community on each campus • film nights featuring mission-aligned documentaries • sustainability tours of each campus hosted by staff and Foundation Parent Ambassadors • exhibitions in the tent plaza • scholar stories shared at student assemblies, staff meetings and parent events • inaugural Impact of Giving fundraising gala

Dinner with scholars 6 and 8 November With over 57 countries represented by our scholars, the dinners were an opportunity for our day community to connect with scholars in our boarding community over a shared meal. Families brought home-cooked dishes from their own country to supplement the Sodexo buffet in dining rooms decorated by Foundation Parent Ambassadors with representative flags, candles and table settings.

Victoria Great, whose daughter is in Grade 5 at Dover Campus, said: “Perhaps the most impactful event for me was the ‘Dinner with Scholars’ where we were able to meet some of the scholars … I sat on a table with scholars from Senegal, Burkino Faso, Namibia and Cambodia. They are articulate, mature and shared fascinating insights about their background and experiences.”

Tent plaza exhibitions 6 and 8 November Interactive displays showcased the impact giving has had on scholarships, teaching and learning, and sustainable development. Tables were hosted by students and staff who shared information on Foundation-supported projects such as Solar for Dover, Adopt-a-Tree, the Rainforest Restoration Project and the IDEAS Hub.

Sustainability tours Bettina Haupter, Foundation Parent Ambassador, said: “The week was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of the impact of giving and provide unique opportunities for parents, students, alumni and staff to understand more about how gifts are enriching the UWCSEA experience. From seeing the student installed solar panels on the roof, to hearing scholars speak about their scholarship experience, to learning how endangered tree species are being rescued from extinction, it was an eye-opening experience for all that took part. You really got to see how gifts are making a difference across the College.”

All activities and events featured in Foundation Week 2017 were directly linked to the College’s four core fundraising programmes: scholarships, sustainable development, ​ teaching and learning, and the UWCSEA Endowment.

6 and 9 November These tours led by Foundation Parent Ambassadors and staff around each campus, highlighted the sustainability features that turn our campuses into educational spaces. From tree nurseries to solar panels, to sneak peeks at rooftop gardens and the air conditioning plant, participants were able to get a better understanding of the green features of the campus.

An East Campus parent said: “It’s not until you’ve been on one of these tours that you realise exactly how much has been done to enhance and improve not just environmental sustainability of the campuses but also the learning opportunities they provide. For example, I did not realise the extent of the edible gardens, or the fact that the astroturf pitch on East Campus is a rainwater catchment.’’

Scholar stories

Impact of Giving Gala

6–11 November

11 November

An important part of the week was providing opportunities for scholars to share their stories. Nearly 3,000 members of our community, predominantly students from K1 to Grade 12 and staff, had the opportunity to hear from scholars how their UWCSEA scholarship had impacted their lives. Scholars also shared their stories with parents at the scholar dinners, a coffee morning and the Impact of Giving Gala.

Topping off the week was the inaugural Impact of Giving Gala, a fundraiser organised by two parent co-chairs and committed team of 23 parent volunteers. Attended by 350 guests and held at the iconic Marina Bay Sands, the gala was a community-led event. Alumni Sonam Kapoor ’03, Anita Kapoor ’89 and Sean Ghazi ’87 volunteered their time to help to host the evening and provide entertainment; Head of College Chris Edwards composed and performed a song; and three student DJs kept guests on the dance floor. S$366,000 was raised in support of UWCSEA on the night.

The contribution of the Scholarship programme to the furthering of the mission is clear, as described by Sakana, a Grade 12 scholar from Cambodia: “A big part of having a UWC experience is living in a diverse community. Diversity brings a great variety of foods, amazing music, beautiful dances and a lot of dinner celebrations: from Christmas to Hari Raya to Diwali. On top of that, diversity allows expression of individuality through thoughts and actions. Every single scholar that I talk to tells me a unique story about their life experience, their family background, their country’s culture, history and especially their experiences here in this school. For example, Julia, a scholar from Germany is working on an Initiative for Peace conference in Cambodia aiming to reconcile youth in conflict.

Then there is Mafe who will be spending her gap year designing an affordable baby carrier for indigenous parents in Mexico. And Nanakwame, a Ghanan scholar who built a web application for the event Write for Rights organised by the GC Voices for Refugees.

And Hristina who wants to show peace and harmony between the two countries, Turkey and Albania, through dance in CultuRama.”

Film nights 7 and 9 November The community was invited to come together with friends and family to watch documentary films closely linked with the UWC mission. Plastic Ocean, screened on East Campus, was prefaced by Claire Psillides, Chair of Service and students Ruby and Freddie, who explained how some environmental initiatives in the East Campus Service programme are designed to minimise our impact on the environment. On Dover Campus, The White Helmets documentary was linked to the UWC Refugee Initiative with an introduction by Susan Edwards, Head of Global Concerns for student Hella who then acted as MC. Hella helped to field questions from the audience for Joy Haugen, GC Service Officer on East Campus, who visited Dover Campus to share her experiences as a South Sudanese refugee.

The impact of community With over 800 community members registering to be part of the scholar dinners, sustainability tours, film nights and the Impact of Giving Gala, nearly 3,000 students and staff hearing scholar stories at staff meetings and assemblies, and countless others pausing to explore the information displays, the week was a huge success for raising awareness across the whole community of the opportunities and impact that giving creates.

Dave Shepherd, Director of Advancement said: “Since 2008, the College has received over S$23 million in gifts. This support has had an enormous impact on UWCSEA and this week was an opportunity to showcase the vital role our community has played in supporting the continued development of UWCSEA. Thank you to not only those that took part but to all those that helped make the week the success it was.”

December 2017 Dunia | 21

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY an interview with Pandit Mami ’10

By Linda de Flavis University Advisor, Dover Campus “You never knew from one moment to the next if you would be alive or dead. Any second you could be the one shot. I still wonder why I was the lucky one when so many of my friends were killed.”

These were the first words I heard Pandit Mami say, back in 2009. He was addressing a group of UWCSEA students and teachers at a forum on Sierra Leone, and it was not only his story, told so matter-of-factly, that kept the room spellbound, but also his energy and spirit. Like other Sierra Leonean scholars, Pandit had been trapped in the middle of a long and brutal civil war fought over control of the diamond industry. It affected his childhood, changed his future, and seemed at various points to rob him of all his hopes. But his innate capacity for joy remained strong.

Years later Pandit is still one of the most exuberant and compassionate individuals I know. He has a special way of dealing with a difficult past and transforming it into a positive source of activism. Here is his story.

Tell us about your life before you came to UWCSEA. Before UWC, I was mired in a world of uncertainty. My dad had suffered a stroke and lost his speech in 1998.

From that time on, I became his walking stick and his mouth piece. Our family depleted all our savings to nurse him back to health, but that never happened and he eventually died in 2004.

I can still recall seeing my older siblings dropping out of school as the financial constraints began to kick in. We were forced to move to the slums and lived under deplorable conditions—no electricity or indoor plumbing, and our roof leaked when it rained. I studied under candlelight and kerosene lamps.

I became accustomed to walking miles to school on an empty stomach. I remained in school solely through the goodwill of some of my dad’s friends.

Then you came to UWCSEA. What was that transition like?

I couldn’t possibly have fathomed what to expect. And quite frankly, I don’t 22 | Dunia December 2017

think I could have prepared adequately, either. The problem was never about academics. I was ill-equipped for the technological savviness required for IB. I didn’t know how to use a computer and I had no clue how the internet worked. I can still remember my first Theory of Knowledge assignment: we were asked to write a six-page essay and I stayed up all night typing one letter at a time.

With sheer determination I was able to face the challenges with the right attitude. The challenges gifted me with the burning passion to invest in my nation’s human capital through the vehicle of education and technological awareness.

UWC dovetailed critical thinking and technological savviness in an international and multicultural environment and gave me the tools to connect with all people regardless of gender, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or political affiliation.

After UWCSEA, you went on to study on a scholarship in the US. Which were the pivotal experiences there that led you to where you are now?

At Colby College, I studied Political Science, minoring in Religious and Jewish Studies. I’ve encouraged other Sierra Leonean National Committee scholars to explore new areas of studies, not just the natural sciences. UWCers won’t make a significant impact in their native countries if they’re not calling the shots in every major field of study.

We can only be changemakers if we’re at the vanguard of policy reforms in our home countries. If not, we’ll spend our days as spectators, criticising everything from the sidelines—something I would never opt for and no one should.

Tell us more about the Ngoyeaa Back to School Foundation.

I started the Ngoyeaa scholarship initiative in November 2016. The word ‘Ngoyeaa’ is from the Mende language, a Sierra Leonean dialect, and means the same as ‘Ubuntu’. It

ALUMNI STORIES

Left to right: Pandit was class speaker at UWCSEA Graduation 2010; Pandit with, and giving a motivational speech to, High School students in Sierra Leone.

captures the essence of our humanity and compassion to others. It’s evocative of what we want to accomplish in Sierra Leone: bringing hope through education. It’s a pilot programme focused on students within the Aberdeen community in Freetown.

Over time we hope to expand it into a nationwide initiative.

It began after my trip to Sierra Leone in October of 2016 when I saw first-hand how shaken my nation had been by the Ebola virus. I knew something had to be done to mitigate the suffering of Ebola orphans and underprivileged children. These kids were becoming susceptible to gang recruitment, drug addiction, sexual harassment, assault, and petty crime.

Their plight resonated with me because during my dad’s illness I owed my own education to the largesse of individuals who invested in me to ensure that I became a constructive member of society. They inspired me to invest in the lives of others. So, before returning

to the US, I met up with some of these kids, listened to their plight, and made a pact with them that if they were willing and ready to go back to school and work hard, I would raise the funds to see them through school and college.

At Ngoyeaa, we believe that education should be a right for every child regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, and religion. In the past six months, we’ve sponsored 24 students, selected based on their potential and the severity of their circumstances. We raise funds to pay school fees and buy uniforms and books for the students. We also assign mentors to motivate them to work hard in school. The mentors help the students with their homework, pay regular visits to their schools and attend PTAs and other school functions. We want our beneficiaries to succeed.

We also have non-Sierra Leonean mentors abroad who contact these children once or twice a month to facilitate cross-cultural learning and

multiculturalism. Inspired by the UWC model, we believe that cultural interaction and internationalism should be at the epicentre of any educational model in the 21st century.

What was the impact of your UWCSEA education on the life you lead now?

UWCSEA forever changed the way I see the world and make sense of contemporary events. It made me realise that we’re participants in history, not bystanders—and we should never believe that it’s the responsibility of others to right the wrongs of society. All of us should make it our point of duty to mitigate the suffering of others and heal our world.

For more information about the Ngoyeaa Foundation, visit: https://www.crowdrise.com/backto-school-foundation

December 2017 Dunia | 23

FEATURE

LEARNING THROUGH HOSTING AN INTERNATIONAL EVENT Photo courtesy of: Association for Music and International Schools (AMIS)

By Eivind Lødemel Music Teacher and AMIS Jazz Festival Host, East Campus In late September, East Campus hosted the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) High School Honor Jazz Festival and Jazz Skills Workshop. In Singapore for the first time, the annual music festival attracts international school students from around the world for five days of collaboration and learning with peers who share a passion for jazz. Following a multi-stage audition process, students from 20 international schools (including UWCSEA Dover, UWCSEA East and Singapore American School locally) from more than a dozen countries secured places to attend.

During the festival 85 students participated in jazz ensembles and workshops, learning from professional musicians and experienced educators. Three concurrent programme tracks ran during the event, which included Big Band, a 12-part vocal ensemble, and a Jazz Skills Workshop focused on developing improvisation and solo skills. In addition to these programmes, two Singapore-based artists-in-residence, Erik Hargrove and Greg Lyons, ran masterclasses in the Music Department.

The festival concluded with concerts that showcased the exceptional quality and level of these top young jazz musicians.

UWCSEA hosts a number of large scale events like this one each year, and while they require a significant investment of time and resources from the College community there are substantial rewards for student learning, teacher professional development, and extending the reach of the UWC mission and College profile that make these efforts worthwhile.

The AMIS Jazz Festival provides a useful frame for considering the benefits of our commitment and involvement in such events. How does our school community benefit? How does it enhance learning for students and staff? How does the College’s profile grow?

Through the host family experience, both hosts and guests gain numerous and reciprocal benefits. The parent and staff host families’ generous display of kindness and willingness to contribute are so prevalent at UWCSEA, and the value to the visitors and event organisers cannot be overstated. Host families are able to connect with and learn from students from all over the world—a positive experience that provides a window into other cultures and communities. One host family for the AMIS festival asked the visiting students to create a jazz playlist for them in order to learn more about the music genre, 24 | Dunia December 2017

which the students graciously did. What a great way to start a conversation, find common ground, and learn from each other through simple and authentic engagement with the Arts.

Through sharing our space and resources on campus with participants from other schools, our students and staff are better able to appreciate the incredible facilities and equipment we have. Throughout the jazz festival, visiting students and teachers walked around with wide eyes and open mouths, admiring the instruments, equipment and rehearsal spaces.

This, in turn, inspired participants to engage fully with the work at hand. We saw in real time how great resources which are carefully managed can jumpstart the creative process and help teachers and students perform at their very best—creativity can truly flourish and grow.

The College’s profile as a world leader in international education also benefits from hosting international events. As we connected with other schools during the jazz festival, they were able to observe our distinctive approach to curriculum, activities and service in the Music Department. As a missiondriven school, we are happy to share our approach with others without feeling protective, and this will, we hope, benefit education in many places around the world.

Above all an event like the AMIS Jazz Festival gives our students the opportunity to work and perform at a world-class level. By gathering dedicated young people from around the world, be they athletes, musicians, actors or those engaged in political issues, our students benefit from being in a challenging, vibrant and engaging environment and peer group. These events push students to learn and perform at the highest possible level, and by learning alongside students from other countries they gain fresh perspectives and approaches. The students’ level of singing and playing in the AMIS Jazz concerts was extraordinary—we had to remind ourselves that the performers were high school students and not professional musicians.

We are lucky to have a community full of people who are ‘crazy’ enough to continue signing up to host international events that benefit learning in our school. The amount of extra work that our teachers, coaches, administrators, parents and students take on to make these events a success should be noticed and appreciated. By continuing to make UWCSEA a meeting point for educators and students from around the world, our community is richer and our learning is deepened.

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HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE A Dover Campus Grade 12 student carefully prepares an individual investigation for the IB Chemistry Internal Assessment.

Internal Assessments make up a proportion of the student’s final grade. These in-school tasks are externally assessed or marked by teachers and then moderated by the IB.