It was a pleasure to welcome Steinar Bryn (senior adviser at the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue) to UWC RCN today. Steinar delivered the fourth UWC RCN Annual Constitution Lecture (based on the College’s Nordic Pillar) – following previous lectures by Kåre Willoch (former Prime Minister of Norway), Sven Mollekleiv (President of the Norwegian Red Cross) and Geir Lundestad (former Director of the Nobel Peace Institute and Secretary to the Nobel Committee).

Steinar has extensive experience working as a dialogue facilitator. He is highly recognized in communities like Vukovar, Prijedor, Srebrenica, Bratunac, Stolac, Kosovo Polje, Obilic, Mitrovica, Bujanovac and Jegunovce. He has also facilitated dialogue in the Middle East and between Somalian clans. He has facilitated hundreds of seminars, published numerous articles and has an extensive record of lecturing worldwide.

Steinar’s programme included: lunch with students from the Balkans and participants on the College’s Survivors of Conflict programme; a lecture to first years and staff on ‘Celebrating the National Day in a Multi-Ethnic Europe’; and a symposium on dialogue. Steinar’s lecture covered many issues – dialogue arenas, integration and assimilation; and stimulating insights into today’s Norway and the Nordic region. He finished the lecture by recognising that RCN is a special dialogue arena and inviting us to continue to develop the partnership with the Nansen School and Centre for Peace and Dialogue.

On Monday we hosted the Student Climate Summit, with 60 participants from the colleges of Dale, Firda, Mo & Øyrane and Sogndal. The focus was on how to meet climate change on an individual and group level. The conference was a cooperation between UWC, Fylkesmannen and Sogn og Fjordane County. Karen O’Brien, Tora Hope and Linda Sygna from cchange/University of Oslo were the organizers of the workshops. The results of the Student Climate Summit were then taken to the National Climate Conference in Sogndal on Tuesday 3rd May.
“Education is the key to the transformation that we need.” said Karen O’Brien after the conference. “The human dimension to this is central. The young participants who came to this event already knew a lot and are eager to seek new solutions. I think they will become the new leaders of the future, be it on a local or a global level.”

Student participants Meriem (Morocco) and Linnea (Sweden) wrote about the follow-up in Sogndal:

Following the Student Climate Summit, four students – Linnea, Meriem, Bernard and Roche – accompanied by member of staff Judit Dudas and Prof Karen O’Brien went to participate in the National Climate Conference in Sogndal. The trip started with a visit to the Glacier Museum where students had the opportunity to see a glacier and to visit the interactive presentation on climate change at the museum and where the students also gave a presentation about the College, its Environmental Pillar, and reported on the results of the student climate summit.

At the conference in Songdal several scientists and other experts, together with the county governor, gave presentations about adaptation to global warming. The conference had a global and local perspective about the consequences of climate change and it also gave an insight of the role of Sogn og Fjordane Municipality as well as the plan to find solutions.

We recorded the visit on the UWC RCN Environmental Daily facebook page.

Click here for the cchange report of the event.
See here for a collection of photos from the day.