For many years UWC Red Cross Nordic has cooperated with the University of Leiden. This is a mutual beneficial cooperation which allows students at Leiden University to get hands-on experience working as teachers. For RCN it’s a great opportunity for us to welcome and include fresh new ideas into the classrooms and the interns are always very popular amongst the students.

After 2 year with no physical visits due to the pandemic it was a pleasure to finally welcome back 2 interns from the University of Leiden, Blanca and Aedan. During April and May they worked with teachers, held classes, participated in extra-academic activities and helped out with the first year exams. Read their thoughts about their stay with us:

Blanca Casanovas Gordillo

I am Dutch/Spanish, living in the Netherlands, and currently finishing my Master of Education at Leiden University. Before this, I finished my Master of Translation and have been translating and teaching Spanish to adults at the Dutch Health Organisation called GGD. During holidays, I love to travel with my family in Spain, but have also explored many different countries like the Czech Republic, Marrocco, or South Korea, to name a few. During my month at RCN I have taught Spanish B and Spanish ab initio. In the Netherlands, I also teach at an international school, so I was already familiar with the IB system when I started teaching here, though I had never taught ab initio level before. It has been very fun to work together with the students that started at beginner level and quickly improved their Spanish through cooperation and motivation.
On my last Monday, I started the ab initio lesson with the introduction that it would be our last class together, and one of the tougher boys in the back – who is usually goofing with his friends and pretending to not be interested – was the first one to let out a sad ‘oh no really?’, to his own surprise, after which the rest of the class also reacted that they had enjoyed our classes together and would’ve loved for me to stay.
Everyone has been very welcoming. I had never been on a campus before where everyone lived in the same ‘village’ and had breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, so did not know what to expect of the teacher-student relationship and general interaction. As an intern, I think I was lucky to be kind of in between, because I was able to join the teachers in the staff room, but also have dinner with the students on the weekend and talk about their life on and off campus and plans for the future.

Aedan Lamers

 I am in the second year of my Master of Biology and Education at Leiden University. Before this, I completed my bachelor’s across two small universities in The Netherlands and Canada that each felt a little similar to UWC RCN in their own way. My background is in evolutionary ecology and I’m interested to keep learning about the two-way relationship between humans and nature, as well creating accessible ways of communicating science. I taught Biology and ESS, as well as observing various other classes and invigilating first year exams. I learned a lot about the IB system, for example by experiencing a Theory of Knowledge class for the first time! Blanca and I also enjoyed tagging along with the Outdoor Discovery EAC almost every week.
Spending time here reminded me how important it is, as a teacher, to cultivate a connection with your students. I was impressed with how well the teachers I observed knew their students and how this helped them to support their students and make the subject content relatable. By the end of my time, I was also remembering details about my students’ interests and incorporating them into my lessons. Furthermore, joining Outdoor Discovery and talking to colleagues about the local environment inspired me to plan more lessons outside in nature in the future. You never know exactly what you are going to find outside, which makes for fun and unexpected learning opportunities.   I really enjoyed my time here and am grateful for all the new experiences, impressions and insights that I will take with me. I also agree with Blanca that the community was very welcoming. There was always someone from the students or staff eager to chat and answer all of our questions. I’d like to thank everyone who shared their company, their stores, their perspectives and their curiosity!