Jeanette Trang RCN’11

2023-03-31T08:15:09+01:00March 31st, 2023|

Meet Jeanette Trang, an exceptional alumna of Red Cross Nordic United World College, who has dedicated her life to protecting and advocating for the rights of children around the world. Her journey began in Flekke, where her love for philosophy laid the foundation for her passion for humanitarian values. Since then, she has worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in various parts of the world, addressing issues such as child marriage, online sexual exploitation, and gender equality. Her inspiring story reminds us that one person’s commitment to making a difference can have a significant impact on the lives of many.

I was a curious child growing up in Sweden with a Chinese and Vietnamese background. I wanted to understand people, culture and the values that differentiate and bring us together. Naturally, in Flekke my favorite subject was philosophy. I remember all the profound ideas explored about morality, the human condition and political philosophy. I think this was the starting point for the journey I was about to begin. 

Since graduating from Red Cross Nordic United World College in 2011, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Chinese Studies, and a Master of Arts in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action. I went on to work for the United Nations Children’s Fund as an advocate for every child’s right to protection worldwide. Throughout the years I worked with UNICEF in the New York headquarters contributing to the initiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. I worked on tackling online child sexual exploitation and abuse, online bullying, and combatting commercial sexual exploitation and abuse in the tourism industry. I spent 2 years in Zambia working on ending child marriage and violence against children, before moving to Mali for a further 2 years supporting the child protection response to the humanitarian situation. I have also spent time in the Pacific Islands working on the protection against sexual exploitation and abuse of children and women. I am currently based in Amman, Jordan, with UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa regional office. I support the work on child protection systems strengthening and harmful practices, in midst of several crises in this region. Next, I will be supporting the UNICEF team in Afghanistan on programming for gender equality. 

Reflecting on my journey I can see how RCNUWC has impacted my choices and the routes I have taken. Oftentimes it hasn’t been an easy journey being away from family and saying goodbye to friends every 1-2 years when I am moving to the next UN assignment. But I am reminded of the lessons learned in Flekke that working for humanitarian values is worthwhile and meaningful. If I can help provide better opportunities for children around the world, that is a win – and knowing that the world is small and there is always a UWC friend nearby wherever I go.

People of RCN

In People of UWCRCN you find stories of alumni or other members of our community. Here are the laterst.

Jeanette Trang RCN’11

March 31st, 2023|

Meet Jeanette Trang, an exceptional alumna of Red Cross Nordic United World College, who has dedicated her life to protecting and advocating for the rights of children around the [...]

Anna Diagne Sène RCN’20

January 23rd, 2023|

We are proud of the impact Anna is making in her home country, Senegal and the world, and we believe her project is a testament to the power [...]

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Extended Essay in the IB Diploma: Balancing Challenges, Benefits, and a Community-Driven Approach at RCN

2023-03-31T07:56:06+01:00March 31st, 2023|

The Extended Essay is an independent research project completed by all RCN students as part of the IB Diploma Programme. For many students, it is the most challenging assignment that they will encounter in their school career: the workload is estimated at 40 hours, there is a 4000-word limit and students have access to just 4 hours of guidance from a subject-specialist supervisor.

Saying this, the benefits of engaging in the Extended Essay process are enormous. Students’ planning, management, writing, argumentation, research, reflection and communication skills are strengthened. The Extended Essay mimics undergraduate-level research in the relevant subject area, which means (for example) that Literature students perform textual analysis, Language Acquisition students present their ideas in a foreign language, Individuals & Societies students explore contemporary and/or global issues from multiple well-defined perspectives and Science students carry out investigations. And the Extended Essay remains refreshingly low-stakes in the IB Diploma overall; the skill level is high, but the maximum points available are relatively low.

This week, Emma (Academic Programme Leader) launched the Extended Essay with all First Year students in her first Academic Skills session of the year. She discussed the importance of choosing the right discipline for the Extended Essay and shared her insights on how to experience a balanced IB Diploma overall. Students also had the opportunity to find out why we carry out end-of-year internal exams in the First Year, with Emma explaining the value of assessment in any learning process and how teachers will learn more about how to support individuals and classes.

The RCN community also enjoyed the EEvening, which is an hour in which Second Years are on hand to present their work and share their experiences of undertaking an Extended Essay while First Years consider a range of Extended Essay subjects and ask questions in an informal setting. We hope that students are able to make informed decisions and know that our teachers’ diverse expertise will enable us to find the best possible match between our students and their supervisors.

Latest News

Oline Lykke Grand RCN’24

March 4th, 2024|

In these columns, we are introducing people: students, staff, former staff, and governance members of RCN. Today meet Oline Lykke Grand, our second year student from the Faroe Islands. Oline is passionate about human [...]

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Collaboration Across UWCs: Differentiation Workshop at RCN

2023-03-15T13:32:18+01:00March 15th, 2023|

Collaboration across UWCs is often tricky to organise face-to-face, but for three days at UWCRCN, colleagues from Dilijan, Adriatic, Maastricht, and Robert Bosch gathered for a workshop on Differentiation in Approaches to Teaching and Learning (Learning Support).

The workshop was planned and organised by the Learning Support Team from RCN and led by Suzanne Gaskell (Dilijan) and Miriam Nash (Adriatic). These expert facilitators employed differentiation strategies in their sessions, which ensured that all participants could be exposed to our biases, be reminded of the variety of student experiences, and learn at an appropriate pace.

A range of topics and focus points were covered during the sessions, including sharing best practices, the social model of disability, case studies from different IB subject groups, and planning of collaborative ways forward. Two sessions were shared with the entire education staff at RCN.

Perhaps the biggest lesson we will all takeaway is that it is not a student’s ‘condition,’ but instead, the student’s needs that should guide us in planning and teaching; creating opportunities for student autonomy are more likely to succeed than making assumptions about accessibility.

As hosts, RCN colleagues prepared a pizza social evening before the start of the workshop, took visiting colleagues hiking, swimming, and for yoga, and provided a campus tour and the chance to engage with RCN students and staff. Even the Northern Lights made a welcome appearance!

We are hugely excited to have played a small part in creating this professional and trusted network, and we know that all our students will benefit from the ideas for policy and practice that we shared. We all look forward to follow-up sessions hosted by one of our sister colleges!

Latest News

Oline Lykke Grand RCN’24

March 4th, 2024|

In these columns, we are introducing people: students, staff, former staff, and governance members of RCN. Today meet Oline Lykke Grand, our second year student from the Faroe Islands. Oline is passionate about human [...]

.

Go to News Archive

RCN Model United Nation: Developing Global Perspectives

2023-03-01T09:38:51+01:00March 1st, 2023|

The annual Model United Nations at RCN is a moment for the 1st year class to bond in something intellectually challenging, emotionally engaging, and also a little physically demanding. All of those things game together, more of one, depending on who you were and what each student needed from the week.
 
The conference was facilitated by a dedicated team of 2nd years who poured their hearts and souls into making the experience exciting and fun. This year we had even more topics with the addition of more committees spread across the Security Council, as well as a Historical Security that went back in time to solve some issues from 30 years ago, UN Women, the Economic and Social Council, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, the UN Environmental Programme, the World Health Organisation, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Human Rights Council, and the Special Conference.
 
This was the longest preparation for the conference for a while. The second-year chairs have been working on their committees since October, having been choosing through a mix of presentations, interviews, and even some cloak-and-dagger politics. This year the 1st year cohort got to engage with MUN training as an EAC, and the weekly practice shone through as many of the speakers stood up and delivered stirring performances. All students also had three in-depth preparation sessions over a month to get everyone on the same page. Hats off to all the committee chairs and the security team for deftly managing all the interventions and the personalities in all the sessions.
 
On Thursday, we had two very inspiring talks.
 
The first was with Fioralba Shkodra, the Head of the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Serbia. She has worked with Sustainable Development Goals for over a decade in multiple countries. It was good to learn from someone engaged with making aspirational SDGs become achieved goals. She helped us appreciate how she works on both long-term continuing programs and emergencies.
 
The later talk was with Alexander Stubb, a former Finnish Prime Minister. He shared his life as lawmaker, government minister, and prime minister and the demands of each role. He spoke about his life in the European Investment Bank, and his return to academia, and he gave us many ideas on how we can contribute across different spheres.
 
The General Assembly debate on the final day focused on protecting journalists worldwide. You can imagine how fun and hectic getting agreement among a hundred delegates can be – even in something we can all agree on.
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