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Graduation Ceremony 2017

2018-10-16T09:32:07+01:00May 22nd, 2017|

Graduation took place on Saturday 20th May at UWC Red Cross Nordic. It was a pleasure to welcome so many families, host families from our local community and other guests on Friday evening for dinner in the Høegh and then a cultural show – all coordinated by the first year students. The ceremony took place in a beautifully decorated auditorium at 14:00 on Saturday and consisted of speeches, a slideshow, a special video for the occasion (see here and below), musical performances and the formal graduation procession. The Rektor, Richard Lamont, opened the ceremony with a welcome address and introduced our Guest of Honour, Hans Von Sponeck. Hans has served as a UN Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq and has won several international prizes for his work towards peace. He is a staunch supporter of UWC and has worked tirelessly over the years to enable students from Iraq to attend our schools and colleges.

Liv Ronglan, the RCN Board Rep for the Norwegian Red Cross, gave a powerful address about the College’s partnership with the Red Cross and the role our students can play in the future. Her address was followed by speeches from Gunhild Berge Stang (Mayor of Fjaler), from second year students (Tess Luttikhus from the Netherlands and Adrian Sidhu from the UK) and the farewell message was given by Tove Veierød (our outgoing Chair of the RCN Board).

Many of the parents of our second year students were unable to attend the ceremony – and therefore we have posted lots of images, recordings of speeches and musical performances on faceboook and a copy of the graduation ceremony programme so that our whole community can connect with the occasion.

For a copy of Larry’s welcome address, please click here; for a copy of Hans’ speech please click here; and for a copy of Liv’s speech, click here.

Graduating Students

Graduating Students

Congratulations to all our graduating students!

Graduation 2017.What a day. This is the video the students made for showing during the Graduation Ceremony. Thank you to Nik and Maja. Video of the ceremony, and photographs of the day to follow ….

Gepostet von UWC Red Cross Nordic am Samstag, 20. Mai 2017

For an album of photographs, click here.
For a playlist of videos, click here.

Red Cross and Red Crescent Day

2018-10-16T09:32:08+01:00May 16th, 2017|

May 8th marked the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, celebrating the Red Cross Principles in action all over the world.

At RCN students and staff could take pictures with statements expressing solidarity, calculate their personal slavery footprint, indicating the number of slaves that work for each and everyone of us, win a cupcake if they knew all the seven principles of the Red Cross, and take part in several other activities.

The newly-founded Red Cross Youth Group at the College organized all events, trying to emphasize the connection between the school and the Red Cross.

We were very happy with the turn out of the day, as many people had conversations about the Red Cross Principles and their meaning both for us here and in other places in the world.

See an album of photographs here.

Coastal clean-up in Dale

2018-10-16T09:32:08+01:00May 9th, 2017|

The barbeque after the workWater pollution caused by humans threatens marine life and ultimately humans. One of the most harmful pollutants is plastic waste that will travel with currents for thousands of miles and for hundreds of years. Sometimes it finally reaches the coast. Every May thousands of Norwegians gather along the coast to help with the cleaning of waste washed up on the shore.

This year, for the first time, RCN students joined forces with people from Dale to clean the fjord’s coastline. On Saturday, 6th May a group of  students and staff members went to Dale armed with gloves and trash bags and cleaned about a kilometer long stretch of coastline. We found and bagged old fishing lanes, shreds of plastic bags, long pieces of ropes and other plastic rubbish. We also realised that people are recklessly dumping hazardous waste in the fjord as well: we found half-burnt building insulation materials.

The weather was really kind with glorious sunshine and we were able to spend not just a useful but a very joyful day in Dale that ended on the beach with bathing, cooking over a barbeque and playing volleyball.

Sara Al-Husaynat (’16-’19)

2018-10-16T09:32:09+01:00May 8th, 2017|

Sara, from Iraq, is one of our students on the Foundation Programme. She was born with Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) – brittle bone disease. She has a fragile body and significantly reduced stamina, but her character is strong, her mind is sharp and inquisitive, and she possesses a well-developed sense of humour. In Iraq, she explained, children are supposed to go to school at the age of 6. However, at the time when children of her age were starting school, she was embarking on years of operations and physiotherapy, mainly in Austria. Her father became a volunteer with SAAR (Society for Austro-Arab Relations) after a chance encounter in a hospital in Basra when he was seeking medical help for his daughter. This organization has funded Sara’s treatment, among other things. Eventually Sara started school at the age of 8. In her mainstream school it was difficult to be in a wheelchair and she was afraid of her boisterous classmates who ”kept jumping around” and easily could have fractured one of her bones in play. Her mother accompanied her to school and sat in classes with her every single day throughout her school career.

When Sara was offered a scholarship to study in Norway, her family was understandably concerned about the potential risks. To make this possible, Sara’s father was invited to accompany Sara to the 3-week RCN Summer Course, giving him the opportunity to meet with staff, observe practices, advise us on the support Sara might need, and much more.

Sara with her English teacher

Sara with her advisor

Sara faces a lot of challenges here, learning to get around in her electric wheelchair, adapting to the winter weather, figuring out how to meet the demands of the daily schedule without getting exhausted. When she needs to rest for an extended period to recover her energy and get relief from discomfort, she sometimes has to takes a day off, which is one of the reasons why she feels very grateful to join the Foundation Programme. For many participants int he programme, it gives them the chance to get used to an English-speaking environment. In Sara’s case, it enables her body to get used to the environment. Now much more comfortable with the academic systems and the residential expectations, she is learning to manage her time, gaining understanding of how to cope with very different demands from what she is used to. She is looking forward to returning as a confident First Year student in August, 2017.

One of Sara’s greatest joys here is meeting people from different backgrounds. Back home she could not see her friends easily outside the academic day and it was hard to develop strong friendships. Here she is able to chat with her friends at any time, communicating in Arabic, English and German. She is also learning Norwegian as part of her Foundation timetable, along with a full programme of lessons. She is very grateful for the safe community, teachers, the Extra Academic Activities (EAC), and Project-based Learning weeks. Through “The Knights” EAC, she is trying new activities such as canoeing, kayaking and swimming, savouring the fresh air and beautiful nature around her. Working closely with a physiotherapist at the Red Cross Rehabilitation Centre which shares our campus, she is becoming more aware of what her body is capable of doing. Through Haugland she has also met others with OI for the first time.

“I find my new life wonderful, but hard. Thanks to the Foundation Year that difficulty is slowly decreasing.”

For profiles and news of other students and alumni, click here.

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