Graduation Day 2018

2018-10-16T09:31:27+01:00May 22nd, 2018|

The graduating class of 2018

Graduation took place on Saturday 19th 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, two special videos 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. For a copy of Larry’s welcome address, please click here.

Mawra Mahmood, the Head of Norwegian Red Cross Youth, 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. Click here for her speech), from second year students (Shweta from India and Raavi from the US / Pakistan) and the farewell message was given by Kristin Vinje (our Chair of the RCN Board).

Outside the sun shone and, to mark the occasion and give our second years an extra special send-off, we invited the Dale Musikkorps (Brass Band) to play outside.

Many of the parents of our second year students were unable to attend the ceremony – and therefore we have posted lots of images and videos on faceboook (the Graduation Dinner and the Ceremony) and a copy of the graduation ceremony programme so that our whole community can connect with the occasion.

https://www.facebook.com/uwcrcn/videos/1942195545845482/

Hey, look at this!

2018-10-16T09:31:28+01:00May 22nd, 2018|

Intrepid explorers

The IB science project’s main purpose is for the students to experience teamwork and to investigate with the use of modern technology. This year we intended to deal with plastics on nearby sea-shores. This was supposed to be in alignment with the EU’s proclaimed war on plastics agenda and the clean-up with “On The Same Boat”- and as encouragement to understand why recycling plastics is necessary.

Surprisingly, and happily, after an examination of sea bays within one hour’s driving distance, almost no plastics were found! Some few weeks ago there was an organized dugnad (joint voluntary work) for  cleaning the bays of our coast. We were thoroughly impressed with their success – but it meant that the topic of the science project had to be changed at the last moment.

Getting serious

In a meeting the evening before the project, all hundred students were told to imagine and pretend that they were part of ten scientific teams traveling on space ships landing on the newly-discovered planet ‘Lammetun’ which is made up mostly of water, some rocks and which has tides due to the gravitational pull of a moon. The members of each team were to cooperate in investigating the features of the habitat, in naming all the alien creatures they could find, in attempting to classify them and in figuring out some patterns of distribution of those creatures

In the morning all students and members of the Science Department landed on planet Lammetun. The teams scattered over the small peninsula with its wonderful ocean view in the wind. The teams used various gadgets and tools for their investigations – including their own smartphones. Many immersed themselves (literally) among those creatures which were exposed during the low tide. Often there were cries of, “Hey look at this!” Some teams were extremely creative in giving names to the creatures and others in calculating the aspects of the slope and times of immersion. As a bonus, even some plastics hidden in bushes were cleaned up.

Jelena Belamaric

The Annual Pride March

2018-10-16T09:31:28+01:00May 9th, 2018|

If you happened to be driving to our campus last Sunday afternoon, you might have found yourself being a little confused – rightly so. The scene that car-drivers coming in our direction encountered was indeed very unusual. Around forty young people dressed in bright colours, faces painted with rainbows were walking on the hilly road to Flekke, holding signs with slogans like “Love is not a crime”, “Pride not prejudice” and “Love knows no gender”. Music blasting in the background, we pass by the farms on the side of the road, where sheep signal a nod of solidarity. Not something you would expect in rural Norway, right?

This year, the annual Pride March organised by UWCRCN’s “Gender and Sexuality Group” (GAS), took place on Sunday, May 6th. Despite the bad weather and upcoming exams, the turn out was record-breaking in the history of the event. Alongside students and staff-members, patients from the neighbouring Haugland Rehabilitation Centre and even guests from our neighboring town of Dale marched in solidarity for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

In Flekke, the hungry participants arrived to rainbow-sprinkle cookies and two pride-themed artistic performances by RCN students.

The amount of positive responses and the success of the whole event left our Gender and Sexuality group feeling extremely encouraged and inspired. With the aim of making GAS as inclusive as possible, the group will continue reaching out to a broader community beyond RCN. In the future, GAS also hopes to strengthen its collaboration with other UWCs. A starting point for this is the newly founded messenger group which enables direct communication between the leaders of LGBTQ+ groups at all 17 UWC schools and Colleges. An LGBTQ+ themed event which will be held across all UWCs next year is already in the planning stage!

Apart from Pride, this year there has been great cause for celebration for GAS. Our college passed a new gender diversity policy which ensures the protection of the rights of trans* members of the community and we successfully celebrated both Sexuality and Gender Week. GAS is almost entirely student-run, but our work is greatly supported and facilitated by both our supervising teacher Lisa Jokivirta and our Education Management Team.

Diversity comes in all shapes and forms. As part of the UWC mission of celebrating diversity, we invite you to join the dialogue: how can we best support LGBTQ+ students, teachers and allies at UWCs around the world? We thank you all for your interest, solidarity and support!

Written by UWCRCN GAS Leaders Annika (Germany) and Jack (UK)
Photos by Hana Le Cam and Otto Garli

MoU – Continuing Cooperation

2018-05-04T11:24:52+01:00May 4th, 2018|

Our Nordic pillar receives invaluable support from national committees and selection contacts in all Nordic countries and autonomous regions.

To ensure that this mutually beneficial cooperation is kept up, we have created and signed, an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding). In the picture, Claus Reistrup, the Faroes and Thomas Urvas, Åland, with Rektor Richard Lamont and Council Chair Pär Stenbäck.

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