Climate Voices in Sogn Folkmuseum

2018-10-16T09:31:50+01:00October 2nd, 2017|

RCN students at the conferenceForsikningsdagane (Research Days) is an event organised nationwide in Norway. This year Vestlandforsikning, the research institute of West Norway, organised an international climate change workshop for youth called ‘Climate Voices in Sogn Folkmuseum’ on Friday 29th September. RCN participated with eleven Geography and Environmental Systems and Society students and we met students from Vestland Universite’s Climate Management Master’s course. To our great surprise we also met a recent RCN alumna, Sara-Estelle Gößwein who wrote the theme song of the local Youth Peace Conference.

From the speakers of the workshop we learned about issues of climate change including interesting angles on immigration, indigenous peoples’ rights, and how minorities and gender groups are more prone to the effects of climate change-induced natural catastrophes.

We also had the chance to visit the museum with a guided tour.

In the workshop, the students worked in mixed groups on different aspects of climate change, such as food, gender issues and awareness. The results of the workshops were shared with the audience in the plenary session and also will be exhibited in the new exhibition of the museum, ‘Our Everyday Food’.

Nansen Refugee Award Winner

2018-10-16T09:31:50+01:00October 1st, 2017|

The 2017 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award winner has been announced as Mr. Zannah Mustapha, a lawyer, school-founder and peace-maker from north east Nigeria. He is being honoured for his dedication and commitment to ensuring children and orphans affected by the conflict in Borno State can attend school. Mr. Mustapha will be bestowed with the prestigious Nansen Refugee Award at a ceremony taking place in Geneva on Monday 2 October. Given UWC’s recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with UNHCR and UWC’s Refugee Initiative, UWC has been invited to send three representatives to the event coordinated by UNHCR. Arne Osland, Director of Development, will be attending to represent RCN.

The event will be live-streamed here on 2nd October at 12:50 New York | 17:50 Abuja | 18:50 Geneva.

NansenThe prize is given in the name of Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) – famous Norwegian explorer, author, statesman, Nobel Laureate. Nansen requested in 1921 in his capacity as High Commissioner for Refugees (appointed by the League of Nations) that the League validated the “Nansen Passport”, which gave the stateless people the right to enter different countries. Thanks to these passports 320,000 Armenians won the right to move freely to their preferred country. Nansen was also responsible for resettling 7,000 people in Armenia in 1925 – those refugees who had been displaced during the First World and ill-treated up until 1925 when Nansen drew up and implemented a plan for resettlement.

Her Majesty Queen Sonja, RCN’s patron, was awarded the Nansen Medal in 1982 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for her work towards refugees.

Congratulations to this year’s winner – Mr. Zannah Mustapha of Nigeria – from UWC RCN.

For an article from the UNHCR about him, read here.

UWC Refugee Intiative – UNHCR

2017-09-28T14:32:23+01:00September 28th, 2017|

In light of the dramatic escalation in the number of young displaced people fleeing conflict, persecution or environmental disaster, combined with the need for future post-conflict leadership, there is an urgent need to further increase the number of refugee students being granted access to a world-class school education at a UWC school or college.

This is why UWC launched the UWC Refugee Initiative, which aims to raise the funds for an additional 100 scholarships per year for refugee students from 2017 onwards.
The 100 scholarships will be allocated across UWC’s 17 schools and colleges. Additionally, and in light of the recent developments in the US, UWC Mostar, in Bosnia-Herzegovina has decided to extend scholarships to refugees and students from all seven nations.

We are delighted that a UNHCR-supported initiative aims to provide 100 scholarships a year to enable refugee and internally displaced students to attend UWC colleges worldwide.

Read the UNHCR article here.

Read the UWC Refugee Initiative Booklet here.

Visitors from US Universities

2018-10-16T09:31:51+01:00September 28th, 2017|

One of the US university representatives talks to our students.Our annual university fair took place last weekend with many US universities represented. It was superbly coordinated by Mark Chalkley and Hildegunn Arstein, our RCN university counsellors, and Susan Albrecht and Dave Fredricks, the UWC tour coordinators. The DROP team kindly provided refreshments on Sunday morning in advance of the interview sessions. Last week, we also had Mona Taylor from the GB National Committee giving an introduction to Scottish Universities and Ed Love, from Oxford University, advising on crafting personal statements for UK applications. Thank you to Mark and Hildegunn for providing this external support and guidance for our second year students.

Our visitors were: Will Schiffelbein – Colorado College; Jenny Howenstine – St. Olaf; Tony Lee – University of Oklahoma; Kimberly White – Ringling College of Art and Design; Jee Won Lee – Whitman College; Susan Hillmann de Casteñeda – Earlham College; Amanda Stevens – St. John’s College; Jonathan Webster – Washington & Lee University;  Steve Schaefer – Concordia College; Crockett Marr – Reed College.

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