Long Service Award for Vidar

2018-10-16T09:31:51+01:00September 27th, 2017|

Vidar at work on the Baking House

Vidar at work on the Baking House

This summer saw the retirement of Vidar Jensen (Head of Maintenance) from UWC Red Cross Nordic. Vidar has worked at Haugland for the past 30 years, from the times before the College and the Rehabilitation Centre were opened – and, more recently, he has served the College for 22 years since it was opened back in 1995.

He has made an extraordinary contribution to the development of this place. In his retirement, he has taken on the role of project manager for the construction of the new Baking House on our campus.

On the afternoon of Thursday 21st September 2017, Vidar introduced Her Majesty Queen Sonja, the patron of the College, to the Baking House project. At the opening of the cultural show – and in the presence of Her Majesty – he was presented with the thirty years long service medal by the mayor of Fjaler, Gunhild Berge Stang.

(Main photo by Sven Onnerstad)

Ed Love – Visiting Intern

2018-10-16T09:31:52+01:00September 27th, 2017|

Over the past fortnight, Ed Love (a doctoral candidate in Egyptology at St. John’s College, Oxford) has been on a teaching internship at RCN. He has been visiting classes, contributing to our extra academic programme and has been helping students with advice on how to craft personal statements for university applications – and on one of the last evenings, he gave an outstanding presentation on the wonderful world of Egyptology to a group of over 40 students and staff.

Ed wrote the following after his internship:

I am glad to have an opportunity to share how grateful I am for the warm hospitality extended to me by both staff and students throughout my near fortnight at RCN. Being welcomed into your unique community, partaking in your classes, and sharing stimulating conversations with you all in the kantina made my time in Flekke deeply rewarding. Once again, I was astounded and humbled by the diversity of experience, enthused by the intelligence of discussion, and excited by the variety of aspirations exhibited by the student body, and I thank you all for letting me into your own worlds during my visit. Whether on stage in front of Queen Sonja, in the classroom in front of your teachers, or on the football pitch in front of your cheering housemates, the range of talents and robust sense of UWC community exhibited by you all was a joy to experience. I wish you all a fulfilling and productive academic year, and also wish those of you making University applications – whether to the UK or elsewhere – every success. Rest assured that for as long as

[my wife] Angelika and I remain there, you will always have friends in Oxford.

HM Queen Sonja at RCN

2018-10-16T09:31:53+01:00September 22nd, 2017|

HM Queen Sonja

HM Queen Sonja

“Education is the most valuable we can give to you young people”.
This was the message Her Majesty Queen Sonja gave in front of a packed auditorium at the end of the Cultural Show.
“Coming here to UWC RCN is always so invigorating, experiencing so much talent and willingness to share”.

This is the tenth time Her Majesty has visited our College in her role as patron. She joined in with our conference on the theme of inclusion, attended by our students, staff and more than 100 visitors – a day for sharing ideas and good practice in and outside of the classroom. Her programme started with a visit to the exhibition made on inclusion, introduced by student Rodrigo Freitas and art teacher Hana LeCam. The grand finale on Thursday evening was the cultural show, put together by Dan Silfwerin and his team. Supper was made by our own students, supported by staff, in the form of an international matbord – a varied menu, beautifully presented in the Høegh Centre. Leon Muller, Kalyani Mohan, Amalie Rosendal and Petter Hallqvvist from our Student Council had the honor of sharing the meal with her Majesty. An uplifting experience for us all.

This was the report from NRK, the national broadcaster.

Kayak Leader Course

2018-10-16T09:31:54+01:00September 19th, 2017|

The UWC RCN Outdoor department held the Kayak Leader Course on the weekend 16th to 17th of September for staff and students at UWC Red Cross Nordic, enabling the successful participants to lead kayak trips for the students at the College.

The course was in two parts over two days. On the first day was in the Flekke fjord by the College to learn the basics of paddling with a lot of rehearsing techniques and practicing rescuing capsized kayakers. On the second day we moved the classroom out to sea and started of at Korsunded close to the open sea. This day was set up as a day-trip circumnavigating the Island of Lutelandet. Very calm seas and good weather made for a good experience for all. Some of the participants seems to have thought it was too warm and ended up taking a swim out at sea, giving a few of the others a chance to practice rescues again.

The newly qualified kayak leaders are Chisato, Kimi, Marco, Mikkeline, Hari, Raavi, Emelie and Amina as well as Taren and Jenny from the staff.

For an album of photos, see here.

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