Foreign Minister Børge Brende shared his thoughts about Norway’s role in the world with a packed auditorium on Friday evening. While the party leaders in Norway prepared for the main TV debate ahead of Monday’s national election, Brende enjoyed talking with our students and responding to their challenging questions. An inspirational session for everyone concerned with international politics.
Nine students from the Knights EAC went to Ridderdagene with staff members Josh, Jenny and Hilde. Ridderdagene is a big, yearly event where activities are made accessible for people with disabilities. There was a bicycle race, climbing (with a blind instructor), horse riding, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, an obstacle course among other activities.
The RCN team helped with many practical tasks such as setting up the camp, running the information desk, serving food, repairing bikes and handing out medals.
First year student Sreythai took part in the bicycle race with Hari as her guide while second year student Steinar was Anne-Mette Bredahl’s tandem bike guide when she biked 40 km. Anne-Mette is blind and has won several Paralympic medals.
We had three active and fun days in the spirit of Erling Stordahl, the founder of Ridderrennet. After he became blind, Erling Stordahl said “We all wander in darkness. Some because they cannot see with their eyes, some because they don’t see with their thoughts. Most of us because we cannot see each other.”
More information is found on the Ridderdagene web page and facebook page.
For an album of photos from the event, see here.
Current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende, will visit RCN Friday 8th September. During his time as General Secretary of the Norwegian Red Cross, he launched the idea of providing education and rehabilitation for land mine victims at Haugland. With the support of the Norwegian Red Cross and the MFA, this has been developed into our Survivors of Conflict Programme. The College looks forward to updating Mr Brende and are appreciative of his continued engagement for our cause. This will also be the first formal visit to RCN in her role as our new Board Chair for Kristin Vinje, who will accompany the Minister.
At the heart of the education we provide is deliberate diversity. In line with this, we are asking for support for a Foundation Year for students from conflict / refugee / underprivileged backgrounds who are not fully prepared to take on the IB diploma programme in two years either due to disrupted learning or limited English.
Reunion
This summer, in the build up to the first double reunion (for the graduating classes of 1997, 1998, 2006 and 2007), we set a target to raise the annual cost of a Foundation Programme place which is 300,000 NOK per student per year. All gifts are matched by an equal amount from the UWC Davis Impact Programme. For every pound, dollar or krone our supporters give, we receive two.
By August 23rd we were delighted to see that we have fully met the target of the summer campaign: 132 contributions, of which 109 were from RCN alumni, were given to raise the sum to 153,832 NOK. With Davis matching, this gives us a total of 307,664 NOK, which has enabled us to raise a full scholarship for the academic year 2017/18, the first ever joint scholarship given by alumni and friends to our College.
Omar Baiba Mohamed Salem
The recipient of the scholarship will be Omar Baiba Mohamed Salem, from Western Sahara.
Omar has just finished our one-month summer course and will now step into the Foundation Year programme alongside two other students – from Cambodia and Argentina (SOS). Omar is full of spark and potential, but joins us with limited command of English.
Please click here for a link to an introduction to Omar.
A special thank you to the Class of 2001 for the highest number of participants (21 alumni) from one year group in the summer campaign. And, of course, thank you to everybody who contributed – and to Mostak Rahman, our Alumni and Development Officer, who carried out the campaign.
A list of donors (and their graduating year if alumni) to RCN from 2017 is attached. Some donations have also been given anonymously.
Our job is not done! Our next target for the ‘Alumni and Friends’ Scholarship Fund’ is to raise another scholarship (or two) for entry for Foundation Year students in August 2018. Please do visit our donation pages on our homepage if you would like to make a donation.
In the words of Kurt Hahn, ‘You are needed’.
Please do visit our donation pages on our homepage if you would like to support our work to provide education for a deliberately diverse group of students.
With our deepest appreciation at the start of the term,
Richard D A Lamont
Rektor
Arne Osland
Director of Development
