Visiting Speaker – Einar Lunde

2016-12-01T13:08:17+01:00December 1st, 2016|

We were very pleased to welcome journalist and former TV news anchor Einar Lunde to the College on Wednesday where he spoke eloquently and passionately about his experiences in South Africa during the turbulent post-apartheid period. Deputy Rektor Alistair Robertson, himself a South African, introduced him to a full auditorium of students, staff and outside visitors.

The following is taken from Alistair’s introduction:

Before introducing our guest journalist, I would like to speak about the value of the printed word. When I was a student Mandela, along with many others, was banned in South Africa – it was a criminal offence to quote him or refer to him in any way. I first read his writing during a visit to Kenya in the 1970s: I bought this book and it confirmed what we had suspected, that he was a democrat, not a terrorist. I smuggled this book into South Africa and it remains a cherished possession: the single most important book I have read in terms of its impact on my views, including my choice to leave South Africa to teach at Waterford Kamhlaba UWC in Swaziland.

Einar Lunde worked as a news anchor for NRK from the late 1960s, before travelling extensively through Africa as a journalist. In the 1970s and 80s, the Nordic governments were supportive of the anti-apartheid struggle in ways in which the United Kingdom and the US were not, in recognizing the moral significance of Mandela and other South African political prisoners. In this way, the small country of Norway had an effect much bigger than its size, in the way its representatives drew attention to the struggle against racism in South Africa. Einar Lunde was such a representative – barred by the apartheid government from visiting South Africa (he tells me he managed to find secret ways into the country nonetheless!) his credibility was obviously recognized, as he was granted an interview soon after Madiba’s release in 1990.

Einar, it is a huge pleasure to welcome you to our nordic Kamhlaba – our little world of magnificently different people!

Davis-Mahindra Scholarship

2018-10-16T09:32:22+01:00November 29th, 2016|

RCN is asked to put forward four second-year nominations for the Davis-Mahindra International Scholarship each year. This is, in essence, recognition of an outstanding contribution throughout the RCN programme and something for the CV as RCN receives an annual cheque for investment from the Davis Foundation.

Over the past four years we have nominated:

2012-3: Christine Blandhol (Norway) and Tabish Tabish (Afghanistan)
2013-4: Nkanye Gumpo (Zimbabwe) and Augusto Ballón (Peru)
2014-5 Elizabete Romanovska (Latvia), Jasmine Tan (Singapore), Pedro Manuel (Angola) and Sara Löwgren (Sweden)
2015-6 Blessing Chirimbani (Zimbabwe), Dylan DeMarco (USA), John Lihasi (Kenya) and Sophia Hejndorf (Denmark)

We have again been invited to nominate four outstanding current second years.

The Selection Criteria is set by the Davis-Mahindra Foundations / International Office and each Davis-Mahindra International Scholar should:

– Be a proven leader of high character
– Be a very motivated high achiever
– Have great potential

As was the case last year, Advisors were invited by the university office to nominate students from their advisor groups they felt met the selection criteria. The Education Management Team and the University Office have read and discussed the advisor nominations, students’ testimonials / transcripts and records of progress – and considered the criteria set. It has been a predictably difficult decision given the quality of our student body.

We are delighted to announce that the following students have been nominated this year to represent RCN as Davis-Mahindra International Scholars:

Flor Fernández Montes  (Argentina)
Nikita Klimenko (Belarus)
Ravi Manjhi (India)
Johanne Hansen (Norway)

ENOVA Competition 2016

2016-11-24T13:21:46+01:00November 24th, 2016|

A team of five RCN students – Babba Laminou (Cameroon), Leon Müller (UK), Nikita Klimenko (Belarus), Meriem Fouad (Morocco) and Yash Ramchandani (UAE) – participated in the county final of the ENOVA competition. The competition, held annually, is for raising awareness about sustainable technologies and renewable energy use. Teams from local high schools compete to come up with an innovative and feasible solution for a certain task. The jury marks the teams on their knowledge in the topic, their level of innovation, their entrepreneurial approach and the quality of the presentation.

Our students came up with a solution for a sustainable neighbourhood and created this website as a presentation.

The RCN team became the second in the competition. Congratulations to the team for their amazing performance and for the wonderful solution for the task.

Projects for Women – Zonta

2016-11-24T13:36:13+01:00November 23rd, 2016|

First year student Helen Pörtner writes about her recent trip to Alesund. To the Zonta Club. Here she writes about her experience.

The week before November Break I was given the opportunity to go to Ålesund to visit the local Zonta Club.
Zonta is an international organization with the goal of advocating for women’s rights. It was founded almost 100 years ago out of the struggle for women’s right to vote in the United States. Today there exist groups all over the world who run projects for women and girls on both a local and global scale.

Besides these projects, Zonta awards girls and young women with several prizes and scholarships every year. One of them is the “Young Women in Public Affairs Award”, which is directed to girls between 16 and 19 years old who take initiatives and have been proven to demonstrate “superior leadership skills and a commitment to public service and civic causes”.

The prize gets awarded on three levels: a local level, a national and an international. Just before coming to Norway and RCN, I learned that, to my surprise, I was awarded one of the 10 international prizes.

My local club from Germany decided to find me a contact in Norway (networking is also a big part of Zonta) to visit while staying at RCN. I got in touch with the ladies there and thus was given the opportunity to travel to beautiful Ålesund. I had an amazing stay with one of the Zonta-ladies; she showed me around Ålesund and on Tuesday night I went to their monthly meeting. After one club member had spoken about a project in Sri Lanka that she is involved in, I was given the opportunity to talk a bit about the award, about projects that I have done back home and also about UWC and especially RCN. The next day they were running a fundraiser-tombola for, among others, the project in Sri Lanka.

I was surprised to realize that none of the ladies knew about RCN and UWC in general, although it is quite a unique place in Norway and also not too far away from Ålesund. They are very much looking forward to visiting sometime!

I am very happy and thankful I was given the opportunity to go there and I really hope to be able to cooperate with them on a project!

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