Elizabete Romanovska (’13 – ’15)

2023-12-13T14:35:10+01:00March 14th, 2016|

Before and during my time at UWC Red Cross Nordic I was told that I and the other UWC students would be the leaders of tomorrow. I had always thought that I would be under pressure to be the next president of my home country Latvia, or have to find a medicine to cure cancer. However, during my journey at the Nordic College I learned what it meant to truly be a leader of tomorrow.

One of my closest friends at UWC was Thupten from Tibet. A quote he always had on his desk said, “The planet does not need more ‘successful people’. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. It needs people to live well in their places”. This is what my UWC story is about.

I came to Norway as a girl who wanted to help change the problems of the world, but I left as a young woman who was desperately interested in the world and had a huge enjoyment of being alive. I remember the night when my friend and I went to sleep at the top of the mountain. We fell asleep at sunset and we woke up at sunrise, and I could smell the fresh cold air and at that moment I knew – I choose to love and live this life for real.

After my graduation I moved to the USA to study at University. During the first weeks I began to talk to people who at first seemed very intimidating, but at UWC I had learned to celebrate the differences amongst people and appreciate the importance of getting to know people for who they are and not for who I think they are. And now I am good friends with many of them, and indeed they are the way I expected them to be. I strongly believe that my UWC story will never end, because the things I learned there follow me every day. As I reflect more every day, I learn more. Isn’t that an exciting life to live?

Elizabete is currently studying at Macalester College in the US.

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Daniel Toa-Kwapong (’95 – present)

2016-03-14T05:58:50+01:00March 7th, 2016|

Daniel has been dedicated to his calling as a teacher at UWC RCN since the College opened in 1995. How many individuals and generations have benefited from his generous presence on campus!

Hope is what I call ‘the oxygen of life’. This is what the College provides. I’m looking at some of my students now who came here last year. When they came they hardly spoke any English – you should see some of them today in class! If you and I, as English speakers, were taken to Cambodia or Laos and asked to do Economics, Philosophy or Development Studies in Khmer – Oh gee, I would be on the next flight home! These people are my heroes. I mean people who write in different scripts, in different directions on the page. Did you know that some languages don’t have punctuation? It took me some time to learn that. I know a student who came here with who could barely speak English and now he is a neuroscientist. There are so many stories; you see so many students’ lives change in just a matter of two years. That’s what I think people need. They need hope; they need to believe that they can do the right things, have faith in themselves and in humanity. We need to restore faith in humanity.

The father of my wife, Barbara, said something I will always remember. He was one of the top architects on the African continent. He said, “When I die, I will not be buried with any of my buildings; none of my models will be on my death bed, I have to remember that I came to this world naked; God opened up opportunities to me and look at what I have become. Look at how many lives I have touched.”

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Mette Karlsvik (’95 -’97)

2018-10-16T09:32:47+01:00February 22nd, 2016|

(When graduating from RCNUWC, I moved abroad to educate myself as an artist. Since, I have lived and worked in the European cities of art, like Berlin, Glasgow, Reykjavik. The most important place may have been Fjaler: NKD – a pioneer of art-centres; uniquely built to host artists. Fjaler, a space for contemplation and come back to the roots.. To remember the important years. The RCNUWC – years.)

Revisiting Fjaler with the “Bard’s Licence”

NKD - Nordisk Kunstnarsenter in Dale

NKD – Nordisk Kunstnarsenter in Dale

Friend: You’re leaving us?
Me: Yeah. I know. Short silence. But hey. I am going to United World College.
Friend: Cool. Where?
Me: Fjaler.
Friend: Cooool! In what country is Fjaler?

The year is 1995 and the dialogue is in Norwegian. My friend and I hang out on the docks of Kristiansund, Møre and Romsdal – the neighbouring county to Sogn og Fjordane. But I cannot answer my friend. Why will a super college open there?

Twenty years later, I tell my employer that I am leaving the office for a month. I am given a commission as an author, at Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale.

Me: But hey. I will be operative. Skype, video-seminars … you know. I am not going to Gokk.
Employer: Hum. You are going to Germany?
Me: No, I said Fjaler! United World College. Recognition from Employer, The theatre festival! Further recognition. Ingolfur Arnarsson, the Iceland-settler. the Viking!

Aha! says my employer. Now we are speaking. Fjaler is the home of the courageous pioneers! Indeed, I say, post-fixing “Viking” to Fjaler: Fjaler is an art-viking, education-viking, a Viking of transcending visions. My employer is convinced. In January 2016 I travel back to Fjaler to write the history of Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale. Naturally, it involves the history of RCNUWC.

Funding UWC and NKD took initiative, generosity, strength to pursue ideas and convictions. Lobbying, planning, financing and building. The processes overlap. The stories resemble. The short version: The right people were at the right places. Fjaler became the place to be for informed, internationally orientated, modern and forward-thinking people.

(This short-story is written under “Skaldaløyve”. “Skaldaløyve” is a term dating back to Viking-times, and is a method of writing. “Skaldeløyve” – the Bard’s licence – can be given an author of non-fiction. It allows some exaggeration or dramatizing.)

Mette Karlsvik

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Mohamed Amine Belarbi (’10 -’12)

2018-10-16T09:32:49+01:00February 9th, 2016|

Mohamed Amine Belarbi has been involved and engaged since graduating in 2012. From RCN he went straight to New York University in Abu Dhabi where he is not only successfully pursuing his studies but is also something of a serial entrepreneur, having founded two NGOs and two businesses. His entrepreneurship-focused publication, Gulf Elite has 40,000 readers a month, and his Arabic publication, Business Arabi has 30,000 readers in the region. He also founded the ‘Opportunities for Students‘ facebook group, which has 49,000 international student members where opportunities – for internships, competitions, conferences, scholarships and more – are shared for the benefit of a worldwide student population.

As icing on the cake, in late 2015 at the 3rd Arabian Business Achievement Awards – celebrating the UAE’s most impressive achievers in the growing startup and small-medium business sector – Mohamed was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Here he is at a TEDx event delivering a talk titled, ‘The Entrepreneur Within Us’; and here is a written profile and interview with him.

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