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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Maja Horvath (’15 -’17)

2018-10-16T09:32:50+01:00February 1st, 2016|

Maja

“I was always very interested in music, I don’t know where it came from.  I was never forced into it. Before I even had an actual violin I would practice with two pens.  My parents never played instruments but growing up we didn’t have a television, so there was always music in my house.  I guess you could say it was my first big interest.  What I love about music is that it’s always been a constant in my life.  When I moved from Hungary to Sweden I got a proper violin teacher.  Even though I didn’t speak any Swedish at the time the lessons worked somehow.  I continued playing and I got into this orchestra that went to Germany which was super cool. I think playing in an orchestra is really beautiful because it is a way of performing in a group, rather then alone and completely exposed.”
(Photos by Khorshid Nesarizadeh)

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