We are so grateful that Sparebanken Vest, through Ildsjelfondet, continues to support our work towards creating equal opportunities for children and youths in Vestland county!
Community interaction and service are at the heart of every UWC school. This requires the full and active participation of all members of the school or college. At UWC Red Cross Nordic, one of our guiding principles is the humanitarian pillar and as part of the extra academic program, a group of students has been involved in running this specific program focused on social sustainability.
More specifically, over the last 3 years, we have worked closely with Bergen Red Cross. Together, we provide opportunities for children and youths based in the city of Bergen. Through the project, we want to facilitate so that children and youth have equal opportunities for participation independent of social background. We aim to create a Meeting Place for Diversity where people are invited to our multicultural campus to interact with our students and enjoy experiential learning opportunities outdoors.
For our students it has also proven to be a good learning opportunity and a way of learning through hands-on work. It has also given us an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Norwegian society where they study and live.
Thanks to support from Agenda Vestland in the period 2020 -2022, we have had the opportunity to invite many 100 children and youths to our campus for weekend visits and overnight trips during holidays. We are proud that we have managed to keep the high activity level in a challenging time with covid and restrictions. However, experiencing the joy, interactions, skills acquired, and flourishing new friendships give proper meaning to cooperation.
We are so grateful that Sparebanken also sees the value of this project and early November we received the positive news from Jørgen Follevåg Mjelli, Bank Manager – Førde, Florø, Sogndal, that they are continually supporting our work with NOK 200 000.
From us, from the Bergen Red Cross, and not least from the children and youth that the money will be spent on, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

All second-year students who take a science subject have to participate in a project designed to encourage cooperation between the sciences, it is the Group 4 project. The Group 4 project is an element of IB Diploma Program, a significant learning experience where students from different subjects come together and collaborate to carry out a practical project. It is a day that students will surely remember looking back 10 years later. This year they built model solar farms incorporating elements of focusing the light with mirrors, constructing copper oxide-based photovoltaic cells, and using plants. Even though we used a fake sun, being deeply in the dark season in Norway, the effect of the mirrors, when aligned properly, was quite dramatic.

While the second-year students participated in the Group 4 science project, our first years participated in a full day of interdisciplinary classes and workshops. Pairs and groups of teachers designed these workshops to highlight how the subjects we study at UWC RCN can enhance and support one another. Students were grouped with others who studied different subjects, and they explored questions using the ideas and methodologies they learned in their classes.
We had nine different workshops; here are some examples:
Environmental values in works of art, explore the human-nature relationship as influenced by culture, religion, and other perspectives.
Ethics of Nordic refugee systems with the Danish Oscar-nominated movie “Flee” and discussion about the current immigration practices in Scandinavia from a philosophical perspective,
A combined Maths and Spanish class, where students explored a recent study by Instituto Cervantes, asserts that nearly 572 million people speak Spanish. Learn functional modeling, regression, interpolation, and extrapolation to analyze trends and predict the Spanish-speaking population worldwide by 2050.

Please read some student reflections about the day:

“I participated in the Art/ESS workshop, Environmental values in works of art. The theme was focused on how art in all its forms can be connected with climate change activism. It is a critical topic, and exploring it from this other point of view was also very interesting. We had the opportunity to create something ourselves with our own hands, any form of art that could be a form of climate activism.
We worked in small groups, and the spirit created was constructive; we had a good discussion about the subject of the work. It was enriching to hear the various group members’ proposals and motivations behind them. It was a fantastic experience.” Sofia Uliana

“During the interdisciplinary day, I had an opportunity to participate in two workshops: What creates social movements? and Creating meanings with food and drinks. Throughout the first workshop, we explored and compared the issues of gender inequality in different countries through economic data. In the second workshop, we discussed the different meanings that food can represent and learned about other countries’ cuisines, finishing with composing poems about our food-related experiences.” Valeriia Ivanova

“At the ethics of Nordic Refugee Systems workshop, it was remarkable to see and hear how people from similar countries argue and think about the ethics of immigration and refugees was eye-opening and widened my perspective.” Agnes Ulla Margareta Karlsson

Glaciers are giant reservoirs for 70% of the world’s freshwater, and glacial retreat provides a stark visual representation of climate change. We have many glaciers in Norway, near us the biggest one on the European continent: Jostedalsbreen.
In a unique project, in collaboration with CNN Call to Earth initiative, a group of students will learn about glaciers, visit and monitor one. Then, after a year of study, they will share their knowledge with the worldwide audience with the help of CNN. Our good friends, glacier experts at Norwegian Glacier Museum, will guide us on this journey. Follow us for more exciting news about the project!
As a kick-off, we had a great trip to the Glacier Museum. First, glacier guide, Magnar Mundal, introduced us to the Museum and its many exhibits and interactive models, including watching a magnificent panorama film of Norwegian glaciers.

Next, we visited a glacier foot, where he described and explained many aspects of glacier production and retreat and the importance of glaciers in Norwegian nature and culture. Fascinating trip and cold toes too!

Mid-October, we welcomed the Executive Director of UWC, Faith Abiodun, to campus. Faith joined UWC International as Executive Director in 2021, bringing a wealth of experience from his time as an education and social enterprise leader, international affairs analyst, writer, and speaker.
Being the 6th UWC Faith has visited this year, we hopefully managed to give Faith a taste of RCN’s uniqueness through our close relationship with the Red Cross and our good neighbors at Red Cross Haugland Rehabilitation centre. Students were a central part of the visit, inviting Faith to participate in the classroom and extra academic activities, amongst others taking our visitor out to explore the fjord – led by our outdoor leaders.

“When I had the opportunity to visit UWC Red Cross Nordic earlier this month and to engage with students, teachers, staff, and partners, I was deeply inspired by the intricate blend of outstanding education, Nordic values, humanitarian leadership, and environmental stewardship that define the College’s unique place in the UWC movement and in the world.” – said Faith.

As the UWC movement celebrates its 60th Anniversary this year, we also used this opportunity to “Celebrate the past while looking into the future!“. Faith’s speech to the whole community gave us food for thought about the way forward for UWC. Thank you so much for the visit. Hope to see you again in not too long!

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See our interview with Faith Abiodun:

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Photos by RCN Media Crew