Congratulations to Susanne Gabrielsen, UWC Red Cross Nordic alumna(Norway NC), for being awarded her doctorate by the University of Minnesota following the submission of her theses: ‘Longitudinal Intergroup Contact Model Comparison at the Multicultural High School UWC RCN’. Susanne concluded her thesis with the following statement:

RCN puts young men and women who might otherwise never meet in contact, knowing that conflict will arise, and guides its students through them. The college becomes a steady presence during the students’ last two adolescent years, fraught with emotion, growth, and crystallization of values. At RCN, students get a taste of the conflicts and war that ravage the world, but RCN also provides a glimpse of peace to students who have never before experienced it. The students who leave RCN will likely never unlearn how to navigate intergroup contact, and if they are anything like the students surveyed and interviewed here, they will go into the world hoping to use what they learned from their UWC experience to create peace and a sustainable future.

Susanne wrote to say how grateful she is for the access to RCN students, and professional and personal support that she received. As she says, ‘I hope I have in some small way given back to the school to which I owe so much’.

On behalf of UWC Red Cross Nordic, congratulations to Sven Mollekleiv on the receipt of the award of the Order of St Olaf from His Majesty The King for his commitment to humanitarian action – an outstanding achievement.

Sven has had a long association with UWC RCN. He was Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross from 1991 to 2001 and was part of the team responsible for the founding of a Nordic College in the fjords as part of the United World College movement. Sven was invited to take up the position as President of the Norwegian Red Cross in 2008 and currently holds many posts on committees, ranging from Amnesty International Norway to the ICRC’s Special Fund for the Disabled. He visited the College in the spring of 2014 and delivered a superb Constitution Lecture on the value of volunteering and focus on participation. The talk stressed the importance of voluntary work – in times of crisis, for a general preparedness in society and as key ingredient in democracy building.

What would students do without Mom`s heart-warming soup or Grandma’s home remedies? The Green Thumbs EAC winter term project answers these questions for the RCN community.

The Green Thumbs is an environmental EAC that approaches sustainability from a practical angle and gives an insight into what makes a sustainable and healthy lifestyle for students. In the dark winter season when students can’t take part in activities such as gardening, mushrooming, fishing or exploring edible plants around the campus, the EAC members decided to create an online space where they can share their healthy recipes, nutrition tips and home remedies that could be useful and interesting for RCN residents – and anyone else who might read the articles!

The blog will be updated weekly and will give simple, sustainable, affordable solutions for some of the challenges of student life – issues like flu-bugs, tiredness, stress or just the simple need for some home-made treats.

The blog is available here.

Heile verda på ein skule – Internasjonale studieplassar i Sogn og Fjordane.

Vil du studere saman  med elevar frå heile verda i eit miljø prega av sterkt samfunnsengasjement og mange spanande aktiviteter?
Er du engasjert og ønskjer ei sterk internasjonal oppleving som óg gir deg ei anerkjent utdanning?
Vil du oppleve det mange tidlegare elever talar om som dei to mest fantastiske, krevjande og minneverdige åra i livet deira?
Vil du dra på eventyr og oppleve heile verda i Sogn og Fjordane?
Samarbeidet mellom UWC Røde Kors Nordisk og Sogn og Fjordane Fylkeskommune har opna opp for 2 fylkesdekkande plassar for Sogn og Fjordane. Neste opptak er august 2017.

Søknad er på VIGO, med søknadsfrist 1 mars.

Sjå her for meir generell informasjon om studiet på UWC Røde Kors Nordisk, eller kontakt Leonie Merts Koning e-post admissions@rcnuwc.no telefon 57 73 70 04

Silje Vallestad: Founder of bSafe. Young Global Leader of World Economic Forum

Mine to år ved UWC var uvurderlige. Fra å være Florøværing og norsk, så jeg på meg selv som en verdensborger. Med venner over hele kloden blir verden plutselig ikke så stor men ganske liten. Den erkjennelsen har gjort mye, og årene mine på skolen har definitivt påvirket valgene jeg tok senere. Det ga meg en ballast til å tørre å tenke stort. Tørre å gå internasjonalt i mine prosjekter og senere i business. Det ga meg en brann for å hver dag jobbe for å gjøre verden litt bedre – ikke bare for meg men for alle. UWC er en fantastisk mulighet. Det er to år som former deg som menneske og som fremtidig leder i en stadig mer internasjonal verden.