At the heart of the UWC education model is a deliberately diverse, engaged and motivated community in pursuit of our mission. This also means that UWC students have an open invitation to stay engaged with the movement after graduating. Over the last years, we have increased our efforts for the work to actively engage with alumni, with a Development and Alumni Relations Officer as a central person to continuously foster the relationship. He works with a small but dedicated Coordination Group and year representatives from every single generation of alumni.

We welcome Solveig-Karin (RCN 2000) as a co-year representative, joining Rémi Gau (RCN 2000) who has been an active year representative for many years. Solveig-Karin works as Quality Coordinator at Malmo University. She has a master degree in Communication for Development.

Starting up again we carefully seek to meet all challenges posed by the pandemic. This means establishing routines and standards which we now are putting into daily practices.

We are set to minimize the chance of bringing Covid to a campus and a municipality that still has not had anyone infected. We are directed by the general and sector specific guidelines in Norway and have a good dialogue with local and state authorities.

In a few areas we have chosen to be more restrictive than the current advice, with our special setting in mind. Regardless of where they come from, all students are tested for Covid twice, shortly after arrival. Until their last test comes back negatively, they wear a mask. Students coming from ‘red’ zones go into quarantine where they follow another set of rules. They live in separate rooms, get food delivered and attend classes online.

Most of the students are already out of quarantine, but the quarantine routine continues as all students have not yet arrived. In this period, many of us have learned to recognize the smile under the mask.