Page 87 – UWC Red Cross Nordic

Sara Al-Husaynat (’16-’19)

Sara, from Iraq, is one of our students on the Foundation Programme. She was born with Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) – brittle bone disease. She has a fragile body and significantly reduced stamina, but her character is strong, her mind is sharp and inquisitive, and she possesses a well-developed sense of humour. In Iraq, she explained, children are supposed to go to school at the age of 6. However, at the time when children of her age were starting school, she was embarking on years of operations and physiotherapy, mainly in Austria. Her father became a volunteer with SAAR (Society for Austro-Arab Relations) after a chance encounter in a hospital in Basra when he was seeking medical help for his daughter. This organization has funded Sara’s treatment, among other things. Eventually Sara started school at the age of 8. In her mainstream school it was difficult to be in a wheelchair and she was afraid of her boisterous classmates who ”kept jumping around” and easily could have fractured one of her bones in play. Her mother accompanied her to school and sat in classes with her every single day throughout her school career.

When Sara was offered a scholarship to study in Norway, her family was understandably concerned about the potential risks. To make this possible, Sara’s father was invited to accompany Sara to the 3-week RCN Summer Course, giving him the opportunity to meet with staff, observe practices, advise us on the support Sara might need, and much more.

Sara with her advisor

Sara faces a lot of challenges here, learning to get around in her electric wheelchair, adapting to the winter weather, figuring out how to meet the demands of the daily schedule without getting exhausted. When she needs to rest for an extended period to recover her energy and get relief from discomfort, she sometimes has to takes a day off, which is one of the reasons why she feels very grateful to join the Foundation Programme. For many participants int he programme, it gives them the chance to get used to an English-speaking environment. In Sara’s case, it enables her body to get used to the environment. Now much more comfortable with the academic systems and the residential expectations, she is learning to manage her time, gaining understanding of how to cope with very different demands from what she is used to. She is looking forward to returning as a confident First Year student in August, 2017.

One of Sara’s greatest joys here is meeting people from different backgrounds. Back home she could not see her friends easily outside the academic day and it was hard to develop strong friendships. Here she is able to chat with her friends at any time, communicating in Arabic, English and German. She is also learning Norwegian as part of her Foundation timetable, along with a full programme of lessons. She is very grateful for the safe community, teachers, the Extra Academic Activities (EAC), and Project-based Learning weeks. Through “The Knights” EAC, she is trying new activities such as canoeing, kayaking and swimming, savouring the fresh air and beautiful nature around her. Working closely with a physiotherapist at the Red Cross Rehabilitation Centre which shares our campus, she is becoming more aware of what her body is capable of doing. Through Haugland she has also met others with OI for the first time.

“I find my new life wonderful, but hard. Thanks to the Foundation Year that difficulty is slowly decreasing.”

For profiles and news of other students and alumni, click here.

Investment Competition

Four of our students were given the opportunity to travel to The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to participate in the final of an investment competition. The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Here is the report written by Yash Ramchandani, one of our participants:

With the trophy

A little over half a year ago three of my best friends and I had a conversation about sustainable and ethical investing. As a result, we started on a journey to prove that it is indeed very possible. We founded a Trading Club (EAC) at teh College with the sole purpose of accumulating knowledge about investing sustainably and ethically. By November we had gained the confidence to enroll a team in Wharton School of Business’ Global Investment Competition for High School students. The competition consists of a 10-week trading period with deadlines for mid-term and final investment strategies. In this way, every team has to prove that their approach to the stock market generates satisfying returns and is well-structured.

Our investment strategy was built on the same values as the UWC movement as we believe that the reputation of the financial services has long been blighted by actions that do not, of necessity, need to be linked to the field of investing. In fact, we have come to believe that investment has the potential to invoke positive change in our societies. In April we were informed that we had qualified for the Global Final taking place at Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia U.S. Here, the 15 top teams would pitch their investment strategy to a jury. The jury consisted of professional investors and asset managers. The Final also included a learning day where we heard from influential guest speakers, the admissions office and had a campus tour.

Today, we find that we came third in the competition having started with more than 600 competing teams from all over the world. We never even dared to dream of such an achievement but it is indeed a product of hard work and humility. Today, we stand as proud of the journey towards the final as of the result itself. We hope to repeat the success next year where we will work even harder to communicate our idea of ethical and sustainable investing.

Here is an audio interview with the team, from the Wharton website.

Tove Veierød (RCN Board Chair ’11-’17)

Tove Veierød has been the Chair of the UWC Red Cross Nordic Board for six years. Last weekend’s Council Meeting was her last as Chair, although she will be at the College for Graduation, and in future years she will return as an honorary member of the Council.

Here is Rektor Richard Lamont’s tribute to Tove which he delivered at the dinner for Council members on Friday 22nd, April.

I first met Tove in London in the offices of Heidrick and Struggles in April 2012 as she was leading the team commissioned to select a successor to John Lawrenson, the Rektor of RCN. I remember quite distinctly how she radiated immediate warmth and encouragement as I fielded some challenging questions from other members of the selection committee – present here this evening – about the perils of social media, cyberbullying and pornography.

Tove was someone I immediately felt that I could work with – and work for.

As some of you will know, Tove committed part of her professional career to politics and served Norway as a Labour politician, as state secretary to the Minister of Culture and Science, and later as Minister of Social Affairs. One of Tove’s political legacies is the progressive and supportive legislation here in Norway towards paternity leave. She also made a significant impact on our region – Sogn og Fjordane – by introducing the first state-sponsored vinmonopolet which was met with equal amounts of delight and dismay from the local population.

However, her greatest legacy to our region has undoubtedly been her commitment to UWC Red Cross Nordic. Tove, by training, is a teacher and has a genuine and unstinting commitment to education – and she certainly understands the machinery and madness that comes with the territory of a residential campus and an educational model focused on deliberate diversity.

What strikes me most over the past five years of working together as Rektor and Chair of the Board is her indomitable spirit and inexhaustible energy – from transcontinental flights together to her contributions to the strategic working groups for both RCN and UWC International.

Tove even called me one morning from hospital. She had broken her leg late one evening after flying back into Oslo airport – post operation and with a morphine drip near at hand, Tove thought she should call me on a few college matters before the morphine took a full grip on her senses.

Tove also contributes wholeheartedly to UWC International and was elected to be the ‘Chair of the Chairs’ – chairperson of all the board chairs of all seventeen UWCs and member of the International Board. This election was testament to the esteem Tove is held in by her peers within UWC – and with great skill and grace, Tove has steered her team to new levels of collaboration and shared understanding.

It was Tove’s idea to bring the International Board members to the College in February 2016 so that they could connect with students and staff and see our College in its wintry landscape – and she was rewarded with fresh snow, blue skies, and a skiing expedition for the guests with the Knights at Langeland. Tove recognised the complex logistics that underpinned the success of the event but, for the organising team, it was worth it to see the pride emanating from Tove as she introduced her colleagues to a College steeped in Nordic values and traditions.

Jens Waltermann, Executive Director of UWC, describes Tove’s contribution as follows:
“During her tenure as Chair of the Chairs Committee, Tove has fundamentally transformed the role and – maybe more importantly – the spirit of the Committee. The Chairs have become a group of people who know and respect each other and who explicitly wish to work closely together to strengthen the whole UWC movement! It was Tove’s clear but subtle sense of leadership, her warmth and determination and her charming way of convincing people that made Chairs meetings not just productive, but joyful events. By doing so Tove has contributed enormously to the future of UWC and has made this organisation much closer and much stronger as a result. We cannot thank her enough. And we will dearly miss her in the Chair’s role – but are happy she will remain part of the UWC family.”

My father taught his children the importance of a line from a Rudyard Kipling poem:

[To] ‘walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch’

As a surgeon, he understood that this underpinned his professional life within a hospital environment – the ability to connect with fellow doctors, nurses, porters, administrators and, most importantly, patients and their families.

For me, Tove exemplifies this line from Kipling – she connects gracefully with the royal patrons of UWC – Queen Sonja of Norway and Queen Noor of Jordan – as an ambassador of our College and, at the same time, enjoys the opportunity to connect with students, teachers, alumni and many other supporters of RCN. When she is on campus, she takes the time to drop into the kantine to connect with the kitchen staff and, last summer, she
generously agreed to come and participate in the first half of Staff Introduction Week. When we have receptions in our house for Board and Council members, Tove always steps forward to help with the preparations and hosting – and the washing up at the end of the evening.

I admire Tove immensely for this ability to ‘walk with Kings [and Queens] – nor lose the common touch’.

There is simply no trace of ego to Tove.

She is always there for sage advice, a steady and gentle hand on the tiller of the College, and at the same time there is a steel to her which one should not underestimate. She knows the potential of the College, the challenge and responsibility associated with deliberate diversity on campus and expects those around her to commit wholeheartedly to UWC values, the UWC mission, Nordic values, and the College’s strategic plan. She has high expectations of us.
I remember well a conversation in lower kantine at the Council Meeting 2012 when she took me aside one morning as Rektor-elect – with Ingegerd, the Vice Chair of the Board present – and told me my first job as Rektor must be to examine (and change) the residential side of life at RCN – and improve the student experience.

And, at the same time, she understands the importance of home. She often calls me in the office on a Friday late afternoon, and asks me why I am not home with the family.Encouraging and timely emails appear on my screen. She genuinely cares for those who work with her.

It is for a Rektor to find the right balance between change and conservation, supported and challenged by an engaged Board (and Council). It has been an immense privilege to work alongside Tove as Chair of the RCN Board – at all times engaged, challenging and deeply supportive.

Tove has served two terms as Chair of the RCN board – six years of voluntary service and she stands down at the end of this academic term.

Time on Sunday 22nd May at the Board Meeting to draw your tenure, Tove, as Chair of RCN to a close – and time to pass on the gavel of responsibility to Kristin Vinje, your successor.

Time now for Tom, your children and grandchildren in Oslo, your house in Harstad, and the occasional mid-winter escape to Gran Canaria.

From New Mexico to Changshu China, from Mahindra to the Nordic countries, you have been a proud ambassador and champion of UWC and Red Cross Nordic.

And you have been a trusty servant and trusted custodian of this College.

Tove, I would like to invite you up in a minute to receive a gift – on behalf of the Council, the Board, the students and the staff – and presented by Tess, the outgoing Student Rep on the Board.

It is a watercolour painting of the fjord and our college that we have commissioned from a local artist. We hope that you will place it on a wall at home and that it serves as a proud reminder of what you have contributed to the architecture of the College, past, present and future.

I very much like the end of a poem called ‘The Cathedral Builder’ [John Ormond] in a which a medieval stonemason decides ‘to give it up, / To leave the spire to others’, reflects on the process, the trials and tribulations of contributing to the building of a cathedral stone by stone and quietly, looking upwards, whispers to himself, both modestly and with quiet pride, ‘I bloody did that’.

Chair. Educator. Listener. Supporter. Volunteer and Friend.
We shall miss you – I shall miss you.

Thank you.

Richard D A Lamont
Rektor
Council Dinner – Friday 21st April

RCN Council Meeting 2017

Council Members

It was a pleasure to welcome the members of Council and other guests from Thursday 20th to Friday 22nd 2017 April for the annual UWC RCN Council meeting here on campus. Our Council members continue to act as our supporters, our bridge-builders, and our voice across the Nordic region.

The Council gathers once a year on campus and the Board twice a term, alternating between College visits and other locations throughout the Nordic region.

On Friday morning, the UWC RCN Annual Report – a printed encapsulation of our work and reflection on the year gone by – was released to coincide with the annual Council meeting.

Please see here for access to an electronic copy.

Beyond the formal Council meeting, we designed this year’s programme in a way that provided members with concrete opportunities to engage with students and staff, through careers workshops and focus groups on areas of strategic importance. For the latter, we set up some Focus Group Meetings (UWC Nordic Short Course, Fundraising, Fees, the Nordic, Environmental and Humanitarian Pillars) on Friday afternoon – open to Council members, Education and Support Staff and the newly elected Student Council members.

During the course of the Council Meeting, we were also able to confirm the election of new members of both the College’s Council and Board – including the election of the new Chair of the RCN Board. Please see here for details of our new members.

The Council Meeting was followed by a themed dinner, ‘Earth Weekend’, which truly captured the time of the year, coordinated by our Events Management students and staff team, in the Høegh – with a set of performance by student performers for after dinner entertainment.

The evening concluded with a speech for Tove Veierød in tribute to her commitment to our College as Chair of the RCN Board. Please click here for the speech. She was given a watercolour of the fjord and College from the Council, Board, staff and students to thank her for her extraordinary commitment to the College.

Thank you to all those who contributed to the programme for our Council members and guests.

Larry
Rektor
UWC Red Cross Nordic

Here are some photographs from the weekend.