PBL – UWC Red Cross Nordic

Model United Nations 2014

Edmund Cluett2018-10-16T09:33:51+01:00February 6th, 2014|

We hosted our annual RCN Model United Nations from 1st-3rd February, including six guests from Bergen Katedralskole alongside all our first year students. The participants debated global issues similar to those discussed in the forums of the United Nations and were invited to join one of the five UN committees, or the Security Council and then spent three days trying to tackle various issues from the perspective of a UN delegate. Apart from discussion on global political issues, the conference also included activities such as day and night crisis simulations, a delegate dance and the formal dinner.

The Project Based Learning event was managed and organized almost entirely by the second-year students, who for more than six months have been working on the planning of this event. From the first training sessions in early autumn, first-year students enthusiastically took on the role of diplomats and political leaders, attending international conferences and debating issues. Students were encouraged to follow the strict procedures of RCN MUN – although there were the inevitable struggles to refer to themselves in the third person! Among the debated issues were environmental problems, human rights, peace negotiations, piracy, security and diplomacy. These important topics made the RCN MUN feel relevant.

: Working on resolutions

: Hard at work ….

: President Ayoub Belemlih (Morocco) and Vice-President Sarah Gerber (Sweden)

Speaking to the delegates during the opening ceremony, Secretary General Yondeen Sherpa (Nepal) told delegates:

You will experience success, frustration, stress and excitement, but at the end of it all however, I hope each and every one of you will take away one simple thing. Inspiration. Inspiration to make a change and inspiration to be the change.

In many committees negotiations on such challenging topics were animated, starting early in the morning and continuing late into the night when delegates drafted their resolution. By using social media such as Tumblr and Facebook the RCN MUN 2014 journalists and photographers both helped and prevented the participants from developing and promoting their own solutions to pressing world problems.
On the third and final day of the RCN MUN 2014 conference, the delegates gathered in the General Assembly to present and vote on their solutions for the overarching global issues they were tasked with addressing. The General Assembly was closed with the best delegates being awarded for their performance.

First-year student Chantal Smeland from Norway had this to say:

I really liked the RCNMUN. Not only because we got a peek into the world of diplomacy and step into the shoes of ambassadors and diplomats, but also because through experience we learned how one single nation’s decisions may affect national, regional and global politics, as well as learning more about the world today as we become an increasingly interdependent international community.

I believe the experience helped me learn how to implement my speaking skills and frame my understanding in a more efficient manner, as well as teaching me how many issues affect today’s society. I hope this will make me a more globally aware world citizen and motivate me to “be the change I wish to see in the world”

Further pictures can be found on the College facebook page here.

Lina Sadovskaja (RCN 12-14)

Annual First Aid Course

Edmund Cluett2014-02-25T09:33:56+01:00February 3rd, 2014|

Screams, stampedes and lots of blood – and no-one hurt, thankfully. These were the sights and sounds of the annual First Aid Course which took place from Wednesday 29th until Friday 31st January, led by the second-year First Aid team and monitored by teacher David Robertson, Red Cross instructor and supervisor. All first-year students and many staff members attended the tolv timer førstehjelp course, a combination of basic First Aid and workshop modules in more advanced First Aid. In groups of ten to fourteen the students and teachers rotated through the classrooms and learned essentials from how to treat a scald to the right application of a bandage. The rotations ended in an examined test and a practical assessment where participants actively treated ‘casualties’ in scenarios, and performed bandaging and rescue exercises. Upon successful completion of this course participants are awarded with a Red Cross diploma.

: Instructor Liana – it’s just a flesh wound!

: A group trying to answer the quiz questions set by Nghiem and Astrid

: Essam and Marcin – they seem to be enjoying themselves!

Among the course participants were 9 visitors currently living at Bergum Mottak, a centre for asylum seekers with which we have a long-standing affiliation. These visitors, who came from Eritrea, Iran, Sri Lanka and Congo, greatly enjoyed the stimulating and engaging sessions with the students, the opportunity to learn something new and practical, and the chance to have a refreshing break from their normal routines.

Marcin Jerzewski (Poland), a member of the Red Cross Nordic First Aid Team described his experience as follows,

“I have really appreciated the opportunity to become a part of the team of First Aid instructors. During the course the word ‘boredom’ definitely disappeared from my lexicon, and the variety of skills that I was learning and exercising were tremendous. These three days were a great lesson of creativity, leadership and mutual responsibility for the instructors as well as for all first-year participants: it has been a remarkably intense, yet truly UWC experience.”

David Robertson and Rektor Richard Lamont expressed their thanks to the second-year students who worked as instructors and examiners on the course – with David commenting that it was ‘… possibly the best-led First Aid course we’ve had at RCN.’ High praise indeed!

Sophie Schwechheimer (RCN 12-14)