Laski Visit

2018-10-16T09:33:41+01:00June 4th, 2014|

The second year RCN graduates left the College on Saturday 24th May, and early the following morning ten students and two teachers from the Laski Institute (Association for Care of the Blind) in Poland arrived for a ten-day visit as part of the EU-sponsored Comenius Bilateral School Partnership programme. For several years the College has participated in exchange visits between our two institutions: UWC Red Cross Nordic traveling to Poland to attend classes and take part in activities with our hosts at Laski; the Laski students then making reciprocal visits to the College.

Our Laski friends were hosted in the student village by the first years and took apart in a wide range of activities – attending classes, doing yoga, hiking, bicycle dressage, visiting a museum in Naustdal and more. The Laski students attended a Norwegian Course – looking at both language and culture – offered by RCN and members of the local Flekke community over several days, and also offered Polish classes for interested RCN students.

One of the goals of the programme is to develop an  integration-game for sighted and non-sighted participants to play together. We had already tested existing games like goalball and table tennis for the blind and are excited to have made good progress developing a version of land hockey; we are now at the stage of drawing up the rules of the game – and it’s going to be fun! The two groups will also be testing an integrated version of basketball when visiting Laski in October.

All in all, a very successful visit and our thanks go to all involved – especially to our very own Paulina Szymczak, for all her hard work and organisational skills.

Here is an album of photographs from an Activity Day that RCN and Laski students spent with asylum seekers from Bergum Mottak.

Svanøy Field Trip

2014-05-29T09:05:42+01:00May 29th, 2014|

98 students and several staff members returned last night from the two-day ecological field trip to a pearl of western Norway – the island of Svanøy. It is an island widely known for its outstanding beauty and sustainable deer  and salmon farming.  We have been lucky, privileged and thankful – since the very 1st year of RCN – for the friendliness and hospitality of the leader of the Norwegian Deer Center on Svanøy, Johan Trygve Solheim and his small but dedicated team! The objectives of the trip are to experience Western Norway’s landscapes and culture, to do some ecological and sustainability studies – and to help out with some environmental work .

For the Group 4 Science Project, the students were to imagine themselves as visitors from another planet, landing on this rocky island with the brief to explore and name all possible life forms. The 12 teams shared their discoveries in a lively and loud poster conference. The Environmental Systems and Societies students did the same but with an opposite approach: they were given instructions about the intertidal zone and about methods of sea shore investigation which they then put into practice. They also engaged in a study of sustainability of deer farming.

A successful project, with wonderful weather. Many thanks to all those involved in making it happen!

An album of facebook pictures is here.

Young Scientists

2018-10-16T09:33:44+01:00April 16th, 2014|

Teresa in front of her prize-winning presentationAntonio in front of his presentationThree RCN students recently participated in a National Contest for Young Scientists in Stavanger. Teresa Iriyogen-López won first prize in her category and Antonio Johman and Maja Svanberg won third prizes in their categories. Our congratulations to all of them.

Here is a link to the website describing their projects.

Ridderrennet 2014

2018-10-16T09:33:45+01:00April 7th, 2014|

In the early morning of Sunday, March 30th,  2 student participants, 6 student volunteers  and 2 staff members departed from the College to Beitostølen, where the 51st Ridderrennet was to take place. Ridderrennet is an annual event allowing people with different disabilities to compete in winter sports, primarily cross-country skiing, regardless of their age, gender, country of origin, or physical fitness level. Here is a report from one of the students, Ismar Šabanović:

In the restaurant We were all very excited, and after a 6-hour drive, we arrived at our destination. The scenery was just amazing – snow, snow, and even more snow everywhere around us. A true winter wonderland. Our duties in the restaurant were mostly focused on helping anyone in need with getting their food, drinks, or just simply guiding people in and out of the restaurant. At first, it felt quite awkward for a bunch of newcomers to jump into the midst of the well-trained crew who were employed at the restaurant, but we quickly adjusted and found the work really enjoyable. The fun didn’t stop there – although we were quite busy helping out in the restaurant and preparing a small show for everyone, there was also plenty of free time to enjoy the sun and the snow. Cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, snowboarding – we managed to try it all! During our time out on the snow, we saw many of the people we helped in the restaurant training for their races and it is really difficult to find words to describe how amazed we all were to see what the participants were capable of.

Now, reflecting back on what the competition participants from RCN achieved, I feel more and more proud of the fact that I study at the same place as them. Having been an alpine skier myself for about 10 years, it was just breath-taking seeing Yeison, a Columbian 1st year, trying alpine skiing for the first time and making amazing progress in only 2 days; seeing Jianjun, from China, going from his first time on skis to being a Ridderrennet racer and biathlon race bronze medalist. It was absolutely amazing.

Yeison. Master of the slopes!I believe I speak for all of us, participants and volunteers, in saying that none of us actually had any idea of how rewarding and fulfilling this experience would be.

As the organisers say, Ridderrennet makes the impossible possible! It is definitely one of those special weeks that will have a safe place in our UWC RCN memories.

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