There is work to be done, not only in Haiti, but around the World

Harvey Koo (Hong-Kong, AC 09-11)

The earthquakes in Haiti claimed between 100,000 to 200,000 lives, according to the president of Haiti Rene Preval, and left over 1.5 million homeless. Regardless of where the actual casualty number lies on this spectrum, these earthquakes are a legitimate disaster. The aftermath? An entire world reeling in its debris.

So while international bodies and NGOs scramble to provide all the aid they could muster, a similar campaign was launched in UWCs all over the world. In Atlantic College for example, the response was also lightning quick. Within two weeks, I found myself pacing along the streets of a nearby community raising funds. Indeed, everywhere I looked; students traded perennial college clothing of hoodies, of sweaters and jackets and changed into fluorescent yellow security vests in hopes of attracting more attention. And even then our efforts were easily matched by the altruism that people generally have. Raising money for Haiti was surprisingly easy. In retrospect, had I not experienced this event myself, I would have missed groups of people dropping coins and notes – seemingly without much hesitation at all. However, the thing that stands out most for me personally was seeing my roommate among this munificent crowd. Never mind the fact that he has worried all week about an impending deadline on his World Literature, in his words, ‘Yes, it’s due tomorrow, but now I need to do something else.’ This ardor is one of many examples that explain the privilege I often feel being a part of Atlantic College.

Interview with Tristian Stobie, Vice Principal of Academics at Atlantic College

Gala Von Nettelbladt (Germany, AC 08-10)

GvN for UnitedWords: Tristian, you are relatively new here at the college. What were you hoping to achieve by coming here, what were your expectations of the students as part of the UWC movement?

TS:

My expectations were that students would be very interested in world affairs and international and cultural understanding, very passionate about making the world a better place, very interested in the relationship between academic studies and real world issues, committed to service, (in particular face to face community service) and inspired by Kurt Hahn’s philosophy.

 UW: How did you envision your job as Vice Principal Academic beforehand?

 TS:

Well, I was aware of the history of the school. I was aware that it offers the IB program; I was aware of the mission statement and its uniqueness in terms of bringing students together from all sorts of different backgrounds, many through scholarships, which is a unique opportunity. They generate an environment where international understanding really can develop… So this school, or the UWCs, have a unique potential for a higher level of international and cultural understanding than perhaps other schools have, because of what I would call an ‘informal curriculum,’ which is a relationship between students learning as much outside the classroom as they learn inside.

Beyond the A-Sea

Diana Hyunh (Vietnam/Norway AC 09-11)

First-year. The taste of the words is just not quite the same as it was previous to the autumn months, when everything was still unknown and the excitement so thrilling. Fast forward three months, it is December and everyone rushes off to the gates of the College. All leaving with memories still fresh of induction, camp, codes, sosh, escapades, service, activities and all other things in between that first term brought so amusing.  

Chanukah in the Jewish state

Jonathan Hadad (Israel, AC 09-11)

 

The celebration of Chanukah does not originate in the old testament but was added later to the Jewish tradition. Chanukah celebrates one of the times in history when someone tried to destroy Judaism and failed. Like Christmas, it is celebrated in the beginning of winter and one of the main themes is light, symbolizing everything that is righteous, just, and “Disney good”. In Israel, secular Jews enjoy eating doughnuts, and shopping with festive discounts. Though the shopping season in Israel during Chanukah never reaches the consuming hysteria in Cardiff, capital of Wales, a month before Christmas. Every day for eight days, after lighting another candle on the Hanukkiya, each child gets a present and everyone sings songs. Most of them are normal cheery songs about dreidels (or spinning top), candles and doughnuts. Others are about the wars between light and darkness. A part of the lyrics of one popular Chanukah song called “Maoz Tzur” is “bring genocide upon our dog-like enemies”. The lyrics of this song are not in Modern Hebrew so most people and mainly children do not understand what they mean.

Teaching and houseparenting at a UWC

Jon Morten (Teacher and House Parent, AC) 

What can best describe AC Life for a teacher and houseparent? The very short commuting distance? The ridiculous working hours? The IB bureaucracy? The raised voices of students, leaning forward on their desks, intense, allowing you to lean back, smiling? Realising you have students smarter than yourself? The unbelievable release of energy in the first September assembly, which makes you believe in everything again?

Christmas traditions of a Dane

Lin Alexandra Mortensgaard (Denmark AC 09-11)

Christmas in Denmark officially starts December 1^st, but many businesses choose to ignore this and start their Christmas campaigns late in October. The same goes for many firms where the annual Christmas lunch is often held in November. Such a ‘lunch’ takes place in the evening. It involves all the employees of the particular firm, extreme amounts of alcohol and food, inappropriate flirting with colleagues and a massive hang-over the next day. 

“Permission to be unique”: rights of the indigenous Sámi in a welfare state

Assi Askala (Finland AC 09-11)

About a year ago, I met an interesting young woman, who had ambitious ideals of the future of her people. She was an indigene of the Nordic countries, a Sámi woman. She had lived her childhood in the stark landscape of Lapland where the pure nature, old culture and modern world clash together. Now she had come to Helsinki University to study more about indigenous people. She was interested in the relationship of language and identity and how important is it to know your own history in order to create a self-image. The cultural movement has been getting stronger and stronger among the Sámi youth in the past decade.

 

“Changing lives, one smile at a time”- Atlantic College’s Operation Smile Team

Jawad Al-Masannat (Jordan, AC 08-10)

In Summer 2006, my sister dragged me along to a medical student meeting concerning the launch of a new NGO. It seemed interesting enough for my parents and me, so I went along, and discovered that this new NGO in Jordan was for me.

I sat there looking at everyone’s friendship and passion for what they were beginning. The room was full of energy, something I had never experienced before. This team was planning another medical mission that was to take place in my hometown. I was about to learn and share much.

United Nations Climate Change Conference- Copenhagen, 2009

A recent AC graduate (2006-2008) is currently in Copenhagen with the Kenyan Youth Delegation. Below is a link to their blog.

(http://www.kenyanclimateyouth.blogspot.com)

Blog description:

Jambo!

We are the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change – Kenya (AYICC-K), a group of young Kenyans dedicated to fighting climate change.

Currently we are at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen! Follow this blog for updates, information, insider news and fun facts!

Your AYICC-K team.

-United World College Student Magazine-

“Human rights not merely a Western ideology” in Vietnam

Diana Huynh (Norway/Vietnam, AC 09-11)

As October approached it was time for a week with focus on Human Rights at AC. Needless to say, Human Rights is an ongoing issue in our world, and the Amnesty International Group put an exceptional effort into reminding us about that. Among the events were films, petitions and discussions. This article will shed light on Vietnam in particular, and the dilemma and issues it raise about developing countries; how to successfully evolve as a nation without compromising the human rights in the process?

If only for an instant

Rina Kuusipalo (Finland, AC 08-10)

 

Memories are imperfect, crafted from human clay,

Droplets, suspended in dawn-time, but evaporate.

Images flicker by,

In transient streams they sigh.

I pick up the dearest hours: watch them unfurl in the flames –

Hours, in which time stood still and the world spun,

Hours, in a cocoon of colours, where the ceiling crumbled and we worshipped the sun.

Ohana and the UWC experience

Michelle Asuncion (Philippines, AC 08-10)

 

As the camera shutter clicked, in a blink of an eye, I saw myself lying in the beast garden. My whole leg was in severe pain. I can still clearly visualize the ambulance, the stretchers, big needles and injections. The sound of the siren comes back to me. I was brought to the operating theatre; my greatest fear…I can still remember my cry of pain, in a split second I was knocked out by the morphine. I woke up in the ward on a beautiful Sunday morning after my operation. I was terrified as I saw my casted leg…

Gwent House and the integrated development program

Jonathan Hadad (Israel, AC 08-10)

                                                                                                                

Interview with Sarah Hamilton, house parent at Gwent house.

 

Can you define what Gwent house is?

 

Gwent house is the house in which IDP (integrated development program) students live. It’s funded by the government. We asked for a name for our house 4 years ago because we thought it would reduce the feeling of separation from the other houses on campus. The students get offered to some to Gwent house from their schools where they lived or by a governmental program that offers help to find jobs for young people for their future. Our calendar is basically the same as the rest of the college but the students have work for 4 weeks and then 4 weeks of studying. I don’t think they can get the same experience anywhere else in the UK because it’s a boarding school which means that they have a lot of time to interact with the rest of the students here. In their second year they do the program from home with more focus on a workplace which we help them find.

Tibet-Obama-China

Jonathan C.W. Kwok (Hong Kong, AC 09-11)

 

Since induction period, the voices regarding Tibetan issues or saying “You don’t regard Tibet as a country!?” at AC had been driven out despite some ongoing activities. Apparently, the international pressure heading China had also been declining at the same time recently.

In the Chinese Communist party, they tend to create many terminologies that do not actually make any sense. For example, Socialist with Chinese characteristics i.e. explaining all capitalist system with communist wordings; “Not forming any allies but co-operate tightly with other countries” i.e. the military drill of Shanghai Co-operation Association; Great development in varies aspect including human rights since the liberation under the principal of unity i.e. a national flag standing beside the cross in the biggest church of Beijing. But this time, “American President Barack Obama should be especially sympathetic to China’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence, as a black president who lauded Abraham Lincoln for helping abolish slavery” can be regarded as one of the few sensible official argument.

El Camino and the “endless freedom” of a pilgrim

Miklos Marton Jalkoczi (Hungary, AC 09-11)

Santiago de Compostella is one of the three most important targets of pilgrimage along with Jerusalem and Rome. My father and I completed the Camino Frances to go there in a bit over a month in the summer of 2007. This was the best thing that has ever happened to me, apart from getting into Atlantic College . I suffered, but it was well worth it. Why? It is hard to answer this question. Simply because it is wonderful. It is El Camino.

A report

Merle Mueler-Knapp (Germany, AC08-10), Gala von Nettelbladt (Germany, AC 08-10)

 

Picking berries.
Tolerance.
Chemistry Practical at 3 a.m.
In the sea at midnight.

Ein Erfahrungsbericht

Merle Mueller-Knapp (Germany, AC 08-10), Gala von Nettelbladt (Germany, AC 08-10)

Beerensammeln.
Toleranz.
Chemielaborbericht um 3 Uhr morgens.
Im Meer um Mitternacht.

Remember, remember the ninth of November

Thilo Roth (Germany AC 08-10)

On the 9^th November 1989, the one of the leading members of the East German government announced on a press conference that the borders would be opened and the citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) would be free to travel to West Germany. On the question when this new rule should be implemented the uniformed press speaker that to his knowledge the new rule was to be implemented immediately, a mistake that would lead to the breakdown of the world order since the end of the Second World War.

The Psychology of Solitude

William Holt (USA, AC 09-11)

It seems to me that introversion at Atlantic College (and thus introverts as well) are criminally undervalued.  Now, I make no contention with socializing or with keeping active in the company of others; in fact, I believe that these are essential components to  personal health and happiness.  Emotional growth through such interaction is one of the most profound things that one can take away from these two years and I strongly feel that I have already benefitted.  But what must be dispelled is the misconception that introversion in this environment–and in any environment for that matter–is something to be rejected.  Western cultures constantly misjudge the merits of solitude; to set oneself apart from the collective is to be seen as socially inept, as someone whose personality is maladjusted and unhealthy. Introversion is instead something to foster, something to celebrate.  To know oneself is to gain the most vital knowledge one can have.

SATS: You fill in the acronym

Alexandra Sánchez (Bay Area, California, AC 08-10)

 

If “all that is gold does not glitter,” than SAT scores should not amount to the categorization of an individual. In fact, any United States student will tell you the countless times she or he may have heard the famous comfort: intelligence also rests outside standardized testing, some people are just good test-takers, not doing well on a standardized test does not imply any stupidity. But in the rat race, in the path well-travelled on to be accepted into a “good” (which may not even be suitable for an individual) school, all this may be left by the wayside and the mad credit card pumping for Barron’s, The Princeton Review, The Official College Guide, Fiske, etc. guides becomes a sore yet acceptable action in our society. My upbringing may tell otherwise to my current stance. I will explain some of it in terms of how many Exam Prep books I bought. But I understand that an SAT score should not become a matter of pride, of ego, nor will it hopefully be the only worthwhile accomplishment others or I do in our lives.