Dunia December 2017

December 2017

UWC DAY:

THE POWER

OF DIVERSITY

page 12

FRAMING THE

SUSTAINABILITY

CHALLENGE

page 4

CELEBRATING

THE IMPACT

OF GIVING

page 20

UWCSEA changed the way I see the world and make sense of

contemporary events. It made me realise that we’re participants

in history, not bystanders—and we should never believe that it’s

the responsibility of others to right the wrongs of society.”

Pandit Mami ’10

Sierra Leonean scholar

Read about Pandit’s journey to found a scholarship programme in his home country on page 22.

Dunia is published three times a year by UWC South East Asia. Reproduction in any manner

in English or any other language is prohibited without written consent. Please send feedback

to dunia@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Editors: Courtney Carlson, Sinéad Collins, Molly Fassbender and Kate Woodford

Photography: Sabrina Lone, Dave Caleb (front cover) and members of the UWCSEA community

Design: Nandita Gupta

UWCSEA Dover is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)

CPE Registration No. 197000825H | CPE Registration Period 18 July 2017–17 July 2023 | Charity Registration No. 00142

UWCSEA East is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG)

CPE Registration No. 200801795N | CPE Registration Period 10 March 2017–9 March 2023 | Charity Registration No. 002104

Printed on 100% recycled paper with environmentally friendly inks | MCI (P) 113/03/2017 | 053COM-1718

WAGING HEAVY

PEACE

Chris Edwards, Head

of College, reflects on

the UWC movement

plan announced in

November

FRAMING THE

SUSTAINABILITY

CHALLENGE

Nathan Hunt, Director

of Sustainability,

defines sustainability

in UWCSEA’s context

MEET THE

PRIMARY

PRINCIPAL

Pauline Markey

reflects on her first

term at UWCSEA East

SPOTLIGHT ON …

UWCSEA welcomes

UWC ISAK Japan, the

17th UWC

INITIATIVE

FOR PEACE

Student Kavya Nayak

provides an alternative

perspective on

peacebuilding

MEMORIES

OF GUNUNG

LEDANG

Grade 3 on East

Campus share their

reflections on the

Forest Adventure

Camp in Malaysia

UWC DAY

Celebrating the ‘Power

of Diversity’ with the

UWC movement

LOOKING BACK

TO LOOK AHEAD

Tim Davies, Head

of High School

History on Dover

Campus, discusses the

relevance of History

TEACHING

INFORMATION

LITERACY

Kurt Wittig, Teacher

Librarian on Dover

Campus, explains

how we help students

make sense of the

world today

INNOVATIVE

SPACES

Explore the features

of the Dover Campus

Main Library

A YEAR LIKE NO

OTHER

Samay Bansal ’16

crafted a Gap Year

based on his passions

CELEBRATING

THE IMPACT OF

GIVING

The College

community comes

together for the

first ever UWCSEA

Foundation Week

TAKING

RESPONSIBILITY:

AN INTERVIEW

WITH PANDIT

MAMI ’10

A Sierra Leonean

scholar describes how

he is ‘participating in

history’

AMIS JAZZ

FESTIVAL

Learning though

hosting an

international event

COVER IMAGES

Front: East Campus

Grade 5 Outdoor

Education trip

to Malaysia

Back: Dover Campus

Grade 12 IB Chemistry

Internal Assessment

December 2017

The newsroom of UWCSEA.

Read. Publish. Share. Subscribe.

Visit: https://perspectives.uwcsea.edu.sg

By Chris Edwards

Head of College

UWC South East Asia

What would my Board of Governors,

or any board of governors, do if I

said I wanted to change the mission

statement to the following: “Every pupil

will know beauty when they see it, for

the rest of their lives”? I suspect that

when everybody had stopped laughing

they would book me a one-way ticket

home from Changi and throw in

some psychological counselling for

good measure.

But hold that laughter for a moment.

I used to work at a school in the UK

called Stowe. Though the palace and

grounds in which the school is housed

are marvels of past centuries, the

school itself was set up only in 1923

by a most interesting Headmaster

called JF Roxburgh. It was he who

decided that the pursuit, recognition

and understanding of beauty should

be integral to a Stowe education. And

why not? A little over a hundred years

earlier, the poet Keats had famously

said “Beauty is truth; truth beauty”.

Many people thought long and hard

over what he might have meant by that,

and some grounded their lives in the

search. None of this is really so long

ago, but today, surrounded by all the

getting and spending, and the obsession

with what can be measured rather than

valued, these echoes of the past sound

like foolish whimsy. (Just as so much of

what we angst over now will be whimsy

for future generations.)

Now please allow me just one more

reference from the English literature

canon before I get properly to business.

The play is Julius Caesar, and Brutus is

saying to Cassius, before an important

battle, that they should seize the

moment because the time is right:

There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on

to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

WAGING HEA

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat …

The thought is familiar enough and

is especially well known to Elvis

Presley fans—It’s now or never—but

Shakespeare’s unforgettable metaphor

amplifies and energises the idea.

I cite Roxburgh, Keats and Shakespeare

because an opportunity has just arisen

for the UWC movement, and for

UWCSEA, to avoid the shallows and

miseries of irrelevance and instead take

advantage of the tide. As I write this I

am in my fourth year as Head of College

at UWCSEA, and in those four years,

four new UWCs have opened: Dilijan in

Armenia; Changshu in China; Thailand;

and ISAK Japan. But as the movement

swept east, 55 years after the founding

of the first UWC college, it felt a need

to clarify the role UWC ought to

play in today’s world. Furthermore, it

sought to identify UWC’s strengths and

opportunities and critically question

itself on the challenges to be tackled in

order to increase UWC’s impact. Sounds

suspiciously like a strategic plan.

And at this point my eyes glazed over.

Humankind survived for millennia

without strategic plans. How much

more wonderful to do what Roxburgh

did. There is something cramped

and confining in the notion of a long

term plan which disciples follow with

unswerving reverence. And there are

obstacles. First, we need to get past

Peter Drucker’s ubiquitous and all

conquering “Culture eats strategy for

breakfast” mantra: UWC has a strong

and resilient culture, so who needs a

boring old plan? And secondly there’s

that nagging sense that strategic plans

turn real and messy challenges into

similar but fundamentally different

problems that can be solved. By rooting

the plan in known quantities, the result

is often emergent strategy (which is

reactive) rather than deliberate strategy

(which is intentional).

But UWC is a risk-taking movement,

and when I was asked to help with the

drafting of the new strategy, I thought

I might be in for something different. I

wasn’t necessarily expecting “Beauty

is truth; truth beauty”, but I was

hoping for some bold thinking. I wasn’t

disappointed. I would not be writing this

if my experience had been same old,

same old (though had that been the case

2 | Dunia December 2017

OPINION

I would of course have kept a dignified

public silence while fighting like a wildcat

behind the scenes). I quote from the plan

intermittently in this article.

Modern strategic planning began at

Harvard (where else?) in the 1920s.

But the word ‘strategy’ comes from

the Greek (where else? again) strategos

which means ‘general’. UWC did

not look to a grand leader: instead,

at the start, it went to the people.

The strategy was two years in the

making and gathered the thinking of

thousands within the UWC community.

I remember, in the half-term break

of 2016, looking at a huge wall full of

post-it notes at the UWC Congress

in Trieste, Italy. On that wall, alumni,

staff and students were celebrating

successes, sharing ideas, positing

scenarios and sometimes venting

anger (usually about our failure in the

domain of sustainability). In true UWC

fashion, nothing was off limits. It was

a passionate, not a professional, start.

Good. What followed, was a highly

consultative and participative UWC

movement-wide process involving all

constituencies and inviting input from

all UWC community members.

Now is not the place to share the

finicky details on financial transparency,

mutual responsibility, accountability

and such like. I shall simply say here

that the strategy is built on three pillars

called SEEK, EDUCATE AND INSPIRE.

UWC will seek a deliberately diverse

group of students and strive to enable

access to a UWC education for these

students, independent of socio-

economic means. We will educate our

students based on trust, responsibility

and autonomy in order for them to

develop agency, experience values and

gain the attitudes and competencies to

be forces for peace, sustainability and

social justice. We will inspire members

of the UWC community to live and act

in accordance with the UWC mission

and we will inspire our partners and

other actors in education to embrace

values-based education celebrating

diversity and promoting peace,

sustainability and social justice.

Now I am a great believer in considering

the opposite of any supposedly inspiring

pronouncement, and if the opposite is

nonsense then your original statement

is likely to be bland or embarrassingly

obvious. The opposite of what is cited

above is not nonsense. So, in one

convoluted sentence, one could make a

perfectly good case for having a chain

of academically selective schools with

didactic teaching models, high fees,

socio-economic homogeneity and

curricula rooted in national systems,

which eschew holistic, experiential

education and instead deliver only

academics and entrance to Ivy league,

Oxbridge and equivalents with an

expectation of their alumni becoming

high earning professionals. No harm

in that, some might say, and the fact

that such places thrive in abundance is

proof of the model’s popularity. UWC is

offering a different map.

Concurrent with the UWC movement’s

plan, UWCSEA has embarked on our

own new strategy. Many parents and

colleagues responded to the stripped

down questionnaire we circulated, and

the leadership teams are now at work

(student groups will follow). Where

thinking is completely aligned we will

introduce protocols to encourage

divergence and play out opposite

scenarios. But every strategy needs to

start from an axiom, and ours was the

guiding statements. Our high grade

averages are a welcome and happy

by-product of something much more

important: we will be values driven and

holistic. Over the coming months we

will be connecting the UWC movement

plan to the UWCSEA plan, focused on

our particular Singapore context. There

will be opportunities for our community

to provide further feedback and our

plan should be ready for the Board of

Governors in March.

But my planning is inspired most by a

cartoon I once saw. Two cavemen are

staring at the wall of a cave on which

one has drawn the famous images of

stick men hunting bison. The other

caveman says to the artist: “OK, enough

of the strategic planning: just get out

there and kill something.” Hear, hear.

Except we will be waging heavy peace.

AVY PEACE

December 2017 Dunia | 3

By Nathan Hunt

Director of Sustainability, UWC South East Asia

As you read this are you are already raising a cynical eyebrow

at the irony of an article about sustainability being published

in a magazine on high quality paper and delivered free to over

5,000 people, some of whom will not even read it and even

if they do, neither know how nor care to recycle it? Good,

for if you are then you are already engaged with the virtually

unsolvable problem UWCSEA faces: how do we expand

our positive impact through education while reducing our

negative environmental impact?

In the words of the new UWC Strategy, how do we live up

to the pledge to ‘Teach the right thing – do the right thing’?1

In a series of articles on Sustainability (of which this is the

first), we hope to show some of the development of thinking

and planning that the College is undergoing to address this

challenge. This is not just to showcase our efforts or justify

our actions but a means of bringing wider and more critical

engagement into the issue from our whole community. For

it is not too dramatic a claim to say that the entire integrity

of UWCSEA depends on us successfully dealing with this

challenge and, it might be argued, the fate of the world too.

For if we, with all our financial and intellectual resources and

commitment to shared values cannot succeed, then who will?

This first article outlines the scope and context of the

challenge ahead and how our conceptual understanding of

Sustainability is developing. Subsequent ones will show how

this thinking is being embedded in our Learning Programme,

its implications for our wider community of parents and

alumni, as well as for our buildings and operations.

A global and local challenge

Firstly then, the scope and context: what frames our

perspective and shapes our desire and capability to act?

Those in our community will have heard references to

the centrality of our mission many times. But it is worth

reiterating, because many of our parents, teachers and

students might have a perfectly understandable scepticism of

the role of schools in addressing global issues, when the more

pressing issues of achieving competence in Mathematics,

making friends, teaching how to write, or getting accepted at

a good university might seem to be the most germane to our

daily experience. We will explore more reasons why we think

the two are perfectly compatible later in this series, but we

have said our ambition is not to become a great international

school, but a great UWC and that means having a consistent,

dedicated focus on the movement’s mission. Educating for

Peace and Sustainability is what defines us. It is not our

Corporate Social Responsibility or the extra we do on top of

academics, sport, etc. It is the sole reason for our existence.

As well as being guided by our global outlook as part of

the UWC movement, we also view the world from a local

context, and the challenge that Singapore itself faces brings

our quest even sharper into focus. Singapore’s ambition to

ensure its own transition to a sustainable society where it can

deliver continued economic prosperity while safeguarding its

quality of life and the natural environment on which much

of this depends, is the main focus of national strategy. And

in aspiring South East Asia where population and economic

growth are dominant factors, the challenge, just like that

of the growing UWC movement, is particularly acute. For

despite the incredible technological commitments to resource

reduction that Singapore is famous for (our own campuses are

examples of this), the large ecological footprint of Singapore

(and UWCSEA) means its pathway to development is simply

not globally replicable. At least not unless we have two spare

planets. In a College that educates for a sustainable future,

we need to be very clear that both the present states of the

school and the nation and their current trajectory of growth

Framing the sustainability challenge

1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qPAeAY9CNNPtX92LYwjhw7CwkQP45Bgl/view

FEATURE

http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals

4 | Dunia December 2017

2 https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/sustainable-development/

3 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf

are unsustainable; they are not yet models to follow. But the

world is following. For, despite the warnings, the agreements,

and the education about sustainability in the 25 years since

the first Earth Summit in 1992, humanity’s ability to support

its own development has reduced every year.

Given these realities it is no wonder that the Institute for New

Economic Thinking has commissioned Nobel prize-winning

economists such as Joseph Stiglitz to review the entire

governance of the global economy so it can more successfully

address issues like these. So while we will always highlight

hope and the many positive stories of change, our framing

of education for sustainability must come from a deep

understanding of the current situation globally, nationally and

within our own community. The achievements of the past

are laudable, but they have created the very conditions that

means business as usual is no longer possible.

A well-being approach

This is true for education as well as development and is one of

the reasons why we have rethought our own understanding

of sustainability. While many conceptual approaches exist

in different courses at the College, we are trying to shift

thinking by adopting the definition ‘Well-being for all within

the means of Nature’2 across the curriculum. This moves the

focus away from the notion that sustainability is about ‘saving

the planet’—a conceptual short-cut that masks an arrogant

assumption that we could destroy 4 billion years of evolution,

let alone save it. It even moves away from the widely

held concept that sustainability requires a three pillar—

Environmental, Social and Economic—approach.

It is not that this framing has not been very useful, but it can

reinforce several very misguided notions: that economies and

societies are somehow separate from the environment, only

occasionally overlapping in some idealised Venn diagram; and

that it is desirable that they are sustained even when clearly

they are not delivering the well-being that they are designed

to do. Economic growth or social cohesion, so often seen as

sustainability goals, do not necessarily guarantee well-being

nor respect for planetary limits. The focus of the definition on

well-being reminds us that this is the chief driver of human

existence and that this is deeply connected to and ultimately

limited by, the health of the planet’s ecosystems.

A global partnership for a better world

Since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals

in 2015 we also have both a broader and more detailed

framework for understanding sustainability and subsequently

for us, our UWC mission. The United Nations’ five pledges

underlying the concept of Sustainable Development (refer

to diagram) highlight that achieving sustainability is as

If achieving those hugely ambitious goals by the 2030 target

seems daunting and our own organisational and individual

efforts irrelevant by comparison, it is worth remembering

that personal transformation, whether by leaders or followers

has always been the key to collective change even if this

seems to happen invisibly. So while Dunia remains a print

magazine, please do pass it back to your children for recycling

in classrooms or even better, first pass it on to others to read

so we can expand our impact using those same resources and

start working towards solving one of the major challenges of

the 21st century.

much a focus on reducing inequality and promoting human

dignity as it is safeguarding the Earth’s living systems. The

greater resonance for the UWC movement is that the UN

has shown through the preamble to its agenda that the goal

of Peace is inextricably linked to the other elements, “There

is no sustainable development without peace and no peace

without sustainable development”3 and indeed that integration

of all these elements is necessary for the agenda to be

realised. Furthermore they stress the need for a true global

partnership to work towards sustainable development—we

will need to collaborate across borders and disciplines to

realise the agenda—and this speaks powerfully to us as a

community and as a movement with a global reach. (In the

next article on sustainability practice at UWCSEA, we will

show how this understanding is being embedded across our

Learning Programme.)

Adapted from the UN graphic – The 5Ps of Sustainable Development

December 2017 Dunia | 5

Meet the

Primary Principal

INTERVIEW

A few months into her first school

term at UWCSEA, we asked Pauline

some follow-up questions about her

experience at the College so far.

Dunia: How would you describe your

first few months?

The first term … has both flown by

whilst also making me feel I have

been here forever. I truly feel that I

have come home and that I have been

working towards this school my whole

teaching career. It really is a privilege to

be part of such an inspiring, vibrant and

learning-focused community. Already

I have been fortunate to participate in

many moving events, from the scholar

dinner and their presentations as part

of our class buddy system, a trip to our

Infant Global Concerns partner, Kuma

Cambodia, attending the amazing Blue

Dragon exhibition, performances such

as CultuRama and Unplugged, and most

importantly the many opportunities

for parents to share in their children’s

learning … Talking with parents and

hearing their views about what they love

about the school, why they chose it, and

the impact it has had on their children

and family, is incredibly uplifting.

Dunia: What has been most surprising

about UWCSEA so far?

In a school that is so busy, the amount

of energy and enthusiasm that is evident

every day from all members of the

community is incredible. Staff genuinely

want to learn from each other and grow

as professionals, constantly honing their

craft to better improve the opportunities

and experiences for students. Not a day

goes by that I do not learn something

from a child or adult in our community.

Dunia: What has been most challenging

about working at UWCSEA so far?

Pacing myself! I so want to attend every

event, participate in every service, attend

all the parent workshops and classes

on offer, and enjoy every performance

and celebration. Sometimes my day job

really gets in the way!

Dunia: Based on your experience to

date, what would you say differentiates

UWCSEA from other international

schools?

UWCSEA stands out in a very strong

field of high quality, world class

international schools for its complete

commitment to its mission and vision.

It really does do what it says on the can!

… The notion that education is a force

for good in the world is alive and kicking

in all aspects of life at the College.

The engagement of all stakeholders

in bringing the mission to life and

making it really mean something for our

community is both inspirational and

aspirational and makes it such a privilege

to play a small part in realising this for all

our students.

Pauline Markey joined the College in August 2017 as

Primary School Principal on East Campus. Before the

start of school, she spoke with Alexandra Beukers,

student intern in Communications and Marketing;

Alex’s excerpted article follows.

… When asked for her vision for the East Primary School,

Pauline told me that the first step toward settling in was

familiarising herself with the school’s ‘culture and terminology’.

She is excited to join the College at a time when the UWCSEA-

written concept-based curriculum will become fully embedded

in the Primary School across all five elements of the Learning

Programme. The K–12 curriculum articulation project, she says,

and the resulting concept-based curriculum is the product

of the most progressive forward-thinking philosophy of any

school she’s worked in. She believes this is the best way

forward and finds it exciting to be part of something that will

equip students with the skills, understanding and commitment

to make a positive impact in the world.

Her favourite aspect of UWCSEA’s learning programme? The

importance of service. Pauline spoke … of being especially

moved by a video in which a UWCSEA graduate described

the impact 12 years of diverse community work had on him.

The way in which UWCSEA sincerely values each aspect of its

learning programme, be it learning in class, through outdoor

education, the Arts or sports, is something that made joining

the College an irresistible opportunity.

… Getting to know students individually has always been

significant to Pauline—she emphasises that the relationship

between teacher and child at such a formative time is

invaluable. Pauline believes in recognising from early on “not

just their needs, but their talent”, and that what makes her

job the best in the world is “finding the thing that makes

each child tick, and then nurturing that to let them flourish

and grow”. Prizing individuality in the students in both their

interests and ways of learning is fundamental to her view

of education …

To Pauline, guiding a child in this stage of their learning

journey is a real privilege and makes being a Primary teacher a

very special vocation …

6 | Dunia December 2017

The College joined with fellow members of the global UWC movement in welcoming UWC ISAK Japan as the 17th UWC school

ahead of their official opening ceremony on 23 and 24 September. Founded by Pearson College UWC alumna, Lin Kobayashi,

UWC ISAK Japan adds another dimension to UWC’s collective power of diversity.

SPOTLIGHT

WELCOME UWC ISAK JAPAN

SPOTLIGHT ON …

By Kavya Nayak

Grade 12, East Campus

For most Grade 11 students, the end

of June brought the end of classes, the

start of the long vacation, and (perhaps

most importantly) sleep after a rigorous

year of the IB Diploma Programme. For

others, it meant traveling to Mae Sot or

Timor Leste, regions of conflict, to run

an Initiative for Peace (IfP) conference.

IfP is a programme offered to Grade 11

students focused on facilitating peace

amidst conflict, both globally and

locally, through youth empowerment.

The conferences contain simulations and

discussions on issues which face these

communities, our own identities, and

ways that we can make a difference.

Founded by UWCSEA students and staff

in 2001, IfP runs across both campuses,

with half a year dedicated to training and

the other half to conference planning.

The idea is that by working with youth in

areas of conflict and fostering an active

dialogue to understand differences, we

can initiate effective peacebuilding from

the bottom up.

The aim is summed up neatly by the IfP

mission: Youth connecting youth to build

sustainable peace.

With this in mind, I embarked with

a team of 21 students from both

campuses to Mae Sot, Thailand. Situated

on the border of Myanmar and Thailand,

Mae Sot is the home to the largest

of nine refugee camps, with a diverse

but somewhat divided population. We

sought to work with youth in the region,

from a variety of countries (Thailand,

Myanmar, Vietnam, India) and ethnic

groups (Karen, Kachin, Mon), and help

them ‘build a sustainable peace.’

When I explain this goal, or IfP, to my

peers, adults, or even my family, I’m

met with scepticism: How can a group

of high school students make such a big

change in the world? What is the role of

a one-week conference in addressing the

global movement for peace? Isn’t this

incredibly optimistic?

The sheer magnitude of what we were

trying to do occurred to me when

delegates began pouring out of buses

and arriving from all over Myanmar

and Thailand, as well as from Vietnam

and India. For an entire day, buses

drove in and out of the hotel, ferrying

delegates from the airport, train

station, refugee camp, and aptly titled

‘Friendship Bridge’ crossing between

Thailand and Myanmar. As more and

more delegates arrived, our goal became

increasingly tangible yet more distant

than ever. In planning our conferences

we easily threw around terms such

as ‘intercultural understanding’ and

‘breaking barriers,’ but we had yet to

realise the sheer magnitude of the task

and number of people we would be

interacting with.

The first day was a stream of names and

faces of eager, yet timid, delegates, with

more ahead of us than we had imagined

in our months of planning. And then

we started talking. At mealtimes, after

dinner, in our rooms, our conversations

eroded away the many differences

which seemingly separated us.

Our days were filled with sessions on

themes such as Identity, Diversity, and

Community Building. In between these

sessions, we discussed everything from

FEATURE

An alternative perspective

on peacebuilding

IfP

8 | Dunia December 2017

favourite TV shows to the political

climate in Myanmar. Ask any IfP-er

about what made their conference

special, and they will tell you the

story of a conversation. At the end

of the day, IfP comes down to the

relationships forged between people

who would have otherwise never met.

And through building rapport and

confidence amongst ourselves outside

the classroom, and discussing topics

of peacebuilding within it, IfP creates

leaders. By the end of the conference,

delegates transitioned from discussing

issues with us to creating solutions.

On Service Day, delegates taught

English and teamwork to local Karen

schoolchildren. By the end of the

conference, delegates from different

towns discussed working to create IfP

conferences in their respective regions.

Many of these delegates have already

done amazing things with their lives

and would have done them regardless

of their involvement in IfP—they’ve

set up youth organisations, worked to

further their own education against

all odds, volunteered to help Rohingya

refugees. We weren’t there to ‘fix’ or

‘improve’ them but to support them

with resources and knowledge to further

their initiatives. Our goal was to connect

them with each other and connect with

them ourselves.

This aspect of diversity, not only of

ethnicity but of thought and opinion,

was ingrained into every day of the

conference. A cultural show on the final

night featured performances ranging

from Vietnamese dancing to a Mon

culture talk, a Karen performance to

an Indian dance. We roomed with

delegates from different countries, we

openly discussed our differences, and

the result was transformative. As one

delegate said, “I always thought that

Burmese weren’t smart and couldn’t

speak English; I have learned that this is

not true.”

At the end of the conference, I had

the opportunity to interview some of

the delegates to record footage for

next year’s conference planners. The

phrase that I heard most often was

“IfP has changed my life.” IfP has the

power to shape our outlook because it

simultaneously fills us with confidence

and forces us to escape our comfort

zone. Delegates’ perceptions were

challenged, and so were ours. Delegates

were encouraged to speak up and face

challenges, and so did we.

IfP intrinsically changes the lives of

all that are involved. For facilitators,

IfP does not start or end with this

conference. Behind the week-long

conference in Mae Sot were 24 weeks

of planning, rushing from East to Dover

and Dover to East, and eating pizza

during late night sessions. Just because

we went to Mae Sot, or Timor Leste,

or Cambodia to make a change, does

not mean we can’t bring the values of

IfP home.

Our IfP experiences started in

Singapore, in our community and

extended into theirs. These conferences

are not something we regard as a single

experience, but a first step in a peace

process much larger than ourselves.

Even after our conferences have ended,

peacebuilding remains a process that we

facilitate in our daily lives.

These conferences are not something we regard as a single experience, but a first step in a peace process

much larger than ourselves.”

Photos by: Azhara Assanova, Grade 12, East Campus and Dasha Maliauskaya, student, UWC Thailand

December 2017 Dunia | 9

MEMORIES OF

GUNUNG LEDANG

An interview

with Grade 3

What was the best part of camp?

Leonardo C: The two things I enjoyed

the most on camp were the river tracing

and the fun local games.

Ms Kelly: The best part of camp is seeing

the children successfully experience so

many ‘firsts’. For many of them it is the

first time they have been away from

their parents for more than one day.

For many it is the first time river tracing

or their first time building a campfire.

Watching the kids work together and

support one another through all of these

firsts is really a joyful thing to see.

Can you share an experience during

camp when you demonstrated

resilience?

Bella H: I showed resilience when

hiking because it was really hard

but I tried really hard to manage the

steep mountain.

Mrs Plamondon: River tracing

offered our students the opportunity

to demonstrate resiliency as the

current was strong, and even though

the students were in a supported

environment, some slipped and scraped

themselves. We called these bumps and

scratches ‘river tracing souvenirs’. What

was so inspiring to watch was how the

students persevered and encouraged one

another. It was incredibly motivating!

Describe an experience that was new

to you while on camp.

Sam B: It was my first time doing

coconut bowling. I never knew that

bowling was so hard!

Mrs Valenzuela: My new experience

was to go on camp with my Grade 3

students! It was truly an amazing first

experience. I really enjoyed it, from

the moment we got on the bus, to the

By Lisa Plamondon

Head of Grade 3

East Campus

For the past two years, the Grade 3 students have extended

their learning into the beautiful surroundings of Malaysia.

Traveling two hours north of the Singapore border, the students

spend three days exploring, growing and supporting one

another as part of UWCSEA’s Outdoor Education programme.

The Forest Adventure Camp is designed to offer exciting and

age appropriate experiences, such as river tracing, campfire

building and shelter construction. Through these learning

experiences, the students grow as individuals, and develop a

deeper and stronger community together.

I asked the students and teaching team who travelled with

them to share some of their experiences and reflect on the

learning that took place during their forest adventure this year:

river walk, building shelters, making

fire, drumming, playing games, to

watching my students be independent

and collaborative throughout the whole

three days of camp.

In what ways did you grow on camp?

Olivia C: I grew on camp as I had never

been away from my parents for so long

and in a different country.

Mr Withington: I developed my

commitment to care by taking action.

Steps are already in place for next

year to ensure that we are caring for

the environment and making Gunung

Ledang a better place for the future.

Tell about a time you were

collaborative during camp?

Tilly R.G: I was collaborative working

with my team during tent building.

Mr D: It was great working with the

instructors from the service provider

and the PE department during the river

tracing activity.

What is your favourite memory from

camp?

Marina T: My favourite memory

from camp was serving food for the

other classes.

Mrs Duffy: The river tracing was

incredible! I also enjoyed the meals with

the team.

What is one piece of advice you have

for a future camper?

Abuka: Always help other people and

be kind.

Mrs Whitehouse: Be a risk taker and

push yourself to your limits. There is

more in you then you think—‘Plus est en

vous’ as Kurt Hahn said!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Photos provided by: Grade 3, East Campus

December 2017 Dunia | 11

The College joined the global UWC movement in celebrating the

‘Power of Diversity’ and the UWC mission through UWC Day events

and festivities on 20 and 21 September.

UWC DAY

Dover Campus students (K1–G12)

and staff were involved in activities

including a yoga and mindfulness

session (Infant School), seed

potting and t-shirt printing (Junior

School), a gumboot dance and

scavenger hunt (Middle School),

and awareness-raising discussions

about gender inequality, refugees

and advocacy (High School).

I thought it was fantastic

that we had a chance to

connect with other UWCs

across the globe, and work

together to fight for a cause

that matters!”

Dover Campus student

Usually UWC Day is much

more focused on our

immediate community, but

this year it felt like we were

connected to the movement

as a whole and the impact

our words and protest can …

have on our world.”

Dover Campus student

12 | Dunia December 2017

On East Campus, students and

staff came together to celebrate

our unity in diversity with cultural

celebrations, assemblies, lessons

and activities focused on the

UWC movement and its member

schools, as well as sustainability

and peace. From staff and students

donning cultural dress, to Service

booths and activities in the plaza,

to specialty food from countries

where UWCs are located, students

were able to celebrate diversity

and to learn about how to make

a difference in areas such as the

Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar.

In IB Global Politics, students

discussed and blogged on the

relationship between their studies

and the UWC mission.

While I used to think that the

UWC mission was something

that we would achieve

through Service and Global

Concerns, I now know that

it is something we can work

towards in our academics

as well, using the skills we

acquire to comprehend and

perceive other cultures,

perspectives, and issues

that we face in and around

the world.”

IB Global Politics student,

East Campus

COMMUNITY NEWS

December 2017 Dunia | 13

In September, the High School History Department at Dover

Campus hosted a public lecture that drew over 200 people.

The lecture by Dr Rana Mitter, Professor of History and

Politics at Oxford University on ‘How China’s most famous

sage is shaping society today’, highlighted the importance of

History for providing vital context for better understanding

and evaluating current-day issues and events. Dunia sat down

with Tim Davies, Head of High School History, to discuss

recent changes to the curriculum as well as the relevance of

History to today’s world.

Looking back to look ahead:

THE STUDY OF HISTORY

INTERVIEW

Dunia: You have recently introduced

some changes to the History curriculum

at Dover. Tell us more about the

changes and how they came about.

A key consideration was that we wanted

the curriculum to reflect a wider range

of human experiences and to promote

a sense of international mindedness

among our students. A new IB topic

called ‘Independence Movements’

allows us to explore the emergence

of nationalist movements and the

challenges of newly independent

states, such as India. Another new

topic, Rights and Protest, looks at

the history of racial inequality in the

United States and South Africa. In High

School, we now cover aspects of South

Asian, African, East Asian and Middle

Eastern History as well as European

and American topics. What we have is

a curriculum which better reflects the

diversity of the UWCSEA community

and also that of the wider world.

Dunia: What is the relevance of History

in 2017? Why isn’t it enough to just

follow the news?

We encourage students to read the

news but without knowledge of the

historical context, news stories can be

difficult to follow or we can become

too easily influenced by one opinion.

It would be difficult to understand the

situation in the Middle East today for

example without having considered the

causes and impact of the two world

wars. The American historian Arthur

Schlesinger Jr once said that “History

is to the nation what memory is to

the individual” and I like that analogy.

Furthermore, in a world where alternate

facts and fake news have the potential

to disrupt democratic processes, it

is crucial that we are clearly able to

distinguish fact from opinion. Through

analysis of different types of historical

sources, History students are very well

equipped to do this.

Dunia: It is often said that History

allows us to learn from the mistakes

of the past. If so, why does the world

continue to have so many problems?

Well a quick answer to that question

is that maybe the world would be in

a better place if more people studied

History. The longer answer is not that

simple. Historians would first have

to agree on what the mistakes of the

past were if we are to avoid repeating

them. I do not see this happening soon.

That does not have to mean that, in

Henry Ford’s words, “History is bunk”.

Take Hindu-Muslim relations in the

Indian subcontinent for example, part

of our IB unit on India. Students can

sometimes start off with quite fixed

views, but by using History to consider

how and why different perspectives

have come to exist in the first place, we

can deepen understanding of the nature

of both historical as well as present

day issues. Our (I)GCSE unit on the

Arab-Israeli conflict is another excellent

opportunity for this.

Dunia: Do you think that History can

be a force for good in the world?

Yes, absolutely, but it is important to be

aware that History has the potential to

be a force for good or bad. Politicians

know better than most about its power.

I am reminded of Orwell’s comment

in 1984 that “Who controls the past

controls the future. Who controls the

present controls the past”. For History

to be a force for good, it is important to

have a culture of openness and respect

for academic freedom.

At UWCSEA we are lucky to be

able to draw on a diverse range of

perspectives in a community which

places a high value on honesty and

integrity. The study of History helps us

to understand different identities and

beliefs, whilst the disciplinary emphasis

on evidence and reasoning helps to

avoid prejudice. Finally, History’s ironic

reminders of human frailties, follies and

achievements, show us that we have