One North July 2011

North

One

Vol 8 July 2011

The Alumni Magazine of the United World College of South East Asia

Alumni Profiles

Graduation 2011

Reunions

Class Notes

Tim Jarvis

Polar Explorer and

Environmental Scientist

Every student who leaves UWCSEA,

regardless of how long they were here, is

automatically a member of the UWCSEA

alumni community. Some of the services

that we offer alumni include:

OneºNorth

The Alumni Magazine of the United World

College of South East Asia, first published

in December 2007, is published twice per

year. Please send your contributions and/or

suggestions to: alumnimagazine@uwcsea.

edu.sg.

UWCSEA alumni online community

Our password-protected alumni website

located at http://alumni.uwcsea.edu.sg

allows you to maintain your own profile,

search for and contact other registered

members, post photos and blogs, stay in-

formed about news and events, etc.

Friends of UWCSEA online community

The ‘Friends of UWCSEA’ password-

protected website located at http://

friends.uwcsea.edu.sg allows parents of

former students to stay in touch with each

other and with the College.

Reunions and get-togethers

A reunion of the 40, 30, 20 and 10 year

anniversary classes will be held each

August in Singapore. Other alumni are also

welcome. Additional class reunions and

alumni gatherings take place in various

locations throughout the year, planned by

both UWCSEA and its alumni. Watch the

alumni website for updates and details,

and let us advertise your events!

Alumni eBrief

The Alumni eBrief is a newsletter emailed

to alumni throughout the year, containing

brief news and information to keep you

updated and informed.

Dunia

The College magazine is published four

times during the academic year, containing

College news and reports of events and

activities, as well as a brief alumni section.

Mentor opportunities

Volunteer to be listed in the mentor section

of the alumni site if you are willing to be

contacted by current students or other

alumni for information or advice regarding

your university or career; or visit the pages

if you have questions of your own.

Career services

Check this section of the site for career

opportunities or candidates, or post your

own job opening or resumé. You can even

set up alerts to be notified of new postings.

Gap Year-type opportunities for alumni

Check the Volunteer page of the website

for short to long term volunteer work

opportunities in South East Asia working

with organisations supported by UWCSEA.

Old Interscols

Order your old interscol in soft copy format

via the store on the website.

Visits, tours and other requests

We are always happy to help in any way we

can. Send your requests to us at alumni@

uwcsea.edu.sg. If you are in Singapore and

would like to drop in for a visit or a tour of

the campus, we would be more than happy

to show you around anytime.

Please keep in touch!

Number of registered members on the UWCSEA Alumni website (by country of residence)

Other countries represented Albania, Argentina, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil,

Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Fiji,

Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg,

Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Qatar,

Romania, Russia, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Timor-Leste,

Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe

OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

Alumni services

2 Alumni services

Helping you to stay connected to

UWCSEA and to each other.

4 Letter from the Head

Read about UWCSEA today.

5 Note from the Alumni office

Prapti says good bye

6 Life is an Adventure ...

Tim Jarvis (Class of 1984)

10 Awards Day 2011 Photos

12 Graduation 2011 Photos

14 Entrepreneur and Volunteer

Jorge Vizcaino (Class of 1987)

16 Cheering up children with books

Kimiko Fujioka Matsui (Class of 1985)

18 Paddleboarding for the Mentawais

by Greg Town (Class of 1990)

21 Serendipity

by Ivan Moore (Class of 1981)

22 A Kaleidoscope of College Events

24 Past Mini Reunions

26 UWCSEA, UBC, Rhodes Scholar

Aneil Jaswal (Class of 2007)

28 Accountant to Mobile Apps

Entrepreneur

Luke Janssen (Class of 1994)

30 UWCSEA to me

Aashna Aggarwal (Class of 2012)

31 Two UWCSEA Alumni Give Back

Anita Kapoor (Class of 1989)

Paul Foster (Class of 1999)

32 A Model United Nations Experience

Shipra Khanna (Class of 2012)

34 In Pursuit of Health and Wellness

Mubina Jiwa (Class of 1996)

36 Nine Days to Knowing

by Iain Ewing (Parent of alumnus)

38 Junior Round Square

by Julia Matheson (Teacher)

39 UWCSEA Foundation Update

40 A Post in the Tropics

Mike Gibby (Biology Teacher)

41 Class Notes

42 Teacher Leavers

43 Upcoming Reunions

Editor

Brenda Whately

Assistant Editor

Prapti Sherchan

Layout

Lenca Yew, Gregory Parker

OneºNorth is published by United World College of South East Asia twice per year for alumni,

staff and friends of UWCSEA. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited without written consent.

Send your address change to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg and/or update your profile on the

UWCSEA alumni website. We welcome your feedback. Send your comments to alumnimaga-

zine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Please send your articles and/or suggestions for articles, as well as your class notes, for the next

issue, to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Cover photo: Tim Jarvis, Class of 1984, walking unsupported across the Antarctic.

Photo supplied by: Tim Jarvis. Photo credit: Malcolm McDonald.

Contents

Printed by

Interprint Communications Pte Ltd

MICA (P) 051/11/2010

4 OneºNorth July 2011

Letter from the Head of College

“I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these

qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit,

readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion.”

Kurt Hahn

Life at the College moves on apace as we continue to develop the educational experience

for the students. However much the physical environment of the Dover Campus has

changed over the years, the deep underlying philosophy of the College is still firmly

based in the Hahnian philosophy.

As part of the process for seeking accreditation with the Council of International Schools,

we reviewed our guiding statements, in itself an interesting exercise, but made more

meaningful by the fact that we are in the process of writing the next College strategic

plan. In rewriting the guiding statements we believe we have encapsulated the spirit of

Hahn’s intent when he established Salem School back in the 1920s.

As a College we aim to develop high achieving, socially confident and morally

responsible individuals who will embrace challenge and make a positive impact upon

the world.

In order to achieve this we are revisiting the UWCSEA Learning Programme which

contains five key elements: academics, service, pastoral care, outdoor education and

activities. As I write, we are about to commence an ambitious project that will clearly

articulate our curriculum from K1 through to G12. The purpose of this is to specify

the knowledge and understanding we wish the students to learn, not only within their

academic programme but also through the other four elements. In addition, we will

be identifying how we can develop the skills and dispositions the students will need in

order to be meaningful contributors to life in the 21st Century: these will be developed

in a progressive way across all five elements. Yes, service and expeditions have always

been part of the College curriculum but we have never made it explicit what it is we

are trying to achieve: the work we have done so far has made us realise how much

more the students could gain from these elements of their education. The nature of

the project is such that it will further differentiate us from other schools and Colleges.

We continue to actively encourage students to use their initiative, embrace challenge by

extending the boundaries of their experience, embark upon journeys of self-discovery

without fear of failure and develop the ability to cope with the spectre of ambiguity.

A good school will ensure that all students experience success in order to develop

their self-confidence: exceptional schools allow students to experience failure in a

supportive and caring environment so that they learn to persevere and turn such events

into opportunities.

As the students progress through the College we are providing them with greater

autonomy, giving them increased opportunity for negotiation and self-determination.

In so doing, we aim to create an environment in which the students develop a positive

attitude to learning which enables them to indulge their curiosity and develop their

creativity. Hahn was using the phrase ‘life-long learners’ back in the 1970s long before

it became a cliché in the world of education.

As I presented the Class of 2011 with their Diplomas at the Graduation Ceremony in

May, there was much to celebrate, not the least of which was the knowledge that another

group of UWCSEA graduates would continue to make a positive difference in the world.

OneºNorth July 2011 5

It has been a busy and eventful few months

since the last issue.

First, some alumni team news. Although

I am extremely sorry to see a very valued

member of the team leave the alumni de-

partment this month, it is for an exciting

reason. Prapti Sherchan will be heading off

soon to begin her Master’s Degree studies

in the US. She will be greatly missed. I am

sure that those of you who have gotten

to know her over the past four years will

join me in wishing her all the very best in

everything she goes on to do.

In addition to the new Alumni Relations

Manager who will be joining the team in

the near future, I would like to introduce

Siti Aminah who has joined the team in

an administrative role. We welcome Siti

to the alumni team.

Another academic year has ended and we

have another cohort of more than three

hundred new alumni. In this issue we have

included a few pages of awards day and

graduation day photos.

Congratulations to the Class of 2011!

For the first time, we held reunion events

in five cities across the United States in

Note

from the Alumni Office

Good bye ...

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was excited about joining UWCSEA as a staff and immersing

once again in the UWC culture, fondly remembered from my student days in Swaziland. And now it’s

time for me to leave UWCSEA and Singapore to embark on yet another adventure in the United States.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the last four years of my time at UWCSEA. I immensely enjoyed organising

alumni events and having been part of the alumni team. But most of all, I enjoyed meeting, mingling

and getting to know many alumni and it has been my privilege to have been able to work with

many of you. The UWC movement has always been my source of inspiration, and to be able to see

so many alumni go on to make a difference after their UWC years has strengthened my belief and

inspired me even further.

As I move on to the next phase of my life, I would like to thank you for being my inspiration. Please

do keep in touch. I can be contacted via the UWCSEA Alumni website or via email (psherchan@

hotmail.com).

Thank you for the great memories.

Best Regards,

Prapti Sherchan 

Alumni Relations Manager (2007 - 2011)

addition to the annual reunions in London,

Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta between Janu-

ary and June this year. It was great to see

so many alumni at these events. We are

looking forward to seeing many of those

celebrating their 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35 year

anniversaries at the big annual reunion in

Singapore again this August. Subsequent

to that there will be reunions in Australia

at the beginning of October and of course

the annual December event in Singapore

in late December. Please remember to visit

the alumni site’s event calendar if you wish

to see photos of any of these events.

Working on the alumni magazine con-

tinues to be a highlight for me and I look

forward to it with each issue. Again I have

thoroughly enjoyed the chance to read

and hear so many interesting stories by

and about our alumni in this eighth issue.

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I

have.

Take care. Keep in touch.

Regards,

Brenda

Brenda Whately

Director of Alumni Relations

Prapti Sherchan, Siti Aminah and Brenda Whately.

6 OneºNorth July 2011

Life is an adventure.

Tim Jarvis, environmental

scientist and explorer

By Brenda Whately

ing into deeper areas of jungle. When most

of the students had become quite frightened,

Tim decided to take control of the situation

and told them that he knew, because of the

direction of the setting sun, where the beach

was that they could walk along to get back

to camp. He later admitted that he wasn’t at

all sure that he had chosen the direction cor-

rectly, but eventually, to his great relief, they

emerged on the beach and reached camp,

albeit hours late. Perhaps this was where the

first seeds of his future exploration adventures

and survival skills development were planted.

Tim has a Bachelor’s degree in Geography

and Masters degrees in both Environmental

Science and Environmental Law. Between

degrees he spent a year in the mountains

of North Guatemala, helping with the re-

construction of the lives and communities

of the indigent people there after the army

had destroyed their homes. He worked on

gravity-fed water systems and gave crop ad-

vice in the minimal amount of local language

he managed to pick up. He also managed to

pick up a parasite, which he discovered, to

his great dismay (not to mention fear), living

under the skin of his stomach and chest on

the flight back to the UK, which took months

ALUMNI PROFILE

promote sustainability messages and to test

his own strengths. Tim was in Singapore re-

cently for meetings with the Singapore office

of Arup, where he works as environmental

consultant. He very nicely agreed to an inter-

view and a presentation to a group of Grade

8 students. Tim mentioned that the most

frequently asked question during his public

speaking engagements is, “How do you go

to the toilet at the South Pole?” Sure enough,

that was the first question asked by one of the

UWCSEA students. His answer: “Quickly!”

Tim was born in the United Kingdom but

moved to Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia with

his family as a young child. Five years later

his family moved to Singapore and he began

to attend UWCSEA. In those days, the school

had a learning and adventure facility located

on the East coast of Malaysia, called Beluntu.

Tim remembers a particularly life defining

event there which he says taught him to trust

his instincts. A group of students were given

roles to play and sent into the jungle to collect

specimens. One of the roles was that of spy, a

person whose job it was to try to influence the

other members of the team away from their

goal. Tim recalls that the spy played the game

too well and they became very lost, wander-

Tim Jarvis

UWCSEA 1978 - 1982

Class of 1984

im Jarvis is a remarkable person; “a true

renaissance man whose interest in the

world and its environment is combined

with a powerful inner need to discover his

personal limits. He has walked solo to the

South Pole, and did it more quickly than

any man in history. Equally, he can be found

trekking in steaming jungles, on mountain as-

cents and working on development projects

in remote areas. He is an expert on Austra-

lia’s current drought. Tim now increasingly

is confronting what I think is an even more

challenging frontier: the boardrooms of big

business, where he educates influential lead-

ers about climate change.”

ABC filmmaker Alex West wrote these words

as the introduction to Tim Jarvis in Tim’s

second book, Mawson Life and Death in

Antarctica which, along with the award-

winning documentary of the same name,

depicted Tim’s successful 2007 re-creation of

Sir Douglas Mawson’s epic 1912 expedition

to the Antarctic.

Tim is an environmental scientist, polar

explorer, author and public speaker who

pursues expeditions to the polar regions and

other out-of-the-way places of this world to

OneºNorth July 2011 7

[Mother Teresa]

Please send your profile suggestions for the next edition of OneºNorth, to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

of intense and unpleasant medical treatments

to be rid of.

After taking up rowing in his local gym as

part of a rehabilitation programme for a knee

injury, Tim was invited to compete in the UK

Nationals. Winning, with a time good enough

to beat some of the members of the Men’s

Olympic Squad, Tim started thinking about

ways to test himself and his abilities further.

His first polar expedition was an attempt to

cross the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. He

says, “Climbing friends of mine had said it

would be an ‘interesting’ place to cut our

polar teeth.” After one month in the vast, icy

North, they completed the journey.

In 1999 he decided to attempt crossing the

Antarctic unsupported. That meant no dogs,

airdrops, food caches or skis. He found

another explorer to accompany him, raised

the funds and set off from the tip of South

America. He thought his size, six foot five

and over 100 kg, would carry him through,

but he soon learned it was as much a mental

exercise as it was a physical one. When their

220 kg sleds were dropped onto the ice and

they strapped them on, Tim couldn’t budge

his. Eventually he told himself that he only

had to pull it one kilometer at a time, and

through sheer determination, he moved the

sled. Although he ended up with a permanent

loss of most of the feeling in his right thumb

from frostbite, he reached the Pole after just

47 days, completing his full journey after

three months, with records for fastest unsup-

ported journey to the South Pole and longest

unsupported journey across Antarctica.

In 2001, while preparing for an attempt on the

North Pole, Tim completed the first unsup-

ported crossing of Australia’s largest desert,

the Great Victoria Desert, a trip of 1,100 km

in 29 days throughout which, once again he

pulled his own food and supplies behind him.

These expeditions were followed by another

journey to the Arctic to attempt to reach the

North Pole across a vast expanse of frozen

ocean, which Tim warns is melting at a rapid

rate. Alexandra Shackleton, the granddaugh-

ter of the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton,

whose epic journey Tim is yet to re-create,

became a joint patron of the North Pole

expedition along with Australia’s then Prime

Minster John Howard who had again agreed

to be Tim’s patron, having been the patron

for his previous record breaking expedition

to the South Pole. After 400 km, due to frost-

bite resulting in permanent nerve damage to

Tim’s expedition partner’s toes however, the

attempt on the North Pole came to a disap-

pointing end for Tim.

With his experience and success in prior

unsupported journeys across deserts, snow

and ice in hand however, the idea of under-

taking the re-creation of Mawson’s journey

had gelled in Tim’s mind. The reasons for

wanting to take on this dangerous 500 km

journey across Antarctica, which had claimed

the lives of both of Mawson’s expedition part-

ners, included among other things, a desire to

test that more resourceful part of himself, the

alter-ego that he says comes out in difficult

situations. He found someone to accompany

him up to the same point that Mawson’s

companion had died. He sought a film team,

which included Malcolm McDonald who

had been second unit director on Master and

Commander and Wade Fairley, the camera-

man responsible for the emperor penguin

images in the BBC’s Planet Earth series. Tim

“… completing his full journey after three months, with records

for fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole and longest

unsupported journey across Antarctica.”

8 OneºNorth July 2011

and his expedition partner arranged to use

the same clothes, technology, equipment and

starvation rations as Mawson - sleeping bags

and boots made of reindeer skin, beaver-pelt

mitts, a tent with no floor, a wooden sled

and food consisting of congealed lard, small

amounts of sugar and a few dozen ‘sledge’

biscuits. Tim says in his book, “We were

here to deprive ourselves - deliberately - of

sufficient food, adequate shelter and modern

equipment in a bid to scrutinise events that

befell Mawson on the same trip.” Tim finished

the journey alone, within the same time frame

as Mawson, with a small amount of food left

over and a weight loss of about 20kg! It was

another journey of success as well as envi-

ronmental and personal discovery for Tim.

Tim insists that, “The environmental sustain-

ability message is key and is always behind

the journeys.” He includes the message in

his books and in his public speaking engage-

ments ‘by stealth’ as he describes it, along

with his personal messages about testing

oneself and pursuing one’s dreams - by weav-

ing them into the stories about his adventures.

What’s next on Tim’s adventure schedule?

He plans to travel to Greenland to view the

snow-and ice-melt, a direct impact of climate

change, and perhaps to undertake an envi-

ronmental trip to Papua New Guinea. He is

considering a journey by dog sled through the

Canadian Arctic in search of the Lost Patrol,

a group of Canadian Mounties who went

missing on a routine patrol in 1910. Deep

in the planning stages is a 2012 recreation

of Shackleton’s amazing journey of survival

in the Antarctic after the crushing of his ship

Endurance, by the ice in 1914.

Not only is Tim a remarkable person, he is

also one of the most interesting and likeable

people I have met. He has great stories to

tell and tells them very well. He was made

a Fellow of the Yale World Fellows Program

2009 for environmental and expedition

leadership and was made a Member of the

Order of Australia in 2010 for services to en-

vironment, community and exploration. Tim

volunteers as advisor for the Royal Institution

Australia, whose goals are to popularise sci-

ence and promote scientific learning in the

general public. He is a Member of Friends

of PLAN Committee and Ambassador for

the PLAN Corporate Challenge program,

an international child welfare group with a

presence in 50 developing countries. Tim is

the National Ambassador for the Leukaemia

Foundation, Australia, where he participates

in raising awareness and funds, including

These pages and previous two pages: Tim Jarvis and photos from his expedition to recreate Sir Douglas Mawson’s journey across the Antarctic. Photos supplied by

Tim Jarvis.

OneºNorth July 2011 9

personally donating some of the proceeds

from his Mawson expedition book sales.

Like most of the rest of Tim’s life, even meet-

ing his wife was an interesting adventure.

About six years ago, while in South America

on a climbing expedition, Tim followed a

suggestion from his mother, and looked

up a friend from his childhood days in KL,

Malaysia who was now living in Santiago,

Chile. The two old friends arranged to meet

for dinner and whilst talking about friends and

family, ended up on the subject of Patrick’s

sister Elizabeth. Tim’s childhood impression

of her as the sometimes annoying little sister

was soon changed, and he and Elizabeth are

now married with a two and a half year old

son, Will, and a very recently-arrived addition

to the family, Jack.

We hope that Tim will come back and speak

at the school again and we look forward to

hearing about the further adventures and

environmental protection that he continues

to be involved in.

For more information about Tim, his amaz-

ing expeditions and his environmental work,

please see his books, including bestseller The

Unforgiving Minute (Bantam) and Mawson

Life and Death in Antarctica (ABC Books),

the film Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica

(Film Australia) and his URL www.timjarvis.

org. Tim can be reached at tim@timjarvis.org

“The environmental sustainability message is key and is always

behind the journeys.”

10 OneºNorth July 2011

AWARDS DAY

Stephen Khalek

Wallace Cuthbertson

Mansi Gupta

Frances Mayo

James Spencer

Atasi Bhattacharjee

Maria Martins Da Silva

Chihiro Isozaki

Jung Wook Jae (Richard)

Dalma Foldesi

Rufus Raghunath

Manavi Sachdeva

Tim Seeger

Alf Shen Lim

Papa Moda Loum

Maithreyi Raman

Da Ah Gloria Jung

Ana Sofia Guerra Rodriguez

Vivek Jain

Vaishali Iyer

Bhargavi Thakker

Sanaya Khaneja

Charlotte Thomas

Chung Dong Wook

Nicholas Hanley-Steemers

Rafael EliasManyari Velazco

Chetan Singhal

Tanay Jalan

Maymay Liu

Giovanna Bettoli

Anna Bradshaw

David Bowyer

Lodewijk Vriens

Ross Robertson

Nishad More

Nicolas Carter

Jonathan Rose

Oliver Mangham

Frances Mayo

Michelle Yaw

Dalma Foldesi

Maymay Liu

Tim Seeger

Justin Lutian

Suh Seung Hyun

Rufus Raghunath

Choe Sue Jung (Claire)

Shrey Shetye

Srikripa Krishnan

Raquel Otarola Flores

Benjamin Howitt

Anna Bradshaw

Sanaya Khaneja

Kalen White

Chihiro Isozaki

Dipro Bhowmik

Wesley Jyh-Wei Fuh

Zoe Petard

Nicolette Meyer

Chung Dong Wook

Wu Yu Jie

Yuri Hirayama

Anna Bradshaw

Joaquin Gonzalez Milburn

Alumni

Outstanding volunteer work in the Gap Year Programme

Grade 12

English Award

Chinese Award

Hindi Award

Indonesian Award

Japanese Award

Korean Award

French Award

German Award

Spanish Award

Dutch Award

Bilingual A1/A2 Award

Bilingual A1/B Award

Biology Award

The Shaun Hanley Award for Chemistry

Physics Award

Design and Technology Award

Environmental Systems and Societies Award

Science, Technology and Society Award

Sports Exercise and Health Science Award

Mathematics Award

Computer Science Award

Geography Award

History Award

Economics Award

Business and Management Award

Psychology Award

Philosophy Award

IT Global Society Award

Theory of Knowledge Award

David Watson Prize for Performing Arts Award

Diana Greenwood Prize for Senior Drama Award

Outstanding Technical Support for the Performing Arts Award

Outstanding Realisation of a Character in a Drama Production

Film Studies Award

Photographer of the Year Award

Lance Huet Prize for Art Award

Gavin Waddell Prize for Art Award

Windplayer of the Year Award

Strings Player of the Year Award

Vocalist of the Year Award

Senior Pianist of the Year Award

Robert Lutton Creative Writing Award

Public Speaking Award

Publications Award

Contribution to Senior School Boarding Life Award

Contribution to NYAA Award

Student Initiative Award

Environmental Award

Outstanding Contribution to the Expedition Programme Award

Overall Academic Attainment Award

Outstanding Service Award

Staff and Student Nominated UWCSEA Award

Chihiro Isozaki

Georgia Gray

Andrea Tan

Gabriella Santosa

Lodewijk Vriens

Raquel Otarola Flores

Maithreyi Raman

Allen Navasero

Nikhil Sambamurthy

Alf Shen Lim

Frances Mayo

Dalma Foldesi

Constanza Vidal Bustamante

Anna Sofia Guerra Rodriguez

Awards Day 2011

OneºNorth July 2011 11

12 OneºNorth July 2011

GRADUATION

n Thursday, 26 May, we recognised and celebrated the

achievements of the class of 2011. Three hundred and

eight students graduated from UWCSEA this year, with

53 different nationalities represented - testimony to the wonderful

diversity within our student body. With well over 1,000 guests at the

ceremony and a further 600 alumni and friends of UWCSEA watching

from 37 different countries worldwide, there was a wonderful feeling

of community celebration. Many parents and guests had travelled

thousands of miles to attend the ceremony and it was good to see

siblings and grandparents there to help mark the occasion.

We were delighted to welcome Ng’ang’a Muchiri as our Guest Speak-

er. Ng’ang’a, our Kenyan scholar in 2002, graduated from UWCSEA

in 2004. After graduating, Ng’ang’a took a Gap Year, representing

UWCSEA along with five fellow scholars from Mexico, Albania,

Canada, Colombia and Sierra Leone, to help set up an education

centre in Kigama, a small village in Kenya. In 2005, he began his

studies at Lafayette College and was awarded a Development Project

Management Certificate from the Monterey Institute of International

Studies. Ng’ang’a returned to Kenya to become involved in the

Kathryn Davis Peace Project, during which time he organised youth

leadership workshops for Ikutha secondary schools. After graduating

from Lafayette with a B.A. in Engineering Studies & English he began

his PhD Doctoral program in English Literature at the University of

Miami. In July 2010 he delivered a presentation to the African Theatre

Association in Kampala, Uganda, on contemporary African poetry

and political activism and in April 2011 he delivered a paper to the

International Society for African Philosophy and Studies on trauma,

recovery and Congolese literature. On completion of his doctorate,

Ng’ang’a hopes to have more time to spend on his writing.

Ng’ang’a was followed by our student speaker, Allen Navasero,

outgoing Chair of the Student Council. Allen, who will be studying

Environmental Sciences at Cornell University next year, described

what he had gained from his four years at the College and wished

his peers every success in the years ahead.

We hope our Graduates and their families thoroughly enjoyed the

ceremony and the evening celebration that followed and will have

fond memories of it in years to come.

Di Smart

High School Principal

Graduation 2011!

308 graduates, 53 nationalities

Photos by Henry Chang and Dav Rue Media Pte Ltd

14 OneºNorth July 2011

ALUMNI PROFILE

bout once a week for the past 14 years, Jorge,

a biologist, environmental conservationist and

entrepreneur, has donned a wetsuit and dived into

the waters of the Kelp Forest and Monterey Bay Habitat

Exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.

There, he swims with rockfish, garibaldi, leopard

sharks, and seven-gill sharks; all animals indigenous to

Monterey Bay. Although none are considered dangerous,

Jorge says, “It helps that all the fish are kept very well

fed!” Jorge’s volunteer work at the Aquarium involves

providing information and education about exhibits to

the visiting public along with maintenance, husbandry

and feeding activities. One of his favourite duties is to

conduct once a month, interactive, narrated feeding

shows for which he uses special dive gear that allows

him to communicate with the narrator, the dive tender

and the public.

His other diving activities are conducted with normal

SCUBA equipment. Jorge says that his interest in diving

and in volunteer work actually started at UWCSEA

where he gained his open-water PADI certification and

also became involved in the school’s social service

programme. He has continued to dive over the years

since that first introduction to the sport and currently

holds certification as a PADI Dive Master. He has also

never stopped donating his time and expertise in

volunteer work. Jorge says, “Not only do I love the work

at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it’s a fun way to connect

with the marine environment and make a personal

contribution to the conservation of the oceans, while at

the same time, achieve great satisfaction from educating

and inspiring conservation in others.”

Jorge’s three higher IB subjects at UWCSEA were

Biology, Chemistry and Maths, the subjects which would

shape his university studies and career thereafter.

Jorge had arrived at UWCSEA in 1985 from Mexico on

a National Committee scholarship. In the true spirit of

multiculturalism at the College, he says, “The highlight

of my UWCSEA experience was being probably the only

Mexican ever in the history of Morris Dancing and then to

perform it in the annual Chinese New Year parade!” He

also recalls a Theory of Knowledge final paper in which

he had to describe the arguments for the existence or

non-existence of God, as well as a month-long graduation

trip to the Himalayas with John Page and Ann Mayer, as

Entrepreneur

and Volunteer Diver

By Brenda Whately

being particularly memorable. Jorge involved himself in

tennis, soccer, rugby and the scuba diving that he went

on to use in his future volunteer work, while pursuing his

IB studies at UWCSEA.

After completing the IB programme, Jorge went on to

study Biology and Chemistry at the University of Texas at

El Paso. The hard work may not have come as a surprise

but he says, “The shock of going directly from a tropical

environment to a desert environment, not to mention

the massive cultural differences, came as somewhat

of a challenge.” In 1993 Jorge pursued and achieved

a Master’s degree in Fisheries Science from Texas A&M

University and began a career in the field of fisheries

and aquaculture as a hatchery manager for two abalone

culture facilities in California. After a few years he

decided to ‘switch gears’ as he says, and he took a job in

the wine industry where he eventually worked his way up

to the position of assistant winemaker.

In the year 2000, a biologist friend presented him with

the opportunity of moving in a new direction once again

and he entered the field of environmental consulting,

working for the following couple of years in a large

corporation in Monterey as an environmental scientist.

The idea of starting his own company began to take

shape at that point, and in 2002, with the support of his

wife Leah, he launched his own environmental consulting

business, Aero-Environmental Consulting.

Through a lot of hard work, professional development

and sound business development, Jorge’s company has

grown considerably since then. He has successfully

pursued a number of certifications and in October 2010

he achieved his Industrial Hygienist certification. This

involved a long and arduous process requiring five years

of qualifying experience, a Bachelor of Science degree

which he fortunately already had, and an extensive

exam covering everything from ventilation to radiation,

noise, ergonomics, toxicology and bio-hazards, to name

but a few. He says, “I felt as if I was either re-taking

the IB exams or getting a PhD, both of which are pretty

tough.” Jorge maintains that, “Without the discipline

that I acquired at UWCSEA I would not have been able to

accomplish all of the goals that I set myself in building

my business.”

Jorge Vizcaino

UWCSEA 1985-1987

Class of 1987

OneºNorth July 2011 15

Please send your profile suggestions for the next edition of OneºNorth, to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

His

consulting

business

performs

environmental

assessments

and

investigations

commercial,

residential and industrial properties. These include

checking for hazardous materials such as asbestos and

lead, biohazards like mold and bacteria, indoor air

quality, and environmental assessments of possible

petroleum hydrocarbon releases into the environment

by commercial properties. He says, “Our work and

actions have a direct impact in protecting workers

and community health, in developing appropriate risk

management strategies for residential and commercial

properties and in evaluating the impact of certain

chemicals in the environment.”

Aside from building his successful business, Jorge still

spends time scuba diving, volunteering at the Aquarium,

playing tennis, hiking, reading travel adventure books

and spending time with his wife Leah and his two five

year old twin sons, Emilio and Andres.

Jorge has managed to keep in touch with several of his

old classmates including Alex F, Erik T, Ravi R, Naramsiha

R, Daniel H, Haerul B, Sean G, Mark H, Francesca T, Aki

H, and Patrick J, to name a few, and he attended his 20

year reunion in Singapore in 2007 as well as the mini-

reunion held in San Francisco last year.

To contact Jorge, please visit the UWCSEA Alumni site

for his personal email address. For more information

about his company, Aero-Environmental Consulting, or

to contact Jorge through his company, please visit his

website at www.aero-enviro.com

Clockwise from top left: Jorge performing his volunteer duties at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Jorge and alumni friends, Jorge and his sons Emilio and

Andres. Jorge, Leah and their sons. Jorge with other volunteer divers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

16 OneºNorth July 2011

ALUMNI PROFILE

f t e r 1 5

years in

p u b l i s h -

ing, Kimiko es-

tablished her own

publishing com-

pany “Mighty-

book” in 2004. At

the time she had

just had her first

child and she was

noticing that many

Japanese children were preferring televi-

sion and the internet to reading books.

She felt the need to get children more

interested in reading.

She began to look into the Books of the

World for Children by Bookbird. She joined

the activities of IBBY (International Board

on Books for Young People), talked to the

editors and attended their World Congress

in Denmark in 2008.

In 2010 she started to publish their Jour-

nal of International Children’s Literature,

Bookbird in a Japanese version called

Bookbird Japan. She says that many librar-

ians and the Japanese Board on Books for

Young People (JBBY) are now promoting

Bookbird Japan.

On March 7th of this year, Kimiko held a

celebration to mark the first anniversary

of the Japanese version of the children’s

literature journal. Just four days later, on

March 11th at 2.46 pm she was in her

Tokyo office preparing for a book fair

launch when she felt the first tremors of

one of the largest earthquakes to hit Japan

in recorded history.

She says, “Suddenly I felt a shaking. The

shaking made an awful shuddering noise

and books were falling down from the

bookshelf. It came in two or three continu-

ous waves. I felt it was dangerous to stay in

the building. I could see the tall buildings

bending like rubber sticks from the outside.

All the public transportation in Tokyo was

stopped. After things quieted down, I

walked to my home, which took about

four hours, a distance that normally takes

40 minutes by train. I got there at 9.30 pm.

Some of my employees said I should not

leave my office and should stay in a safe

place. I had to go because my son, a sixth

grade student, had been at school when

the earthquake struck. Telephone lines

were down after the quake, so we really

did not know the real damage in each area.

Luckily my son was safe and waiting for

me alone at home. Broken glass and dishes

were spread all over the floor and my son

was wiping them up. I couldn’t stop my

tears. He said that he was at school after

the quake for a while, and then went to his

friend’s house to eat dinner but he thought

that I would not be able to find him, so he

returned to the house by himself. He was

also scared of losing mobile contact with

me. My husband walked home from his

office the next morning. I have never had

such an experience in my life in Japan; it

was too awful to think that I could have

lost my son or husband. But after that,

I had more shocks from the TV reports.

The tsunami had swept over the land in

the North and swamped cars and houses

- it was a nightmare. A lot of families lost

children or parents.”

Kimiko says she lost confidence in her

work at that point, wondering what books

could do for people in situations of tragedy.

One day one of the internet distributors,

Fujisan magazine services, and its direc-

Cheering up children with books

Kimiko helps out in quake-hit North Japan

Above: Kimiko (photo courtesy of IBBY

Spain.)

Below left: Refugees in Miyagi

prefecture with donated books, April

2011.

Opposite page, bottom: Ishinomaki,

April 2011. It was a pretty town in

Miyagi prefecture in North Japan.

(Photo courtesy of Mr.Atsushi Ishihara,

Mightybook partner photographer.)

OneºNorth July 2011 17

KIMIKO FUJIOKA MATSUI

UWCSEA 1979-1984

Class of 1985

tor Mr Nishino urged her to send books

to Northern Japan, indicating that they

had had a request from people in refugee

camps that they needed a sense of hope

and future that they could get through

reading. He had teamed up with a partner

publication house and another internet

distributor specialising in children’s book

sales and created a delivery network. This

magazine and picture book delivery proj-

ect become a large network and brought

more than 30,000 magazines and 15,000

children’s books to about 1,000 refugees

in April. Encouraged by Mr Nishino, Kim-

iko contributed Bookbird Japan and other

Mightybook art magazines worth a total

value of ¥2,600,000. After receiving the

first positive comments from a reader, Kim-

iko says, “Through this project, I was able

to believe in the power of books again.”

According to Kimiko, reports from the

National Police Agency and Ministry of

Land in July indicate that there are about

23,000 dead and missing people, more

than 5,000 injured, more than 220,000

houses destroyed, and about 68,000

refugees still in camps after four months.

She says, “Japan is still struggling to fix

the damage. We don’t know the exact

number of children who lost their family

or school friends; we just see many are

in deep sadness. What can books do for

them? When I open a story book, I feel a

positive power. Children’s books are not

only effective for children; the gentle words

that a child understands also ease the feel-

ings of adults. I hope these books become

a door for re-opening the dreams of those

in the northern part of Japan and go some

way to fostering world understanding.”

Kimiko says in addition, “Through this

experience, I also realised the power of

my friends all over the world; in Austra-

lia, Malaysia, India, England, the USA,

Spain, France, Italy, Korea and elsewhere.

I received many messages including those

from old UWCSEA friends. When I was

feeling sad, the short words “Kimiko! Are

you OK?” encouraged me a lot and filled

me with gratitude.”

To contact Kimiko, please visit the UWC-

SEA Alumni website.

“Through this experience, I also realised the power of my friends

all over the world...”

By Brenda Whately

About Bookbird Japan

“Bookbird Japan” is a comprehensive chil-

dren’s books information magazine which

has a license from “Bookbird,” the jour-

nal of International

Board on Books for

Young People (IBBY).

“Bookbird Japan”

provides complete

Japanese translations

from “Bookbird” and

original Japanese

editorial reports and

articles. It describes

what children’s books are being read in

Japan now and reports on groups involved

in children’s literature. For more details,

please e-mail bookbird@mightybook.net

in English or Japanese.

18 OneºNorth July 2011

ALUMNI ARTICLE

I recently arranged to meet with one of UWCSEA’s Grade 2

teachers, Jackson English, while working on a report for my

day job – a story about the innovative aid work underway in

the West Sumatra region.

“Come down to Sentosa on Saturday morning,” said Jackson.

“I’ll be paddling off Tanjong Beach. Go out to the rocks on

the right and you’ll see me come past. I’ll be done by about

seven.” Usually I schedule my meetings for more convenient

times, in the comfort of a preferred cafe somewhere in town.

However, I was very keen to see Jackson in action, on the

water, so as soon as the weekend rolled along, I headed down.

Jackson originates from the Central Coast region of New

South Wales, Australia. It was on this coast, renowned for its

beautiful beaches and big waves, that he developed a passion

for surfing, a sport which he says helped him to become one of

Australia’s top competitive surf lifesavers.

Several years ago, Jackson relocated to Singapore to pursue

a career as a teacher at UWCSEA. Despite being far away

from the open ocean he had been accustomed to, however,

he has somehow managed to maintain a strong attachment

for his sport and this year, at the end of July, he plans to once

again compete in the Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World

Championships in Hawaii, a gruelling 32-mile race from

island to island.

This will be Jackson’s seventh time back to do this race and

once again he is looking to raise money for SurfAid, the only

international non-government organisation (NGO) dedicated

to providing health and community support, disaster relief

and emergency preparedness to the remote Mentawai Islands,

which are about 150 kilometres off the coast of West Sumatra.

By Greg Town

UWCSEA 1983-1986

Class of 1990

Training involves dawn paddles on a 10-foot plus paddleboard

back and forth along the southern beaches of Sentosa. Each

session takes about one to two hours and he does at least three

or four of those a week.

To balance his busy schedule, which includes school work and

spending time with his wife and three children, Jackson has to

get out on the water early to train, especially on week days.

“There’s nothing better than coming out here and paddling

early, as the sun’s coming out,” he said. “[Amid] the craziness

of Singapore, it’s a nice quiet kind of thing to do. I also love

doing the Molokai race. Every training session I do drives me

to that. It’s such a hard race. There are never ever guarantees

that I’m going to finish it, let alone do well. It’s incredibly

rewarding to get across that finish line and to know that I’ve

done the best that I can.”

“Life’s pretty full on,” he added. “I train in the mornings when

the kids are asleep. It’s just something that I’m used to. I wake

up at 4.30am every day. I’ve just got into the habit ... I love

being fit and active.”

Jackson, who first entered the Molokai 2 Oahu race in 1999,

describes the event as a huge personal challenge. “It’s not like

a marathon where you slug it out on the road … you’re fighting

against currents and the heat, being dehydrated.”

About halfway through that first race, Jackson vowed never to

do it again. “I got so sunburnt and was in an incredible amount

of pain. I had no idea how to train for an event like that.”

However, he did go back. In fact, he has now done it six times,

finishing in the top three in his category on four occasions,

including two second placings.

Paddleboarding

Mentawais

Jackson English

for the

OneºNorth July 2011 19

Please send your profile suggestions for the next edition of OneºNorth, to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

“… through his paddleboarding and other UWSEA-

related events, Jackson has become the largest individual

fundraiser for SurfAid.”

“More than anything, I just love being there,’ he said. “You

go out and race and you are in the middle of the ocean, and

there are sharks and whales, dolphins and turtles. Beautiful

blue water and … sometimes you can paddle for 50 metres but

then ride an ocean swell for a hundred. That’s pretty amazing.”

What is equally amazing is that through his paddleboarding

and other UWCSEA-related events, Jackson has become the

largest individual fundraiser for SurfAid.

The organisation’s activities are aimed at raising awareness and

funds to help people on these islands who have suffered from a

combination of a poor quality of life and the devastating effects

of recent earthquakes and tsunamis, said Jackson. “We are just

trying to get the awareness out. We live so close geographically

to the Mentawais, yet Singapore and the Mentawais are just

worlds apart in terms of quality of life. So anything we can do

is a bonus. In the last six years, we’ve raised over US$300,000

for [SurfAid] through events at school and through things like

the Molokai,” he added “That’s one of the good things about

our school. It is so active in raising awareness and money for

people less fortunate.”

My interview with Jackson happened to be a week prior to the

massive earthquake and tsunami which wiped out large parts

of northern coastal Japan. A couple of weeks after that event,

I spoke by skype with Dr Dave Jenkins, founder and medical

director of SurfAid. Dave explained that, like Japan, West

Sumatra, including the Mentawai Islands, Nias Island, Padang,

and Aceh, are especially prone to earthquakes and tsunamis.

Here, the islands are located directly above a major fault line

– the Sunda Trench – where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate

slides beneath the Eurasian tectonic plate. Indeed, this mega

fault has created a string of major quakes since the December

2004 Boxing Day Tsunami – in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

A big earthquake is due in the area, said Dave. “The one that

occurred last year was a small one. We know there is a 200-

year cycle and statistically, it’s many years overdue.”

The last big earthquake caused a tsunami that killed more

than 500 people and destroyed homes and villages throughout

low lying coastal areas of the Mentawais. Since then, about

14,000 people from the islands have been forced into make-

shift camps in the hills; this out of a total population of about

74,000. The damage that was inflicted further confounded

existing health problems in the islands, where malnutrition

and child mortality was already high.

I asked Dave how SurfAid spends its money. He replied, “Our

community-based health program, which is based around

getting the highest return per dollar investment, [is] a business

model rather than a traditional aid model. When you teach a

woman to breast-feed correctly, she teaches her daughter, and

her grand-daughter, and that echoes on for generations. When

you crunch the returns per initial dollar investment, it’s much

higher than if you were running a clinic there.”

He went on to say that SurfAid has approximately 90 field staff

involved in several key programs over a wide area. Its major

programs are those involving malaria prevention, community-

based health, water and sanitation, emergency preparedness

and disaster response.

It is credited with distributing over 60,000 insecticide-treated

nets and provided malaria education in over 300 villages in

the Mentawais, Nias and Aceh. It also helps to provide clean

water to those internally displaced by the recent tsunami, and

it is planning to help communities build their own toilets and

better manage their sanitation and hygiene.

Previous page: Jackson English. This page from left: Jackson English paddling off of Sentosa Island; SurfAid engineer working with Mentawai villagers (Photo by Matt

King, SurfAid); Family in Masokut rebuilding with the support of SurfAid’s Shelter Project.

20 OneºNorth July 2011

Given the impact of recent natural disasters, SurfAid has had

to evolve. Crisis management, both in terms of preparing and

responding to emergencies, has become a crucial component

of its operational structure.

One of the more innovative programs SurfAid is implementing

involves the provision of psychosocial support for those with

post-traumatic stress disorder. This program is designed to

help local people and communities cope with the aftermath

of a disaster and to give them the necessary support to help

them become self-sufficient and motivated again. “The top

priority for SurfAid however, is to stop children dying,” said

Dave, adding that the most important advances in reducing

child mortality are coming from well-designed community

development processes. “This approach creates self-reliance

and behaviour change across whole communities. These

things are washing hands, building their own toilets, breast-

feeding, not delivering babies on a dirt floor – high impact,

low-cost behaviours.”

Jackson has travelled to the Mentawais regularly over the past

decade, to surf but also to observe and get involved in the

work that SurfAid is doing and he says, “They have made a

pretty significant difference. It’s nice to see that not only do

they have anecdotal evidence of improving quality of life, but

they’re also backing it up with lots of data now as well.”

he UWCSEA reunion held in Singapore last August was

a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and

reminisce about the good old days. One thing that we

all seemed to share was a sense of appreciation of our time,

however long, at the school. We recall with fondness, our

friends and teachers, as well as the unique UWCSEA events,

many of which were tied up with raising money for charity.

These days, UWCSEA continues to be a leader in philanthropy.

For more information

Molokai 2 Oahu race: http://www.molokai2oahu.com

SurfAid International: www.surfaidinternational.org

SurfAid Schools Program: www.surfaidschools.org

Greg Town

Greg attended UWCSEA from 1983 to 1986, after which he

returned to his home town, Auckland, New Zealand, where he

completed his schooling and university.

Since then, he has worked as a writer

specialising in health for various publishing

companies and communications agencies.

He enjoys traveling, particularly around

Asia and says that he was especially struck

by the awe and mystique of Sumatra on the

two occasions he visited - the first being an

unforgettable UWCSEA white-water rafting

trip and the second, a subsequent trip to

Nias Island, just north of the Mentawais.

A few years ago, Greg and his partner Brooke relocated from New

Zealand back to Singapore, both having managed to line up work

here. In 2009, they got married in Bali. Greg is the brother of Paul

(Class of 1992) and David (Class of 1996).

Simply visit the above URL and click ‘Register’ to become a member. Registering

with the alumni site allows you to maintain your own profile page, search for and

contact other alumni, post photos and notes, stay updated regarding UWCSEA

alumni and College events, etc. So go ahead and register today!

If you are registered, remember to keep your contact details updated so other

former students can get in touch. To reset your password and be automatically re-

minded of your user name, simply visit the ‘Sign in’ screen, click on the password

reset button near the bottom and enter your email address. It’s quick and easy!

Have you registered with the UWCSEA alumni website?

http://alumni.uwcsea.edu.sg

Dr Dave

Jenkins and

SurfAid

staff with a

mother and

child at

Betumonga

Village.

(Photo by

Bob Barker,

SurfAid).