Annabell Lackner, Grade 12
UWCEA Arusha
The infamous “UWC experience” is relished by many, envied by more and unfortunately also regretted by some. However, although this holistic programme makes most of its adherents struggle, it forces them to cross their limits and learn incomparably valuable lessons for life.
My great realisation about the true purpose of UWC came not as one significant turning point, but as a series of minor events. A book that explains the phenomenon of my “UWC enlightenment” is Keith Ferrazzi’s bestseller Never eat alone, which suggests the power that supposedly casual dinner conversations can have. Accordingly, every UWC alumni can confirm to you that “casual” does not exist in multicultural communities like those of the colleges. In an often funny, sometimes awkward or shocking exchange, one comes to realise that things one might have taken for granted pose serious problems in some societies. So it happened that In the midst of a frustration-impregnated rant about the quality of the food, someone dropped, with a tone sharp as a knife, a sentence like; “I eat what I get. I come from a war zone.” Not only did the complaining end, but that moment also made many aware of the privilege their origin gave them.
However, this was not the only wake-up call one can experience, since a complex and diverse environment constantly surrounds every UWC student. Hence, I often become a witness to conversations where the true gap of distinct realities is revealed. While a European boy from a prestigious family goes off about all the travel plans he has for the summer holiday, his opponent, a girl from a low-income family in India expresses her worries about collecting the money to pay for her $200 round way ticket home. Someone once told me that if you want to have a peaceful life in UWC, don’t talk about money, religion and politics. This might be true, but I strongly believe that it is those uncomfortable conversations that teach us the most. The realisation that there is something else out there, something unknown, often unjust. It is those conversations that make us aware of who we are and where we come from, with all the good and bad sides about it. As Kurt Hahn, the founder of UWC stated, “The purpose of education is to save young people from the paralysing effects of wealth and poverty”, which is, in my eyes, a mission fulfilled in the United World Colleges.
Sooner or later, everyone will have to realise that the myth of the “perfect experience” does not hold, and that avoiding troubling conversations only limits our potential for self-improvement. In the end, it is our responsibility to decide what UWC is really about. For me personally, it is not about rather ambitious goals like saving humanity and bringing world peace, it is about becoming an open-minded, attentive and, above all, tolerant human being. UWC is not an educational land of milk and honey, it is a place where you are pushed to your utmost limits on every level so that societal boundaries can eventually fade and allow us to create meaningful impacts in collaboration with friends from all over the world.
My great realisation about the true purpose of UWC came not as one significant turning point, but as a series of minor events. A book that explains the phenomenon of my “UWC enlightenment” is Keith Ferrazzi’s bestseller Never eat alone, which suggests the power that supposedly casual dinner conversations can have. Accordingly, every UWC alumni can confirm to you that “casual” does not exist in multicultural communities like those of the colleges. In an often funny, sometimes awkward or shocking exchange, one comes to realise that things one might have taken for granted pose serious problems in some societies. So it happened that In the midst of a frustration-impregnated rant about the quality of the food, someone dropped, with a tone sharp as a knife, a sentence like; “I eat what I get. I come from a war zone.” Not only did the complaining end, but that moment also made many aware of the privilege their origin gave them.
However, this was not the only wake-up call one can experience, since a complex and diverse environment constantly surrounds every UWC student. Hence, I often become a witness to conversations where the true gap of distinct realities is revealed. While a European boy from a prestigious family goes off about all the travel plans he has for the summer holiday, his opponent, a girl from a low-income family in India expresses her worries about collecting the money to pay for her $200 round way ticket home. Someone once told me that if you want to have a peaceful life in UWC, don’t talk about money, religion and politics. This might be true, but I strongly believe that it is those uncomfortable conversations that teach us the most. The realisation that there is something else out there, something unknown, often unjust. It is those conversations that make us aware of who we are and where we come from, with all the good and bad sides about it. As Kurt Hahn, the founder of UWC stated, “The purpose of education is to save young people from the paralysing effects of wealth and poverty”, which is, in my eyes, a mission fulfilled in the United World Colleges.
Sooner or later, everyone will have to realise that the myth of the “perfect experience” does not hold, and that avoiding troubling conversations only limits our potential for self-improvement. In the end, it is our responsibility to decide what UWC is really about. For me personally, it is not about rather ambitious goals like saving humanity and bringing world peace, it is about becoming an open-minded, attentive and, above all, tolerant human being. UWC is not an educational land of milk and honey, it is a place where you are pushed to your utmost limits on every level so that societal boundaries can eventually fade and allow us to create meaningful impacts in collaboration with friends from all over the world.
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