Diego Flores, Grade 11
UWC Mostar
From the first instance, you come into contact with UWC, you realize how special it is; not just by the diversity of ideas and cultures you can find, but also because of the values and ideals it fights for- ideals and values that are, unfortunately, disrespected and overlooked by most people.
Coming from an under-developed country- I'm from El Salvador- and applying to become a UWC Student, all of the ideas that are part of UWC amaze you; they seem to be impossible to achieve and appear unrealistic. At the same time, the dreamer inside you thinks that those ideas may not be just realistic but also a good solution for many problems our society is facing, and, just as Romeo fell in love with Juliet, you become a lover of the UWC Movement without fully knowing it.
After you get selected by a school, in my case UWC Mostar, you still doubt if they stand for their ideas. In some cases, they can be classified as utopic, and of course, you don't fully understand their mission and what they fight for. But, these ideals are present in each aspect that compose UWC, from its education to the students they select, so it didn't take too much time for me to clear my doubts, even with the skepticism I had.
The main goal UWC has is "making education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future" and by consequence, is the main aspect in which I had doubts about: what it meant and how the school implements their mission statement were some of the questions that were making noise in my head. However, It didn't take me more than 2 weeks to realize how compromised every person in UWC Mostar was with their main goal, starting with the UWC Mostar Acting Head, Dženan Hakalović.
There are a number of students that weren't able to arrive at the campus at the planned date, and there are still some like me that are still not able to join due to COVID-19. From the beginning, the school demonstrated their support and how important it was for them to bring in as many cultures as possible, proving that their goal wasn't just a beautiful slogan but a strong belief that joining people from different parts of the world can have a positive impact in the world.
The staff is also a perfect materialization of the UWC Mission: they are from diverse cultures and parts of the world. Thus, making students learn from diverse backgrounds, expanding the minds of its students, and facilitate their learning of new perspectives that may have solutions to the problems in their countries.
What finally made me conscious about what UWC means is that students, firsties and second years, have tried to help us as much as they can, involving us in diverse activities in order to make us an active part of the UWC Mostar community, explaining to us how the school works and by offering themselves for anything we could need.
This made me conclude that when UWC talks about education, it is not referring just to academic education but also talks about values, ideals, dreams, knowledge about how to cooperate, knowledge about how to lead, and many other things that, combined with the academic knowledge the school provides, makes people see that they aren't that different. By consequence, people become capable of living in peace with their differences and of searching solutions for global problems together.
Coming from an under-developed country- I'm from El Salvador- and applying to become a UWC Student, all of the ideas that are part of UWC amaze you; they seem to be impossible to achieve and appear unrealistic. At the same time, the dreamer inside you thinks that those ideas may not be just realistic but also a good solution for many problems our society is facing, and, just as Romeo fell in love with Juliet, you become a lover of the UWC Movement without fully knowing it.
After you get selected by a school, in my case UWC Mostar, you still doubt if they stand for their ideas. In some cases, they can be classified as utopic, and of course, you don't fully understand their mission and what they fight for. But, these ideals are present in each aspect that compose UWC, from its education to the students they select, so it didn't take too much time for me to clear my doubts, even with the skepticism I had.
The main goal UWC has is "making education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future" and by consequence, is the main aspect in which I had doubts about: what it meant and how the school implements their mission statement were some of the questions that were making noise in my head. However, It didn't take me more than 2 weeks to realize how compromised every person in UWC Mostar was with their main goal, starting with the UWC Mostar Acting Head, Dženan Hakalović.
There are a number of students that weren't able to arrive at the campus at the planned date, and there are still some like me that are still not able to join due to COVID-19. From the beginning, the school demonstrated their support and how important it was for them to bring in as many cultures as possible, proving that their goal wasn't just a beautiful slogan but a strong belief that joining people from different parts of the world can have a positive impact in the world.
The staff is also a perfect materialization of the UWC Mission: they are from diverse cultures and parts of the world. Thus, making students learn from diverse backgrounds, expanding the minds of its students, and facilitate their learning of new perspectives that may have solutions to the problems in their countries.
What finally made me conscious about what UWC means is that students, firsties and second years, have tried to help us as much as they can, involving us in diverse activities in order to make us an active part of the UWC Mostar community, explaining to us how the school works and by offering themselves for anything we could need.
This made me conclude that when UWC talks about education, it is not referring just to academic education but also talks about values, ideals, dreams, knowledge about how to cooperate, knowledge about how to lead, and many other things that, combined with the academic knowledge the school provides, makes people see that they aren't that different. By consequence, people become capable of living in peace with their differences and of searching solutions for global problems together.
www.unitedworldwide.co