TENDO MATTHEW NDAWULA, Grade 12
UWCEA Moshi Campus

Unity, Peace, Diversity, Love: What comes to mind when trying to understand what UWC is truly about? Is it just about opportunities? Or is it about co-existence or does it have a deeper meaning, a deeper initiative and agenda? These are all the questions that circled around my mind for so long; I was always looking for answers that would help, answers that would allow me to fully apprehend what these so-called “United World Colleges” were made for. After months of nothing, I had what one would call a prolonged Eureka moment. During the first months of my Diploma 1 experience, I spoke to lots of people about heart pressing topics such as equality, race, discrimination, inclusion, and  leadership ( political, I know). Time and time again, I got into arguments--fighting about whether climate change is significant, whether De-Colonisation freed the continent of Africa, the pros and cons of social media and whether cultural and religious differences matter in contemporary society. By engaging with different people all these arguments either ended in a stalemate or both parties would agree or disagree for that matter and this in itself was simply too intriguing for me to ignore. Consequently, I found that the essence of these conversations was not only to gain better perspectives or knowledge regarding the world, but also to understand the individuals that make up UWC and in doing so understand the motives behind the colleges . As a result, the Eureka moment turned into a learning process, because what I understood was that UWC is more than just a college that unites people from different parts of the world in order to achieve peace and co-existence. Instead, I found that it is a global initiative that strives to build talented leaders who are engaging, inquisitive, rich in knowledge, and willing to tolerate different perspectives-sometimes without really adhering to them. Leaders who are meant to lead in all fields; whether scientific, technological, artistic or political. That to me is  what UWC is truly about, nothing less and probably a lot more. 
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