Here are few interesting quotes from some of the students:

“Believing that UWCs around the world were simply duplicates of each other was so far the biggest myth I managed to break. Traveling to Maastricht was indeed an enlightening experience as it showed me how a single philosophy, a one message can be expressed in so many forms. The School, though adopting the same Motto, were so unique as they kept the special traits of the cultural setting of the country they were in. It is truly amazing to see how, though we can align ourselves with a single thought, we still can express it in a way which respects what’s special about ourselves and which embrace our inner identity.” – Mohammed Amine

“I liked this opportunity given to students to get to know each other and the experience gathered from getting to know new places and countries. College programme like this one is a wonderful way to realize that teachers play an even more important role as ‘parents’ than their traditional teaching role. It is one of the best things I liked.”- Leonard Vibbi

“It was a great opportunity to have a mini tour of Europe. I have a genuine interest in travel and being able to visit 3 different countries all in a space of 3 weeks and at this age was a fantastic Christmas present for me. I liked the adventure of exploring an unknown territory, particularly in Hamburg but also a bit of Maastricht itself.” – Melisa

“Travelling in a bus and being able to see the landscapes and actually feel that we are in that particular place unlike flying.”

“Our trip to Maastricht was a big event for us. Although it was for 3 weeks, which is a short time, memories of the trip are going to stay for a long time with us.”- Nurul

“My trip to Maastricht was an interesting adventure and being in another different yet similar UWC was a good experience as well. All in all, I can say I had a great time!”- Sukeji

“My trip to Maastricht was a great experience. I was so amazed. Even though many of the Maastricht students were not there, the few we met tried their best to make us feel comfortable.”- Bernadette

“I loved being right in the middle of the city, a huge contrast to our quiet Flekke. It seemed as though I was living a different life and to some extent it gave me a sneak peak into what my life may soon be like one day, living in the middle of a busy city. “–Melisa

My definition of the name Taekwondo is:

• Tae=’to strike or block with the foot’ or ‘to kick’, it also means ‘jump’
• K’won=’Fist’, ‘to strike or block with hand’
• Do=’The way of’ or ‘art’.

Put this together and Taekwondo means: “The art of Kicking and Punching” or “The art of unarmed combat”. The sport of the popular modern martial arts. Has been founded in Korea and is one.

This activity   is a very good sport for students to be more active and energetic. They learn fast reactions through games learn to respect others and learn to know their abilities and disabilities.

Different tipes of stretching makes student be more flex able.  Also we have a competition between participants of activity. Students   wear full body protection, only kicks and punches to the body are allowed, no kicks to the head.

The goals of this activity are:

• to develop an appreciation for Taekwondo as a sport and as an art
• to achieve physical fitness through positive participation
• to improve mental discipline and emotional equanimity
• to learn self-defense skills
• to develop a sense of responsibility for one self and others.

-Summer

The UWC Red Cross Nordic winter exchange program with the UWC Maastricht was the first of its kind in the history of the UWC. The idea was conceived when our college was faced with a situation where many students, some who could not go home and others who voluntarily chose not to go home  for various reasons had to be taken care of during the December 2011 winter break.

Reasons ranged from a desire to spend more time within the UWC environment to minimizing the expenditure of the college during these financially trying times. Students are not able to stay on campus during the Winter Breaks and after some profound brainstorming, an inter-UWC program with the UWC Maastricht was proposed as a solution.

Right from the beginning the program showed the potential to be so interesting and youthfully engaging that many students who had already booked their flights to go home had to endure the temptation to cancel their bookings just to join in.

We counted days and hours impatiently as we awaited the day of our departure. With a very excited and enthusiastic group of 36 students chaperoned by 4 staff members, we finally left our serene Flekke campus on the 14th of December 2011 and headed for the bustling streets of Maastricht.

Our first destination was Hamburg – the second largest city in Germany.

On the first day, we were met by 4 UWC alumni who took us to 4 different local schools where we made presentations about UWCs in general and later spoke about our unique experiences at RCN.

We are confident that these visits were quite fruitful as a lot of German students showed great interest in attending a presentation by UWC students and by the time we left their schools, we could see some of them had started working on collecting information to apply to their National Committee to take admission in a UWC.

On the second day, we went to the International Maritimes Museum in Hamburg where more than 40.000 items including model ships, construction plans, uniforms and maritime art were exhibited.

All the IB History and Geography we thought we had left behind for the holiday was suddenly brought to mind and enriched as we marveled at the sight of all those items.

After two exciting days in Hamburg we finally got to Maastricht. The whole group was warmly welcomed by Mr. Satyadeep Srivastava, the UWC Maastricht House Mentor together with some of the students there. The following morning we had a cozy meeting with UWC Maastricht Headmaster Mr. Simon Murray who also gave us a hearty welcome and gave us a brief introduction to life at UWC Maastricht (UWCM).  Later he was presented with a book on the Nordic nations, a lovely patchwork painting and a jar of our very own ‘ibee’ honey by two of our accompanying staff members-Mr. Ashok Singh and Mrs. Madhulika Singh. These gifts were an expression of our sincere gratitude to UWCM for hosting us.

We spent a significant portion of our stay getting to know our UWCM counterparts and vice versa as we exchanged story upon story about or lives and experiences in the respective UWCs. It was fascinating to discover that the two UWCs have very different ways of fulfilling the common UWC ideology.

There were also a lot of contrasts. Located right in the middle of a city, UWCM exposes its students to the fast paced life of an urban Dutch society.  In contrast, UWCRCN is located in Flekke, a village which has a population of apporximately 350 people (including us!) Whilst the UWCM students pick out whatever they can about Dutch language and culture through their interactions with their Dutch community, RCN students have full Nordic course designed for them. The course consists of Norwegian communication (language) classes and Nordic studies workshops and presentations.

The difference in locations also leads to our dissimilar extra-academic activities practices.  In terms of service activities, UWCM cooperates with local organizations to arrange activities for their students through which way they can contribute their services to the surrounding community. On the other hand, at UWCRCN we tend to create our own activities and set up our own organizations and then try to enlist external support.

Another major difference was that the UWCM students have to cycle to school for about 15min(or walk for about 40min) every morning, something we struggled to come to terms with as we conveniently have most of our school facilities within a 5min walking distance.  They also have a curfew and check-in times, another shock to which we soon became accustomed.

Youth Leadership Course Development EAC is a group whose focus is to develop a leadership training day at the college for the students.  We start the year with discussions about all types of leaders and what it means to be a leader.  This can be a very difficult but interesting part of this EAC because we all have very different definitions of leaders and different role models.  As we share our opinions, we change aspects of other opinions around us, challenging others to really consider what leadership is.

After this stage, the EAC moves into the planning of the Youth Leadership day.  This year (Dec 6-7) we had students attend one workshop in order to not overload them with information and to really focus their attention.  Some of the workshops included youth entrepreneurship and public speaking.  After Youth Leadership day the group did some critiquing and planning for next year.  The first years in the group have decided to take responsibility for the planning of the EAC, as it most pertains to them. The last phase of this EAC is some general leadership training and sharing.  We realize we have an immense amount of knowledge in our group that when we share with members eventually trickles down into the RCN family.

-Scott

Structure of the Youth Leadership Day

In November 2011 we have been campaigning in Flekke, Dale, Førde and Bergen for the Corporate Social Responsibility, collecting 449 signatures under the petition to the Norwegian government.

How a company conducts their business can have big consequences for people and the environment.

Companies therefore have a responsibility which not only concerns their profit, but to also comply with existing laws and rules in the countries where they operate. For a company to maintain their social responsibility the company needs to integrate social, environmental and human rights considerations in their business strategies.

Companies have immense power and this power is binding. Amnesty demands that Norwegian companies do not violate human rights directly or indirectly, when operating domestically and abroad.

Seminar started at 9am with the welcome speech from Therese Jebsen, Excutive director of the Rafto foundation. In the first session Guest speakers presented their speech. There were three guest speakers. Graeme Reid, Program Director, spoke on the rights of LGBT people in an African context. Annika Rodriguez, International advisor spoke about the Norwegian Organization for LGBT and Monica Mbari spoke on State Sanctioned Violence. The 2011 Rafto prize Laurate Frank Mughisa and his company Pepe Onziema represented Sexual Minorties Uganda, SMUG is a coalition of LGBTI human rights Organizations working to promote the human rights of LGBTI people, or sexual minorities.

Second Session started at 12:00 with the opening remarks from Halvor Saeter, Director Section for Human Rights and Democracy.Then Panel 1 started. ‘Panel 1: the past and the present of Human rights’ was chaired by Tom Porteous, Deputy program director. Five panelists representing five different countries spoke about the human right issues in their respective countries. All five of them were former Rafto awarded people. They were: Malahat Nasibova ( Azerbizan),Shirin Ebadi(Iran)Peter Molnar(Hungary) Souhayr Belhassen (Tunisia) and Mohammed Daddach (Western Sahara).

After a 20 minutes break we headed for Panel 2. ‘Panel 2: Future Human Rights Challenges’ was chaired by Simon Panek, Executive Director, People in Need Foundation. Like in first panel there were five panelists from five different countries. Panel 2 started with Frank Mughisa. Don Raul Vera Lopez (Mexico) Rediya Kadeer (Xinjiang,China), Bulambo Lembelembe  (Congo) and Vo Van Ai ,Vietnam were the five panelists representing their respective countries and human rights violation issues in their countries. These five Rafto Laureates spoke very strongly with passion and experiences from their work, what they have been doing and what they want to do.

After the 20 minutes break audiences were given chance to ask questions. Because of limited time there wasn’t any big discussion going around the hall as there was supposed to be.

The seminar ended with closing remarks by Tom Porteous, Simon Panek, Kevin Bales and Antoine Bernard.

All in all seminars was very effective and informative. It really motivated us and made us think about the human rights issue not only from the place of our origin but enabled us to have an open perspective on different issues from different places of the world.

We enjoyed it!

Health Day was celebrated on Nov 25, 2011 where all First Years participated in events organized by the Second Years with the help of some First Years under the guidance of Reidun, Rudy, Mariano and Summer.

The day started off with a wonderful, yummy, special breakfast followed by a session on Health and Stress lead by Dr. Maret K and Hilary Hamper.

After cookie break, two sessions of workshops were held followed by two more sessions after lunch. As such, all students got a chance to participate in four different workshops of their interest. Following is a brief on the workshops:

A Good Night’s Sleep (Thomas)

• Introduction to some basic information : ‘How and why we sleep ?’
• ‘What happens when you don’t get enough sleep?’ Some tips and tricks to get to sleep efficiently.

Dog Walking (Chris)

Walking with a dog. Another good way to promote healthy lifestyle !

Introduction to Fitness (David and Summer)
Introduction to fitness is not really about what you think of ‘Fitness’. This short workshop was about well-being and the steps towards a healthier life. Participants explored the definition of fitness and what it is really about.

Introduction to Youth Empowerment and Stress Management (Chiyedza Nyahuye)
“In this mini workshop we took a peek at daily skills and techniques that can help us manage our often emotional and stressful lives by carving out small portions of our day to actively relax and allow our bodies to heal.”

Meditation (Edmund)

The focus was ‘Don’t get stressed out and crazy like your second years!’ and involved some simple meditation techniques to change the overall IB experience

Mud-wrestling/ rugby (Gareth & Gray)

5-10 minutes warming up, wrestling in the mud
15-20 minutes playing rugby
2 minutes at the end to recap what was learnt.
With adequate clothing, on muddy and wet floor, rolling on the floor, it was fun !

Pete’s Balls (Pete)

“Pete’s Balls” is the name given by a former theatre class to this exercise in concentration, teamwork, hand-to-eye coordination and fun! The activity was used in areas as diverse as: corporate team building, circus training, schools and colleges, drama workshops and so on. It was a cooperative and quick-moving experience!

Stretching for the Inflexible (Mullohoji & Jonah)

A workshop for the inflexible students looking for low intensity exercises that can make them healthier, allow them to perform better in sports and school and feel better all day long.

Time Management Workshop (Angie & peer tutors)
Participants in the time management workshop  generated and discussed useful ideas for managing time at the college. This workshop was really good for those of the participants for whom time management is an issue. Participants learnt to share “ideas that work” and picked up tips improving their UWC experience!

Yoga (Wiktoria and Viktorija)
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside. Yoga helps you to realize that.”

Zumba (Simka)
A dance workshop which included Merengue, Salsa, Belly dance, Cumbia, Reggeton, Samba, Flamenco, Soca, hip hop and many other dances. They were combined together to form simple choreographies which were later on danced for different kinds of music. Zumba has so much energy that it fills you up with positive mood. It is a great way of refreshing the body and getting rid of the stress while having fun and dancing.

More pictures to follow soon ………

In October we extracted around 55 kilos of honey from them, and part of our project is to bottle, label and locally sell this product — and others such as beeswax candles, honey lipbalm and soap.

We are learning beekeeping and all these additional crafts hands-on, by doing all the practical tasks required by this type of farming throughtout the year, but also by studying the theory in the classroom.

Our aims are many-fold.

First and foremost we want to get to know as much as possible about this ancient, ecologically respectful and gentlest form of animal husbandry.

We think beekeeping is a skill we can all take with us wherever we go after UWC: beehives thrive everywhere, even in cities!

As for here, we have learned our bees will yearly have a larger and larger impact in the pollination of the plant species present in the area, resulting in trees and bushes yielding progressively more flowers and fruit.

We want to multiply our hives some more and eventually contribute to some of the school charities with our proceeds.

Currently we are also in the process of turning our honey into an organic product, by changing the winter feed of our bees.

Hurrah for beekeeping!

However, this was not a simple process. We learned how to empathically listen and connect two different parties in a conflict. Another very important skill we learnt was to distinguish between disconnecting language and underlying needs by mediating.

Furthermore, we learned the subtle differences between needs and the strategies used to requite them.

Although the learning was primarily auditory, it was punctuated by a few practical exercises, including but not limited to empathic listening, proper conflict mediation, and self-empathy.

This PBL was a transformative experience, in which the participants not only learned factual information pertaining to the process of mediation, but also internalized interpersonal skills that can practically be incorporated into everyday life.

-Asger

Paulina:

” Close your eyes, open your mind and your heart.”

” I want to show them the world: I took them to London, may be I will take them to Norway.”- sister Agata about her Girls.

Anu:

“Besides the one palpable difference, we are no more different. It’s the fundamental sameness. The only thing is that they have infinite hope and incessant good vibes.”

Karolina:

“Visit in Laski made me aware of my limitations when I found myself loosing all my language skills in attempt to describe a scenery to one of the students.”

“Blind people are not worse, not better. They just see differently.” -Sister Agata

Gray:

“One little blind girl asked me what I wanted to do in life. I said that I wanted to become a doctor in the future. When I asked her the same question, she told me she wanted to learn how to ride a bike. That really put a lot in perspective for me – both about how fortunate I was, and how optimistic she seemed for the future.”

Dominique:

“The sight we have is just a gift. Different doesn’t mean worst or better, just different.”

Maria:

“Life is a present and everyone is useful”.

“Sight is a gift, no matter how it’s work, we are all the same.”

Ference:

“As a teacher who was in Laski for the first time I enjoyed very much to see how the staff there care about the students and also to see how our students got involved in communicating with them.”

Rafik:

“This is not my life, this is my job” by Sister Agatha

“They see things in a different way” by the social relativism teacher

“I was under the impression that blind people don’t see until I went to Laski”

Lois:

BLINDNESS IS JUST A STATE OF THE MIND.

Rosa:

“To be blind doesn´t mean that one can´t see, it means that ones sees in a different way.”

“Being blind might be the best way to teach others to see more clearly.”

Ricardo:

“They need to be taken care of (…) A girl started crying when I kissed her (…) She was scared.” Sister Agatha.

“Our greatest difficulty here are parents (…) They go home and their parents do everything for them believing it’s faster (…) Real life is not like that.” Sister Agatha

“My dream is to start a family.” Mateusz

Samuel:

“Sometimes we think that blind people wishes to see the color of the sky or trees, but what they really want is to see the same thing that we want … a better world.”

“This trip made me appreciate those little details that I didn’t use to valorize before.”