uwc atlantic

NAtional committee NEWSLETTER

may 2023

Admissions Welcome

We are thrilled to reintroduce the UWC Atlantic NC Newsletter! Whether you are a new or established member of a National Committee, we want to take a moment to introduce ourselves and share some exciting news about our admissions department.

Our admissions team at UWC Atlantic is now managed by two members of staff. Jennifer Letson is the new Admissions Coordinator, who joined us in January and has already been in touch with many of you regarding the nominations for 2023. I am the Head of Admissions; I have been in this role for over three years so most of you already know a bit about me.

Jenn is from Wales, I am from Argentina, and together we process around 200 applications/nominations each year, and we also assist families with the visas to study in the UK. We feel privileged to work in such an amazing community.

The pandemic has brought numerous challenges to our department, including the inability to continue with our newsletters. However, we are thrilled to announce that we can now resume publishing them twice a year. The newsletters will contain valuable information about the activities and initiatives at UWC Atlantic. It will also be an excellent platform for us to share news and updates with you and keep you informed about what is happening at the college.

We hope this will be an excellent platform for us to share the incredible work done by our/your students, faculty, and staff. We believe it will play a vital role in keeping you engaged with our community.

We encourage you all to contribute to the newsletter by sharing your stories, news, and updates with us. We would love to hear from you and share your work with our wider community.

We look forward to working with you and strengthening our partnership with all national committees. Thank you for your continued support.

Elena Gandolla and Jennifer Letson

Admissions Department, UWC Atlantic

phoenix con

Our second student-led conference took place earlier this year, giving the college community an opportunity to follow a general ‘day in the life’ as an East Asian student.

Phoenix Conference (PhoenixCon) provided an insight into Asian culture, including food, film and the kind of games played in the region. The conference also featured a keynote talk by UWC Maastricht alumna Vivi Lin, a Taiwanese entrepreneur who founded a not-for-profit to tackle period poverty and stigma in Taiwan.

PhoenixCon was an important platform for the nearly 20% of UWC Atlantic students who come from the Asian region.

The student-led conferences take place three times a year and are an integral part of the education provided at UWC Atlantic. The students decide on the conference themes, and supported by staff, they plan, manage and deliver each event - all part of the immersive student experience here.

Below is a selection of photos from the opening ceremony and a performance from the national evening.

FESTIVAL OF HOPE

It was perhaps fitting that, in our 60th anniversary year, UWC Atlantic was selected to host the International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Festival of Hope in December.

The college was one of three locations chosen by the IB to shine a light on the voices of young people surrounding hope, technology, mental health and climate change. All through a series of workshops and conversations, which UWC Atlantic students helped to organise.

Guest presenters on the day included youth entrepreneur Ziad Ahmed, musician UWC Atlantic alumnus JP Bimeni and Arifa Nasim, a campaigner on ending gender based violence. The event was also attended by the IB’s Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen, as well as members of the team working on the New Educational Pathway from the IB.

The students wrote and performed a manifesto of hope as the opening provocation of the Festival, and challenged IB Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen to respond to it in his closing remarks.

It was a special afternoon that brought students, teachers, educational leaders, and alumni from across the IB community together in one of the places where it all began. We hope to give you a flavour of the event in the short video below.

SEAFRONT UPDATE

The college seafront continued to play an important role in student life… even during the winter months!

Atlantic Dippers is a cold water swimming club on a Wednesday evening, started by Katie Lloyd from the UWC Atlantic Experience team. Over the past few months, even when the water has been an icy 0.5 degrees celsius (or 33 degrees fahrenheit), students and staff have been turning up for a dip in the sea or outdoor pool (weather and sea conditions pending).

The classes have been an important opportunity for students to learn to swim, as well as providing a community where students and staff can challenge themselves, feel supported and have some fun. This month also saw the first Atlantic Dippers tour, with the group going to a neighbouring beach for a walk, dip and a hot chocolate to warm up afterwards.

The swimming lessons have since been expanded to include lessons in our indoor swimming pool on a Friday afternoon and at the weekends. Students attending have been supported by a qualified swimming coach to work on swimming (both front and back) and to master the skill of floating. The classes have only been going for a short time, but have proven to be a great success already.

After months of preparation, some students headed out on to the water for their first time in a lifeboat. To prepare, the students have been doing casualty care first aid, navigation, capsize rescue and swimming skills, all as part of the Changemakers curriculum with Atlantic Pacific: Lifeboats where there are none.

The boat was built by staff and students from our original 1968 Rigid Inflatable Lifeboat design.

If you'd like to donate to support this programme, click here: https://www.atlanticappeal.org/apatac

NEW ON CAMPUS

It’s been a busy few months on campus after the completion of two major construction projects. First up, Powys House was completely refurbished in the second half of last year. The number one aim of the project was to continue to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and help the college take another leap towards net zero emissions.

Along with all the interior upgrades, outside we’ve got a new roof, all new windows and doors, and we repaired and repainted all of the wood cladding.

All the work has been done with an eye on reducing the future running and maintenance costs of the house. We have managed to achieve that goal as in December we had the thermal imaging of the house surveyed and it’s now performing at a high level of thermal efficiency.

The project was completed ahead of schedule and on budget, despite inflationary pressures, and has resulted in a very high standard of student accommodation.

Meanwhile, over at the music department, we’ve finally opened our newly refurbished building. It’s the result of several years of planning and fundraising as well as more than six months of construction.

Some of the highlights are a completely new roof, under which we have three brand new pianos, our harpsichord finally out on display, seven fully functioning practice rooms (each with its own piano or keyboard as well as soundproofing), and a classroom filled with 15 new iMac computers and all the latest music technology.

None of this could have happened without the extremely generous support of the Terwick Trust and the Mousetrap Foundation.

All of these facilities allow our students to learn firsthand how the music industry today functions, from classical performance through to high-tech music production.

UWC ATLANTIC IN THE NEWS

Some of the students were featured on ITV Wales in February after their app won a global award.

AILEM (which means ‘family’ in Turkish) was created to provide knowledge and education to support the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in integrating into society.

The students involved won a WSA Youth Innovators Award, which will enable them to continue developing the app and to add more languages.