i

Volume 46Summer 2014

page 4

The PowerfulPull of Home

page 7

From ideasto Execution

page 12

Cold Spell

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Letter From the President 1

FEATURE

The Ultimate Volunteer 2

FEATURE

The Powerful Pull of Home 4

FEATURE From Ideas to Execution 7

Change Agents Small Joys, Big Impact 10

ConnectedMission Possible 11

Back Country Cold Spell 12

ViewpointThe Evolution of an Activist 14

SpotlightA Dream Realized: Anna’s Olympic Adventure 15

One of Us Truth Teller—Rick Rowley ’94 16

Peer Review 18

Looking BackSome Like It Hot 23

Big HeartAn Alumnus Plans Ahead 24

Inspiration 25

TABLE of CONTENTS

Front cover photo by Julian Liebart ’15, Belgium

Inside front cover photo by Julian Liebart ’15, Belgium

Inside back cover photo courtesy of Phil Geier

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One of our graduating students recently said, “It’s hard to be a leader when you’re in a school that’s full of leaders.” How true! However, she quickly learned that being a good leader is about knowing when to step forward, when to step aside, and when to step back. It’s about listening and communicating, inspiring and supporting. As I watched our second-year students cross the stage at graduation in May, I was struck by the way they’ve grown in two years to become the compassionate leaders the world so desperately needs.

This issue of Kaleidoscope is filled with stories of leaders. I was honored to write about Tom Dickerson AC ’68, who retired in May as UWC-USA’s chair of the Board of Trustees. Not only has Tom served as a leader for our school, but his active engagement in the broader UWC movement over nearly 50 years also has been invaluable. The depth of his commitment to this institution is almost unmatched, and he is a remarkable role model to all.

Leaders can command major institutions or small organizations. They can be 17 or 71. This year, we had several standout student leaders, including Jacob Wolf ’15, USA-AL, and Sitong Xu ’15, China, who dreamed about a camp for local children and then made it happen this spring. You can read about Camp UWC on page 11. Vanina Morrison ’15, Jamaica, is another one—she’s been leading her own nonprofit organization since she was 7 years old. The story on page 10 is about Vanish, which Vanina established to help less privileged children in Kingston receive basic school supplies.

Every alumni interviewed for “The Powerful Pull of Home” (page 4) is a leader in my view. From Naleli Morojele ’05, who is committed to improving African women’s lives, to Mandy Garber ’87, who is working to improve mental health care in Sierra Leone, our alumni are doing the good work of making their communities and countries better.

Leadership evolves. On page 14, Mathew Freimuth ’09 writes compellingly of his personal growth as an activist. Mat works in the public defender’s office in New Orleans, Louisiana—a city he calls “the incarceration capital of the world.” He realized the skills he learned at UWC-USA were just a starting point; change agents must constantly adapt to the world in which they find themselves. It takes a good leader to acknowledge that fact.

Here at UWC-USA, my own leadership role is evolving. In October, Dr. Mukul Kumar ’89 will rejoin our campus community as UWC-USA’s fourth president, and I will become the headmaster. It has been a privilege to serve as acting president for the past year—sitting at the helm of one of the greatest schools on earth is a profound honor. I am looking forward to working with Mukul and combining our strengths to take UWC-USA into its next chapter.

Warmly,

THOMAS E. ODENActing President

LETTER FROM THE president

The magazine of UWC-USA, The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West

Volume 46, Summer 2014

Vice President for Advancement: Christie BaskettEditor: Jennifer RowlandPeer Review Editor: Celisse Ruiz Copy Editor: Jeannine Santiago Designer: Liz Burrill

Contributing writers: Max Danielewicz ’15 (USA-MI), Mathew Freimuth ’09, Tarra Hassin ’91, Elise Manning, Courtney E. Martin, Tom Oden, Jennifer Rowland, Jacob Wolf ’15 (USA-Al)

Contributing photographers: Doug Baskett, Alexis Cooper, Matt Harris, Julian Liebart ’15 (Belgium), Jennifer Rowland, Kate Russell, Alva Christo Wijaya ’15 (Indonesia), Sarah Yeboah ’15 (Ghana)

Contact:UWC-USA P.O. Box 248Montezuma, NM 87731publications@uwc-usa.org

Kaleidoscope is published biannually by the UWC-USA Advancement Office to sustain connection with alumni and the school’s extended community.

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THE ULTIMATE VOLUNTEER

WHEN TOM DICKERSON, WHO STEPPED DOWN AS CHAIR

of our Board of Trustees in May, describes his involvement with the UWC movement, he typically smiles and says, “I’m a lifer.” By that, he means that from the time he made that initial contact with the UWC experience by arriving at the UWC Atlantic College campus in 1966 as a student until today, some part of his life has been devoted to promoting and supporting the movement. This journey has taken him from student to founding the U.S. UWC Alumni Network to 40 years of service on what was then the U.S. National Committee (it’s the U.S. Selection Committee today) to the UWC-USA Board and the UWC International Board. Truly, for nearly five decades, Tom’s volunteer service has helped make his own life-changing UWC experience become possible for hundreds of other young people around the world.

Although he is American, Tom grew up primarily in Europe. His father was a career Army officer, and his mother was Austrian. When his parents dropped Tom

off in Wales, Atlantic College was in its early years; not much was known about this upstart boarding school that brought together students from around the world to actively take on the most pressing problems of the day. Tom threw himself into his life at AC, not just the academics but also the co-curricular opportunities, particularly the school’s surf kayaking team, which won the British National Championships in 1967. He speaks fondly of his five roommates (!) from Owens House B-3 and the “2 a.m. dorm-room conversations” that played a pivotal part in his UWC experience. After graduating from AC, Tom went on to Harvard to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics, a law degree, and an MBA. His professional career started at the multinational law firm Coudert Brothers in New York City and progressed through other well-known organizations such as W.R. Grace & Co., Lehman Brothers, and E.F. Hutton. From 1988 to 2008, he left the corporate sector to become a partner and chairman

BY THOMAS E. ODEN, ACTING PRESIDENT

Retired Board Chair Tom Dickerson AC ’68 has spent nearly 50 years serving the UWC movement.

“This is, I believe, me, but who can tell? The 1967 kayak surfing championships were held in Cornwall in 10-foot surf, which was a heck of a lot scarier than this. But we were 17, so much too stupid to notice.”

Owen House B-3, 1967 (from left to right): George Apostolopoulos, Greece; Tom Dickerson, U.S.; Alan Rustage, U.K.; Pentti Kouri, Finland; Paul Jefferies, U.K.

“All students spent their entire activity periods in the first week making a wet suit for themselves out of closed-cell foam. Mrs. Hoare would measure each student, we’d be given cardboard patterns and sheets of material that we would have to cut out. The next step was to apply glue to each seam and let it dry overnight. The next day, we would apply a second layer of glue, wait two minutes, then press the seams together in the proper shape. Some students were a lot more talented at this than others. I have no idea why I’m only wearing one shoe; it’s been one of those eternal mysteries. The pocket on the right breast is for a sailing knife on a lanyard.”

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THE ULTIMATE VOLUNTEER

at Tullis Dickerson & Co. Inc., based in Greenwich, Connecticut. The firm focused on opportunities in the health-care sector.

In 2009, Tom began to direct his energies on a series of entrepreneurial startups in the health-care sector. His current concentration is on Louisiana Fund II LLC, where he is one of three managing directors of a venture capital fund, which invests in early stage companies.

Tom’s interest in entrepreneurship influenced his work with the UWC movement, which he describes as being “populated with global entrepreneurs.” He is currently exploring options with the UWC International Office to expand opportunities within this area.

A keen businessman with a sharp legal mind, Tom has contributed a multitude of talents to the UWC-USA board. However, I believe it is his student experience that has given Tom a profound awareness of the fact that what makes the UWC experience is not any one thing but the unique way that intellectual challenge, physical exertion, and social interaction can combine to move us past the easy stopping places and toward a deeper understanding of ourselves. That awareness has been invaluable to the Board of Trustees.

After spending almost 30 years with UWC-USA’s board, Tom “graduated” with the class of 2014. The role of board chair has been passed to Steve Dichter. However, everyone who knows Tom hopes he will stay involved with the movement, and our school, in some capacity. I don’t think there is any way that won’t happen. As he says himself, Tom’s a lifer. UWC is in his blood, and we are all richer for it. On behalf of the entire UWC-USA community, I want to thank him for his commitment, his contribution and, most important, his personal example of someone who has been changed by the UWC opportunity and then selflessly paid that opportunity forward to generations of young people.

“Tom Dickerson has made a terrific contribution to UWC International. Given his lifetime of service in the U.S., it is surprising that he served on the UWC Council and International Board only since 2011, but his impact has been out of proportion to the time. In particular, Tom will be remembered for the Memorandum of Understanding that has established a clearer and stronger relationship between UWC International and the schools and colleges. Not only was Tom the MOU’s architect, it was his personality and relationships that ensured all the colleges signed within six months. There is no doubt that, as a result, Tom leaves us far stronger than he found us.”

—KEITH CLARK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR UWC INTERNATIONAL

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Caption here?

“Mark Berg (from USA-AC ’68, attended Yale) and I leaving on a climbing expedition with no supervision, guidance, or experience. Hey, we survived!”

“Sailing in a Fireball class dinghy. Paul Jefferies at the helm; I’m on the trapeze. Note view of college in background.”

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8,000 DIALECTS

55 RECOGNIZED STATES

MORE THAN 1 BILLION PEOPLE 2,000 to 3,000

LANGUAGES SPOKEN

BY JENNIFER ROWLAND, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND ENGAGEMENT

The Powerful Pull of Home

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8,000 DIALECTS

5,200 MILES 4,600 MILES

2,000 to 3,000 LANGUAGES SPOKEN

It is estimated that there are 3,000 languages spoken in Africa and as many as 8,000 dialects. The irony, then, is this: When a student comes to UWC-USA from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Senegal—or any of the recognized 55 states—they often get asked, “Do you speak African?”

No one asks the German whether he speaks European or the Cambodian whether she speaks Asian. The question is reserved only for Africans, and while it’s asked in ignorance rather than malice, it is indicative of the unique burden African students—and alumni—face when they leave their home countries and find themselves representing an entire continent.

Compounding that are deeply ingrained perceptions of Africa as a place fraught with poverty, corruption, hunger, violence, and a host of other societal ills that play out in the media. A past history of colonialism and a present-day reliance on international aid in many African countries further strains an unbalanced portrait of the continent.

According to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Africa suffers from having a “single story” in the worldview—one that is largely negative and leaves out the richness of culture and the forward progress that is taking place. “Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes,” Adichie said in a 2009 TEDtalk. “There are immense ones, such as horrific rapes in Congo, and depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe, and it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.

“The consequence of the single story is this,” she continues. “It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.”

No one would disagree. However, for a 16- or 17-year-old, the sense of obligation to expand the story

African students and alumni feel a unique obligation of explaining the continent—and returning home.

can be immense. “I felt the responsibility for the image of all of Africa when I arrived,” says Nkosilathi Shangwa ’14, Zimbabwe. “I felt I had to teach [fellow students]. Most had the image of Africa as being full of starving people. … I want to bring out an alternative Africa that people never see. I feel like I must overcompensate.”

The Other Africa

That “alternative Africa” can be found in Nigeria, where Emeka Okoro ’87 reports a “renaissance of brash young Nigerians” who are advancing the country’s music and film industries and are intent on making change. Emeka, who lives in San Antonio, Texas, goes home to Nigeria every Christmas. “The youth are tired of corruption, of the same leadership,” he says. “There is a generational groundswell. The old guard is so entrenched, but at some point, something is going to have to give.” Emeka—and nearly all the African alumni and students interviewed for this story—want to be part of the groundswell. In fact, they see it as a responsibility. Emeka, who is a successful artist and a competitive intelligence expert in banking, plans to get a master’s degree in public administration so that he can help facilitate public and private sector relationships in Nigeria. “The end goal is to go back,” he says. “When it comes to industries and what it takes to succeed, I think I can make a difference there.” Naleli Morojele ’05 already is back. She plans to graduate with her master’s degree in December from the University of the Free State in South Africa, where she’s devoted her studies to African women in politics. The project has allowed her to interview female leaders in Rwanda and South Africa—two countries where women have made significant gains within government. “There are more women in visible leadership roles [in Africa] than

from Tangiers, Morocco, in the north to Cape Town, South Africa, in the far south—“approximately the same distance as from Panama City, Panama, to Anchorage, Alaska”

from Dakar, Senegal, in the west to Cape Guardafui, Somalia, the easternmost point of the African horn—“only 65 miles less than the airline distance from New York to Moscow”

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Europe or America,” she says. “I wanted to see the impact of 20 years of women in leadership.” Naleli says she considered staying in the U.S. after graduating from UWC-USA and then Wheaton College but decided against it. “Africa needs people to come back and contribute,” she says. “Otherwise, how can Africans

shape the future the way they want?” She plans to get a doctorate and stay in academia, where she hopes to do research and influence national and international policy concerning the lives of women. Shamila Bankiya ’10 is finishing up a bachelor’s degree at Yale and will stay in New York to get work experience, but then she too will return to Africa. However, it may not be Uganda, where she is from. Shamila wants to go where she can work with emerging markets and have confidence that infrastructure is in place to ensure success—which could be in Ghana, Nigeria, or South Africa. “I don’t think I’ll be able to change the infrastructure gaps [in Uganda],” she says. “I am looking at markets where I can make a difference. My responsibility is to the continent.”

A difficult Choice

To go home to an African country is not a decision made lightly. Mandy Garber ’87, who came from Sierra Leone, has lived in the U.S. since she arrived at UWC-USA. Today, she is a psychiatrist at Mercy Behavioral Health in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mandy’s been back to Sierra Leone several times, and she says it is dramatically different from the place of her childhood. The civil war

of the late 1990s occurred when Mandy was in residency at Columbia University. Her brother, an architect, had his office looted and burned before he was able to get out. “We lived near the Atlantic Coast and spent a lot of time with the neighborhood kids,” Mandy recalls of her childhood. “Now everyone has built high walls to keep

people out.” Mandy recently returned from a work trip to Sierra Leone. She says there is only one psychiatrist in the entire country, and he is semi-retired. Mandy is working on a collaborative project to bring U.S. psychiatric resources and

experts to Sierra Leone, where the need for psychiatric help is dire. While Mandy was there, her bag was stolen. It was a grim reminder of how far she’s come—and how far Sierra Leone has to go. “I cried because I realized it’s not the same country I grew up in,” she says. “There’s been very little development of the people, for the people, even though the money and resources are there.” Mandy plans to do the project from her base in the U.S., where access to resources and professional colleagues “is unlimited.” She has a strong sense of obligation to Sierra Leone, however. “Sometimes you wish you didn’t have such a burden, but you can’t shake it off,” she says. The pressure to serve one’s country comes from several factors, including family and culture. Mandy says most African countries lack social security, disability, or other state-sponsored benefit programs—leaving those who are able to shoulder the task. Another factor is a change in perspective. Living abroad—even if it’s only for two years as a UWC-USA student—has made African students and alumni much more sensitive to the conditions of their home countries, and most feel even more compelled to make change. “Being here made me realize how bad it is,” says Chinemerem Nwosu ’15, Nigeria. “Now I’ve had a taste of life with clean water, and I realize you can’t run away. You need to take it upon yourself to go back and help. Nothing is too little when you are changing a life.” Onemauchechuku “Justice” Nwigwe ’14, Nigeria, echoes that sentiment. “I have a duty to return to Nigeria to better the country,” he says. “UWC-USA gives you the sense [that] even within the constraints of [societal] corruption, you can build your own future and you can do amazing things.” The desire for a new Africa—and a new story—is strong, and momentum is building. “The match has been lit,” Emeka says. “We are at a turning point.”

of the contiguous 48 states of the U.S.

“Now I’ve had a taste of life with clean water, and I realize you can’t run away. You need to take it upon yourself to go back and help. Nothing is too little when you are changing a life.” —CHINEMEREM NWOSU ’15, NIGERIA

3X THE SIZE

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Ashoka, one of the largest networks of social innovators in the world, defines social entrepreneurs as “individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.” That definition could fit countless UWCers, whether they are running their own businesses or working within established organizations to effect change. In fact, UWC-USA is part of a maturing social entrepreneurship movement that is revolutionizing the way social change is approached across the globe. In Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know,

David Bornstein and Susan Davis write: “The emergence of the citizen sector and social entrepreneurship are an adaptation to the changing demands of the global environment, a departure from the top-down, centralized problem-solving model that dominated the past century. They favor an integrated, decentralized approach that harnesses the efforts of creative problem-solvers far and wide.” Experts, educators, and alumni have been introducing social entrepreneurship at UWC-USA over the last few years in an iterative fashion. The success of each phase led UWC-USA’s Board of Trustees to incorporate social entrepreneurship in the Davis Challenge 2014 campaign, which launched in February. Philanthropist Shelby M.C. Davis has pledged to give UWC-USA $1 million to create scholarships for students from areas of conflict if the school can raise $1 million in

new and increased gifts. Donors can specify that their gift be directed to one of four areas of need, including social entrepreneurship.

Empathy + Ingenuity

UWC-USA’s first social entrepreneur-ship initiative took place in 2012. Emotional intelligence guru Amy McConnell Franklin—who is also the parent of two UWC alumni—and international educator Martin Cadée piloted an incubator for eight students. The cohort met over the course of a semester, reflecting on the special skills and talents they might bring to the most pressing problems in their home countries and elsewhere. Their experience culminat-ed in a trip to Boulder, Colorado, one of the hotbeds for social entrepre-neurs, where the students presented their ideas to about 50 local experts in the field. Emotional intelligence—not just the practical skills of entrepreneurship for social good—was foundational to the incubator. Franklin defines emotional intelligence as the capacity to “effectively blend thoughts and feelings in order to make better decisions and create and sustain more mutually respectful relationships.” “I resonate with the way young people are approaching these entrepreneurial problems—There’s a problem. Let’s fix it.—a lot more than I do with the protest energy of my generation,” she says. “But in order

BY COURTNEY E. MARTIN

UWC-USA grooms the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

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FROM IDEAS

The GSI team poses at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

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to do that kind of entrepreneurship responsibly, you really need a foundation of empathy. You need to ask core questions like: Why am

I doing that? Is this really what the world needs? Is this in alignment with my calling and my values?”

A UWC-USA Success Story

Empathy was the starting point for Jane Huber ’12, Mzwakithi Prestige Shongwe ’12, and Julie Trolle ’12, who were part of the initial incubator. One day while studying together, Jane noticed that Mzwakithi needed a surface to write on and offered him a lap desk. She says, “He started writing, and then there was this moment where he paused, looked up, and said, ‘This is the answer to education in Swaziland!’” Mzwakithi, a native of Swaziland, was referring to the inadequate infrastructure for basic education there. The country suffers from the poorest life expectancy in the world (just 32 years of age on average), so the number of orphans and vulnerable children who are being cared for through the school system is vast—estimated at 200,000. Jane, Mzwakithi, and Julie recognized they had stumbled on a simple intervention for a dire systemic problem and created Platforms for Hope. The organization partners with the carpentry department at the Siteki High School for the Deaf to build low-cost lap desks. They are then distributed to schools in need. At the beginning of this year, Platforms for Hope delivered its first 98 lap desks to Malindza Central

Primary School, a small school in Mpaka, Swaziland. The organization plans to elicit feedback from the students and educators there to

understand how the lap desks impacted educational performance so it can continuously refine its model. The three co-founders continue to develop the organization despite having gone their separate ways after graduation. Jane believes the longevity of the collaboration has something to do with that initial emphasis on empathy and personal values. “The emphasis on emotional intelligence and framing our work on more than just a project to work on, but rather a way to express our identities and beliefs, helped to ensure that our work remains highly relevant in my life,” she says.

Social Entrepreneurship at UWC-USA Today

Just like Platforms for Hope has evolved, so has the social entrepreneurship program at UWC-USA. This academic year, it took on a new form—called the Global Social Impact (GSI) CAS—under the leadership of math teacher and entrepreneur Mudit Tyagi ’88. Mudit, who calls himself “the startup guy,” and his wife, Amy Karon ’95, have initiated many entrepreneurial ventures and have inspired even more. CAS stands for Creativity, Action, and Service, and it is a required component for all International Baccalaureate students. Through Mudit’s GSI CAS, 12 students had the benefit of a full year of hands-on experience.

“I feel that change-makers have to know how to do three things: Develop concrete ideas out of a jumble of thoughts, implement

those ideas, and finally, solve for user acquisition,” Mudit says, explaining his approach to preparing entrepreneurs. The first semester was largely spent on ideation and design. Students learned about the critical process of strategizing a solution around a particular problem and coming up with a convincing pitch for potential investors in that solution, the majority of them apps for mobile devices.

An App for That

Apps might sound like a naively privileged intervention but are actually proving hugely impactful. Many social entrepreneurs have discovered that mobile apps are one of the best ways to empower disenfranchised people. For example, in the chaos that erupted following the presidential election at the end of 2007, tens of thousands of Kenyans used software created by Nairobi-based organization Ushahidi to report violent flare-ups, assisting law enforcement and humanitarian groups to get there faster. Improving health-care outcomes using the mobile phone app mHealth is another rapidly growing field in the developing world. Organizations like Medic Mobile save lives by arming community health workers in remote areas with $10 phones. According to the World Bank, the number of mobile subscriptions in use worldwide has grown from fewer

THERE,S A PROBLEM.

Let’s fix it.

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“but I feel like I earned one year. The biggest lesson I learned was resilience.” Farid is currently leading a team to create VIVEN, on online forum that seeks to show beauty and inspiration in war-torn countries. “It was for the first time in the UWC-USA social entrepreneurship program where I saw diversity in people’s opinions, passions, and priorities … hearing others talk about

problems helped me realize the scope of opportunities and gaps in the market for social good,” Farid says. “My entrepreneurial journey continuous to grow, and the more I learn about and from it, the more I see opportunities.”

Courtney E. Martin is the author of Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists and Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: How the Quest for Perfection Is Harming Young Women.

I TOLD THEMto be ambitious.

than 1 billion in 2000 to more than 6 billion now, of which nearly 5 billion are in developing countries. Mudit, through the GSI CAS, hopes to leverage this new reality to make the world better. Among the projects his GSI students have undertaken are the Panic app, which alerts your family if you are in danger and pinpoints your location; the UWCNext app, which will serve as a “virtual incubator” for alumni who are seeking to collaborate with other UWC graduates; and Robin Good, an app that uses crowdsourcing to verify government claims. “I told them to be ambitious,” Mudit says. During project week in March, GSI students traveled to Silicon Valley, California, where Mudit has deep ties. They met with various organizations, including 500 Startups, SoundCloud, and Google. They had a chance to pitch their projects and receive invaluable feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors. One of the alumni entrepreneurs they visited was Victoria Ransom ’95, founder and CEO of Wildfire. In 2012,

she sold her company to Google, where she now works as the director of product. While Victoria missed out on the opportunity to get formal training in entrepreneurship at UWC-USA, she says she felt the impetus was imbedded in her experience nonetheless. “I went into UWC with one view of what I could and should achieve in life. By the time I graduated, my dreams for myself and for life were so much greater,” Victoria says. “This ability to think big, to create a

vision, and to be driven by a passion for change set me on my startup journey.”

More Than Money

There are drivers other than financial gain for UWC-USA’s budding entrepreneurs. Consider Farid Noori ’14 of Afghanistan. A member of Cadée and Franklin’s original incubator and a member of GSI, Farid was so taken with social entrepreneurship that he decided to go to the Global Youth Summit in London in 2012, despite the fact that he knew he

risked losing his single-entry U.S. visa. His worst fears were soon realized. His passport was held up for nine months, causing him to miss what would have been his final year at UWC-USA. Farid, determined to “make lemonade” during his lemon of a wait, went home to Afghanistan and worked at Frontline, an institute dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship among Afghani youth. “It might seem like I lost one year in my life,” he reflects,

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GSI students get advice from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

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It is not hard to imagine Vanina spreading joy. She is quick to smile and laugh, she loves to play her violin for others, and she is clearly compassionate. That is why when she was 7 years old, Vanina informed her family that she would forgo big birthday parties and use the money that would have been spent to treat less fortunate children.

No doubt, Vanina has had advantages not avail-able to all Jamaicans. She remembers being exposed to homeless people living right next to neighborhoods with mansions. But Vanina was raised to be acutely aware of the disparity by her mother, who is a physician, and her father, who is a dentist.

“Since I was young, I just thought that was unfair and so did my parents,” she says. “It was a big topic of discussion at home. Anytime we saw anyone on the street, my mom always stopped and talked to them to get to know their story, and soon she had many of these homeless people as friends and patients.”

When Vanina announced her decision to reach out to other kids, her mother immediately called the Ministry of Education and figured out how to “adopt” a local school, the Denham Town Basic School in downtown Kingston. That was the start, nearly 10 years ago, of Vanish, the organization Vanina established to do her good work. A combination of her first name and a close friend’s last name, Vanish is also a play on words: Vanina hopes to someday “get rid of all the poverty and borders in society that cause certain people to have more privileges than others.” Every Christmas, Vanish provides a party and bags of educational supplies for the top 100 Denham Town students, who are 3 to 8 years old.

This past winter break, Vanina went home to pick up the helm of Vanish. Although it takes many months of organizing and fundraising from friends, families, and local businesses to gather the gifts, Vanina acknowledges that the Christmas “treat” is, in some ways, a small thing. Yet she relishes the joy that these little extras can spread, as well as months of motivation Vanish provides for the students. Vanina remembers one shy little girl in particular. The child spelled “photosynthesis” by whispering it in her ear. Vanina says she was amazed; that child exemplified her belief that “everyone is born with the same potential.” Vanina’s brother Stilian graduated from UWC Atlantic College in 2002. But UWC did not initially appeal to Vanina. As a young girl, she thought she could

never attend a school so far from home that had a haunted castle. Thankfully, the Montezuma Castle has no ghosts. Instead, it is full of her new friends. When Vanina thinks of what she has gained thus far from her time at UWC-USA, she says: “We all have things we can relate to no matter what country or what area of society we come from.” For many people, the challenge of changing the world and the enormity of all the problems can be overwhelming. But Vanina is not easily daunted. And she believes that if everyone chose something to help with, our combined impact would be immense. “You don’t have to adopt a school; you could do something else. You could, let’s say, clean a park, build a park,” she says. “That’s the only way something is going to change.”

CHANGE AGENTS

As a young girl of 6, Vanina Morrison ’15 accompanied her older brother Stilian to visit local orphanages in their hometown of Kingston, Jamaica. They handed out treats and sang songs, and Vanina marveled that the children found so much joy in something so simple.

BY TARRA HASSiN ’91

Vanina hopes to someday “get rid of all the poverty and borders in society that cause certain

people to have more privileges than others.”

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In their first semester at UWC-USA, Jacob Wolf ’15, USA-AL, and Sitong Xu ’15, China, discovered a shared passion for youth empowerment. As they talked, Sitong learned that Jacob had a long history as a teen counselor for a summer camp near his home in Leesburg, Alabama—a small town with a population of a little more than 1,000 people. Sitong, who comes from Yinchuan—a bustling capital city in northeast China, had never been to summer camp. But he was intrigued. Gradually, a kernel of an idea began to take hold, and by November, the two were ready to move forward with the first session of Camp UWC, a one-week camp for children in Las Vegas, New Mexico, that took place during local schools’ spring break in April. “We wanted to show kids that they have more power than they may think,” Jacob says. “We wanted to empower them to become the type of people they want to be.” In Las Vegas, 36 percent of the town’s children live below the poverty level; the average in New Mexico is 25 percent. Jacob and Sitong hoped to give these local kids a UWC-USA experience

and, at the same time, offer their parents a free week of child care during a time when finding child care would be particularly challenging. “Camp UWC is an opportunity for UWC-USA students to not only give back to the local community but also gain real-world experience in leadership, facilitation, community development, and youth mentoring,” says David Jacobson-Fried, UWC-USA Summer Programs director and Camp UWC mentor. “On the flip side, the Las Vegas community has a safe and fun place for their children to spend the week while receiving a small taste of what it’s like to be at a UWC.” The free camp was open to 38 kindergarteners through eighth-graders, and the theme was “What’s Your Superpower?” Jacob, who attended summer camps before he began working at them at age 14, knows how inspiring the camp experience can be. “Summer camp helped me develop as a person and be more confident,” he says. “It was one of the reasons I had the courage to apply to UWC-USA.” After getting faculty and administrative approval for Camp UWC in the fall,

Sitong and Jacob went to work. They recruited a staff of 32 camp counselors from their first-year peers, raised funds, created a website, and learned all the legal intricacies of running a children’s program in the U.S. Yet, for all the preparation, the pair discovered “surprises we didn’t expect,” Sitong says. One such surprise occurred the first day of camp. Despite hours of organizing, the camp counselors realized they had more time than activities planned for the morning. Sitong stepped in and suggested they organize a relay race. “I thought I explained the rules clearly, but they just ran back and forth until lunch,” he says, smiling at the memory of controlled chaos. If Jacob and Sitong felt the sting of “surprises,” the campers certainly didn’t seem to notice. The children filled the UWC-USA campus with squeals, giggles, and chatter. They tried out the challenge course, took a field trip to the local animal shelter, did arts and crafts projects, and spent time at UWC-USA’s new farm area, where they learned about composting. Through it all, UWC-USA camp counselors wove in lessons about leadership,

teamwork, and responsibility. Jacob and Sitong couldn’t have been more pleased. “I was cleaning up from snack one day, and everyone was on the field. As I watched them, it was amazing to me. This thing we’d been working on for months had become tangible,” Jacob says. Camp UWC has taken on a life of its own. Bryce Thweatt ’15, USA-KY, is running a Camp UWC in his hometown in Kentucky this summer. Sitong is recreating Camp UWC in Yinchuan in July with the help of six UWC-USA classmates who represent Finland, Israel, Austria, Nigeria, Albania, and Japan—giving youngsters a truly international UWC experience. Chinese campers will learn and practice English, and Sitong plans to incorporate UWC elements such as an emphasis on sustainability and conflict resolution. “Chinese kids are shy and don’t speak their opinions,” he says. “We want to encourage them to speak up and tell them that there is no right or wrong answer. We want them to be brave so they can do what they want to do.” Watch out, world. A new generation of UWCers is in the making.

—Jennifer Rowland

Camp UWC uses education as a force to unite kids in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

CONNECTED

Camp leader Jacob Wolf ’15, USA-AL, in the blue shirt, works with fellow camp counselors Brian Butler (red shorts) ’15, USA-NH and Juulia Suuronen (white jacket) ’15, Finland.

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COLDCOLDSPELL

BACK COUNTRY

Tempted by snow, skiing, and hot chocolate, students brave the elements during the annual winter yurt trip.

BY JACOB WOLF ’15, USA-AL, and MAX DANiELEWiCZ ’15, USA-Mi

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JAN. 10, 2014: THE TEMPERATURE iS RAPiDLY DROPPiNG. AS WE LOOK TO THE SKY, WE REALiZE THE SUN iS SETTiNG. OUR TiME HAS RUN OUT. The bitter cold is biting at our extremities. The wind howls in our ears, screaming that this is the end. At the same time, Wilderness Program Director Arianne Zwartjes ’97 shouts out from the yurt telling us that dinner is ready. We head back inside the well-heated, lit, and populated yurt and collapse into the futon, exhausted from a full day of cross-country skiing. As we look around the room filled with students from 20 countries, we realize that our apprehension was unwarranted. The yurt trip is a two-day wilderness expedition in the mountains adjacent to the Taos Ski Valley, and it is highly anticipated among UWC-USA students. The trip, which occurs every January, consists of three-dozen students led by four certified wilderness leaders. We hike for three hours, up to a height of 10,800 feet (3.29 kilometers), to reach the yurt—a Mongolian, tent-like structure where everyone sleeps, eats, and warms up. The first day is a tough one. After arriving at the yurt, everything must be unpacked and tents set up to serve as extra shelter. Once the setup is done, students break into groups to cook dinner and prepare the yurt for the night. Meals are simple (macaroni and cheese, Spanish rice, quesadillas) but taste delicious after a long day in the snow. The following day, the students have free time to enjoy a number of snow-related activities. They can explore the area on snowshoes, go cross-country skiing, or spend time at camp building forts. In the late afternoon, some of the students attempted to create “quinzees” or shelters made entirely of snow. Only a handful actually succeeded in this endeavor, including these authors. Proud of our handiwork, seven of us decided to spend the night in the two quinzees. To enter the shelter, we had to crawl through a small tunnel, hoping that we didn’t collect too much snow on our jackets along the way. Once inside the quinzee, we realized that we could not sit up without breaking through the top of the shelter. We also realized that maybe we had miscalculated the space needed for the three of us. Nevertheless, we decided to tough it out. By the next morning, only six remained in the quinzees; Julian Liebaert ’15, Belgium, returned to the yurt in the middle of the night complaining that he “just couldn’t do it anymore!” Snow, we quickly learned, was not for everyone. Those who preferred dry earth spent their free time inside the yurt with hot chocolate and card games. While the two days was enough to satisfy the snowy desires of the students, all were happy to be welcomed back to campus.

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Over the course of two years, remarkable, dedicated members of the UWC-USA community took me under their wings and fostered a consciousness and sense of leadership for which I am forever grateful: Alan Wicks’ guidance and knowledge of international human rights through Amnesty International; Judy Land’s facilitation of a new animal rights advocacy organization; 1989 alumna Naomi Swinton’s continual efforts to foster critical discussion, thought, and dialogue; Pat Leahan’s boundless willingness and care in opening up minds to the community outside of our insulated campus; and many others who worked tirelessly to push students and our community to a new level of consciousness.

At UWC-USA, I learned how to organize letter-writing drives, how to coordinate with other UWCs to create an international effort to support and have an

alumnus released from prison, and how to start building an organization from the ground up. There’s a lot I didn’t learn, however. Here are some things that I wish I understood before trying to claim space as an activist and organizer in communities outside of UWC.

1. RACE, GENDER, CLASS,

ABILITY, AND SEXUALITY

MATTER—A LOT.

UWC-USA intentionally fosters a sense of global cosmopolitanism that at once puts us on equal footing with one another and shows that the world is more bound by our shared humanity than anything else. While aspects of this worldview may hold true, race, sex, gender, ability, and class dynamics affect our individual interactions as much as the macro-consequences around that we so often advocate. Dynamics of oppression do not magically disappear at the gates of our campus.

Our intersecting aspects of identity exist in whatever space we exist. Sometimes that looks like an all-white organizing meeting by Amnesty International, and sometimes it looks like a party in the student center that has brought out students from every corner of the globe. In both situations, people’s identities carry political meaning, and interactions between people have political consequences. Race has historically divided movements. Whether it be marriage equality bills in the New Mexico Legislature, fighting to end the death penalty, or working to end genocide, the activism on UWC-USA’s campus is deeply affected by these historical divisions. Look at who it is on campus advocating for change, and then ask, “Why are these people the ones engaging in social justice work? Are our organizing spaces validating of everyone’s experiences? Who isn’t at the table and why?” These are questions I wished I had more honestly asked myself while organizing during those two years.

2. LET YOUR UWC-USA

EXPERIENCE GUIDE YOU,

NOT BLIND YOU.

While attending a demonstration opposing David Horowitz’s speech on Tulane University’s campus, I thought about how absurd the scene would have appeared to the 18-year-old me. This figure, who routinely incited anti-Arab hate, was being supported by my university and lauded by large swaths of the student body. I never imagined being in such a hostile

intellectual environment, and coordinating a dialogue seemed impossible compared to even the most emotionally charged conversations with Israeli and Palestinian students at UWC-USA. You can’t always sit down for a “cup of tea” with the oppressor. Everyone deserves his or her full humanity to be seen, but when it’s not just a few individuals but structural political economic forces that need to change, a cultural performance, a letter, or a high-level dialogue may not suffice. As I continue with work down in New Orleans, Louisiana—incarceration capital of the world—I hold the values nourished during my UWC-USA experience close to my heart. I’ve learned that there will be those virulently opposed to what I am doing. But what UWC-USA does for me every day as I continue doing anti-police activism, criminal justice reform, and anti-racist organizing is help me envision what a liberated world could look like. It may have been a shock to move out into the “real world” after graduation, but without UWC-USA, I would never have such hope for a better one.

When I first arrived at UWC-USA, I was something of an online-petition activist. I had never been to a protest,

attended an event at a state capitol, or even asked for petition signatures.

BY MATHEW FREiMUTH ’09

ViEWPOiNT

Mat’s disclaimer: Nothing written here is intended to disparage the valiant efforts that staff, faculty, and students have taken and are taking to build a curriculum of critical thought and social justice into the fabric of the UWC-USA experience.

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From that vantage point, she could watch the world’s most elite athletes as they shed their official national attire and competition gear in order to enjoy a brief respite from the arduous demands of what was for many the most grueling and high-stakes competition of their lives. Surveying the scene before her, the realization of a lifelong dream became abundantly clear: Anna had indeed arrived at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Anna, who joined UWC-USA’s faculty this year, had dreamt of attending the Olympics since she was a little girl growing up in Moscow. Even in childhood, Anna was compelled by the diversity exhibited at the games, and she had an early appreciation for the determination and excellence demonstrated by some of the most celebrated and decorated athletes from around the world. After moving from her native Russia to the United States at age 11, Anna excelled in school, graduated from Harvard

University, and went on to become a dedicated International Baccalaureate teacher in Cyprus, where she lived and worked for seven years before coming to UWC-USA. Despite her decades-old longing to one day attend the Olympics, she never thought her wish to witness the games would one day be fulfilled, and that in doing so, she would be brought back to Russian soil. As soon as Russia was selected as the host country for the 2014 Winter Olympics, Anna leapt at the opportunity to work at the games. She applied to be a volunteer more than two years ago, and in January, she got her wish. Boarding a plane to Moscow, she embarked on a six-week excursion to see how it would work to have “an international competition that incorporates people from all over the world while at the same time having them compete against each other.” While navigating her way through the bureaucratic maze that quickly became a hallmark of the Sochi

Games, Anna focused her energy on committing to her volunteer position and settling into her daily routine. Waking most mornings before 5 a.m. at the dorm complex where she lived, Anna would then make the 3-mile trek to her post at the Sport Information Desk in the Endurance Village. Because of regularly redirected traffic, shifting bus lines, and newly constructed buildings emerging where previously there were none, Anna says she forwent public transit in favor of a pedestrian route to her destination, often enduring the elements along the way. Each day in the Endurance Village, Anna would field questions from coaches and athletes from around the world who had stopped at the information desk to gather news on training and events. Witnessing the games and the multitude of individuals who were brought together to compete, to coach, to work, and to cheer, Anna says she gained an increased awareness of how few people

have the opportunity to interact with others from different countries and cultures. What was for many at the Sochi Games a unique experience of encountering diversity and difference in a tangible way for perhaps the first time was for Anna familiar, nearly commonplace. She began to more deeply appreciate the many opportunities that have afforded her the privilege of living in and adapting to different regions of the world, replete with different languages, cultures, and social norms. Returning to Montezuma at the end of February, Anna was struck by a sense of gratitude. “Being here has made me realize how fortunate I am to be around people from all over the world on a regular basis,” she says. “Many of the volunteers were really excited to meet people from countries that they have never visited. Seeing their excitement has made me really appreciate just how special our experience is at UWC-USA.”

Peering over the edge of her desk, math teacher Anna Solovyev caught a glimpse of the spa and pool area located just below her post at the Sport Information Desk.

SPOTLiGHT

[subhead] ,

BY ELiSE MANNiNG COUNSELOR

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TRUTH TELLERONE OF US

By his own account, documentary filmmaker Rick Rowley ’94 is “passionately connected to the factual, the true, and the real”— even if that means pursuing truth into some of the world’s most dangerous places.

FOR HIS OSCAR-NOMINATED FILM DIRT Y WARS, THAT PURSUIT TOOK

RICK and his colleague, Jeremy Scahill, to Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen where they expose the U.S. military’s widening role in the War on Terror and its impact on everyday people. Rick says he expected to show the movie in church basements, but wide critical acclaim and six additional awards from a variety of film festivals—including Sundance—have given Dirty Wars the kind of exposure he had never imagined. For Rick, the accolades mean one thing: More people will see this film, and his goal of giving a human face to what largely has been a faceless war comes closer to being achieved. “The thing film does, better than any other medium, is allow people to feel vicarious connections to other human beings who they’re separated from by this massive geographic and cultural distance,” Rick told an interviewer last year. “But in a deeper, more profound and radical sense, film also creates the possibility to feel human empathy toward Afghan civilians in the mountains of Gardez or Yeminis or Pakistanis living under the sounds of drones every day. The huge goal of [Dirty Wars] … is to show people on the ground and allow people to feel a human connection to the civilians who are really living this war.” Dirty Wars, described by The New York Times as “pessimistically, grimly outraged and utterly riveting,” follows reporter Jeremy Scahill as he seeks to expose actions of the Joint Special Operations Command, a largely unknown government agency that carries out strikes against those deemed a threat to U.S. security.

16

“The families who lost loved ones to

the American war still invited us into

their homes,” Rick says. “I’ve been

humbled by the fact that people

risked their lives to help us make

this film. They believe deeply that

the American people will hear their

stories and demand change.”

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“The families who lost loved ones to the American war still invited us into their homes,” Rick says. “I’ve been humbled by the fact that people risked their lives to help us make this film. They believe deeply that the American people will hear their stories and demand change.”

17

“The Global War on Terror is one of the most important stories of our generation,” says Rick, a Pulitzer fellow, Rockefeller fellow, Jerome Foundation fellow, and a Sundance Documentary Film Program fellow. “But it’s a story that hasn’t been completely covered.” Rick and Jeremy took enormous personal risks in making the film. Attacks on journalists, particularly in Afghanistan, have been on the rise. For Rick, though, the dangers they faced paled in comparison to the risks those he interviewed took in meeting with the American reporters. “The families who lost loved ones to the American war still invited us into their homes,” Rick says. “I’ve been humbled by the fact that people risked their lives to help us make this film. They believe deeply that the American people will hear their stories and demand change.” Rick has been documenting social movements and conflict almost since the day he graduated from UWC-USA in 1994. After graduation, he and two co-years—Ståle Sandberg and Ben Eichert—traveled to Central America, where they worked on a Sandinista farming collective in Nicaragua. From there, they traveled to Chiapas, Mexico, and joined the Zapatista movement. Struck by the idea that “our word is our weapon,” Rick began documenting the Zapatistas with the belief that “stories could become a weapon for social change.” It was a learn-as-you-go experience; at that point, Rick had no formal training in filmmaking. But he had the passion, and in 1995, he and Ståle founded Big Noise Productions. The company has produced four films, including Dirty Wars, and several other projects. In addition, Rick has worked as a war reporter, and his stories have been featured on Al-Jazeera, BBC, CBC, CNN International, Democracy Now!, PBS, and others. Rick’s film on the Zapatistas had another significant impact on his life: It led him to meet his wife, Jacqueline (Soohen) Rowley, a 1993 UWC-Adriatic graduate. Rick was in Boston to interview Noam Chomsky for the film, and Jacque was a student at Harvard. They met and had the instant “UWC connection” that resulted in Rick missing five flights out of Boston. They married a year later and are now the proud parents of a toddler. Jacque also is a war reporter and served as co-producer of Dirty Wars. Expectedly, parenthood has affected the pair of globe-trotting journalists. “Being a parent really changes my risk calculation,” Rick says. “I chose not to work in Syria because the war is unclear and [the U.S. role] isn’t as direct as it is in Afghanistan.” Now based in New York, Rick is working on fiction and nonfiction projects. However, he still travels to Afghanistan. “One of the tragic things I’ve experienced is how many of the people Jeremy and I worked with or knew are not with us now. They are either dead or in exile.” Indeed, Rick’s work has exposed him to horrors few people can fathom. Nonetheless, he considers himself an optimist. “Wars end,” he says. “They are brought to an end by people who create enough pressure to demand that they stop.”

—Jennifer Rowland

Acting President Tom Oden presents Rick with a UWC-USA flag after Rick screened Dirty Wars on campus during the February Annual Conference.

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Brian Lax ’92Luca Pesaro ’90

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CLASS OF 1984

Andres Franco-Vasco was appointed as the deputy director of private-sector engagement for UNICEF in Geneva.

CLASS OF 1986

Gita Bodner received a share of the U.S. Department of the Interior “Partners in Conservation Award” at the DOI’s Stewardship Udall headquarters in Washington, D.C. The award was given on behalf of the Cienega Watershed, which is described as “a suite of public and private partners working together to sustain healthy land and water in Arizona.” Gita is a Nature Conservancy ecologist based in Tucson, Arizona, and works with diverse stakeholders, including the Bureau of Land Management and borderland ranchers.

CLASS OF 1987

Jeanne Morefield, a professor at Whitman College in Washington state, published Empires Without Imperialism: Anglo-American Decline and the Politics of Deflection with Oxford University Press. The book is a 304-page analysis of “two key moments of liberal imperial thinking [at the beginning and end of the 20th century] to unearth a set of common intellectual dispositions and theoretical attitudes shaped by the problem of empire.”

CLASS OF 1990

Luca Pesaro’s first English novel was published in April. Zero Alternative is a thriller that features a UWC-USA graduate as the main character. The final scene takes place in the Montezuma Castle. “Future students will get a feel for what an awesome and scary place the old hotel could be,” Luca says. “And a couple of characters might remind my ’89, ’90, and ’91 classmates and teachers of people they’ve known.”

CLASS OF 1991

Flannery Burke is traveling in Norway as a Fulbright Roving Scholar, giving workshops on American culture. She visited UWC Red Cross Nordic in March during its celebration of Las Americas. In her blog “Norway Roving,” she reflects on her work and her visits to RCN as well as other Norwegian towns and cities: “Education is the most comprehensive and direct route to international understanding. UWC students may now chatter with their families on laptops instead of hovering near the pay phone in the hall, but we still need human connection to grow and learn. I write in a different world context than when I was a student, but the world still needs UWC.”

CLASS OF 1992

Brian Lax was featured in a cover article in EMSWorld for his work as a key medic on movies and television shows that are filmed in New Mexico. Brian has worked on sets for The Lone Ranger, Breaking Bad, and many others. “Being able to look at a shooting script and recognize what kinds of potential dangers are going to be involved, then mapping out all these preparations, is what I’m able to do very well,” he told the interviewer.

CLASS OF 1994

Dr. Frederico Gil Sander works for the World Bank and is the senior country economist for Malaysia. He recently presented on a panel in Malaysia, hosted by the Economic Transformation Programme. The topic was “Globalizing Malaysia: Are We There Yet?”

Jude Uzonwanne works as the deputy director for strategy, planning, and management at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, he spent three years working as CEO of the Central Bank of Nigeria and owned an agricultural finance startup. His wife

Ellen and their two children live in Tampa, Florida, and Jude commutes to Seattle, Washington.

CLASS OF 1996

Dr. Josser Delgado is one of three doctors who make up the Consulting Radiologists Ltd. (CRL) Interventional Neuroradiology (NIR) team. In April, they reached a new milestone at Abbott Northwestern Hospital’s Neuroscience Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by treating their 2,000th brain aneurysm.

CLASS OF 1998

Amie Ferris-Rotman is a John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University. She launched Sahar Speaks Project, an initiative in Afghanistan that aims to increase the number of local Afghan female journalists working for international news agencies. The project is a one-year, three-part mentorship and training program that Amie developed while working as a foreign correspondent in Kabul. She is currently seeking partnerships and grants that will help determine the program’s structure.

peerREViEW

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CLASS OF 1999

Dr. Zaki Shaikhibrahim is an associate professor at the medical faculty of the University of Bonn in Germany, a position he’s held for two years. As of May, Zaki also began working as a cancer translational research and commercialization consultant for the University Hospital Bonn remotely from his current location in Ithaca, New York, where he’s pursuing a master’s degree in business at Cornell University.

CLASS OF 2000

Daniela Emmerich and her husband Andres recently welcomed baby Valeria into their lives. Valeria joins their first daughter Samantha, who is 5 and proving to be a great big sister. Elena Valenzuela visited Daniela in January before the baby’s

birth, and Daniela says she spent a warm, sunny weekend in Dallas. “It was wonderful to see her and catch up,” she says. “She spoiled me with some girl time before the baby came, and that was appreciated.”

CLASS OF 2001

Ayal Kantz is a policy analyst for INJAZ-Center for Professional Arab Local Governance in Israel. More exciting news: This summer, he is expecting the birth of a baby girl!

CLASS OF 2002

Celene Ayat Lizzio shared news about her historic appointment as an emerging Islamic studies scholar to the faculty of Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College, a prominent seminary and rabbinical college. “My

interest in world religions was planted in Montezuma and then grew at Princeton University and Harvard Divinity School,” she says. Celene will serve as scholar-in-residence and will help lead the college’s groundbreaking interreligious leadership education efforts. The appointment is for three years.

CLASS OF 2004

Alice Speri became a staff writer for VICE News after spending several years as a freelance reporter covering Haiti, Russia, New York, and the United Nations. She is also working on her doctorate in comparative literature at New York University and will be getting married in Italy this summer.

Wendy Vandaele recently changed jobs and is now the group management accountant at Vyncke. She will be paying regular visits to daughter companies in

China, Malaysia, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. Wendy’s busy life got even busier last August when she and her husband Brecht became the proud parents of their son Lars.

CLASS OF 2005

Natalie Ross works with the Aga Khan Foundation and has lived in Washington, D.C., for the past three years. After graduating from Wellesley College, where she studied political science and Africana studies, she did a Fulbright fellowship in South Africa and took the job at AKF when she returned to the U.S. In her role, she designs and implements programs that strengthen civil society in countries where AKF works. She spends 40 percent of her time traveling to field offices in South Asia, Central Asia, and East Africa, which allows her to catch up with UWC friends and continue to learn about and engage with new cultures, languages, and political contexts. “There is a large UWC alumni community in D.C.,” she says, “and I’ve been the informal coordinator of our alum Facebook group and irregular SSS happy hours for the last two years.”

Dr. Zaki Shaikhibrahim ’99

Daniela Emmerich ‘00 shared a photo of 5-year-old daughter Samantha and new baby Valeria

Wendy Vandeale ’04 withhusband Brecht and son Lars

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CLASS OF 2006

Chloé Atkinson recently completed a master’s degree in visual anthropology at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and plans to pursue a career in film.

Ramón Cuauhtémoc Taylor is a television producer at Voice of America—a job he’s been doing for the past four years. He’s also a freelance editor at CNN en Español. Ramón’s work as a field producer and reporter has allowed him to cover the 2012 U.S. elections, the election of Pope Francis at the Vatican, and the memorial services of Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. His next journey will be to São Paulo, Brazil, for the World Cup soccer matches. “Tell my peeps to hit me up there! Also, still living in the great District of Columbia,” he says.

CLASS OF 2007

Aaron Bos-Lun is completing his second year as a high school teacher for Teach for America, an organization that places teachers in the United States’ most disadvantaged schools. He will complete a master’s degree in education and social change from Florida’s University of Miami in August. “Both flow directly out of my time at UWC-USA; I spent the year after graduating in the City Year Washington D.C. location, an organization where 17- to 24-year-olds work a year full time in inner-city schools and youth programs. I worked in schools in South Africa and Bhutan during college, and all this led me to my current job,” Aaron says. “I have developed a strong interest in the link between education and democracy, having seen education systems in multiple young democracies.”

Laurie Laker is completing his master’s degree in liberal studies with a focus on literature and politics at Dartmouth College. Laurie graduated from Colorado College with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2012. His research combines his two academic and personal passions: literature and politics. His dissertation focuses on the wartime poetry of the British poets Wilfred Owen and Keith Douglas. “Since leaving UWC-USA, I have been fortunate enough to stumble into several projects that dovetail my love for international communication and experience with writing,” Laurie says. “Perhaps the best of these came in 2010 when I went to Cape Town, South Africa, to report on the World Cup for Soccer Laduma, the most widely circulated sports newspaper on the African continent.” He has written for Grassroot Soccer and Football Beyond Borders, and he also has worked for a number of online and print publications. Laurie

is seeking employment in journalism and communications, and he says he hopes to continue to explore his passions with the UWC spirit of adventure in mind.

Richenda Leonard graduated from Durham University in the United Kingdom last September with a master’s degree in social research methods, focusing on anthropology and development. She now works as a finance and project officer for Swansea City of Sanctuary, an organization that seeks to support, welcome, and celebrate the contributions of asylum seekers and refugees in the city of Swansea, Wales.

CLASS OF 2008

Brian Asingia’s DreamAfrica mobile app was featured at the New York TechDay at Pier 92, which was billed as the largest startup event in the U.S. DreamAfrica is an African storytelling app hosted by parent company The Pearl Dream Inc. The company was founded by Brian, who is the CEO, and his partner, Kenyan-born Franco Abott.

peer REViEW

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LEFT: Ramón Cuauhtémoc Taylor ’06 RIGHT: Richenda Leonard ’07

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“I want to dare to think, jointly explore ideas, and let talents become concrete deeds.” —MAXIMILIAN SCHLERETH ’11

Basiel Bogaerts completed his internship and has transitioned to the world of consulting for the United Nations with the International Trade Centre, a joint agency between the U.N. and the World Trade Organization. Basiel primarily works on aid-for-trade projects, in which he focuses on trade promotion for small and medium enterprises in developing countries. “Through capacity building and trade intelligence, we hope to foster export-led economic growth in these countries,” Basiel says. Outside of work, he takes part in UWC events every now and then. He attended a UWC Geneva event, saying, “In the nature of cultural integration, we had a good old Swiss fondue night.”

CLASS OF 2009

Leonoor Cornelissen and Zahraa Khaleel are studying at the Graduate Institute Geneva. They finally had a chance to meet up and enjoy wine tasting on a boat cruise on Lake Geneva with Basiel Bogaerts ’08, Marcin Stanek ’11, and other UWCers.

Eldar Undheim spent his spring semester working at internships for the legal departments of Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and KPMG. He will finish law school at the University of Oslo in Norway.

Kieshia Davis-Farrell graduated from Notre Dame of Maryland University in May 2013. During her time there, she was the Honor Board sophomore representative from 2010 to 2011 and Honor Board secretary from 2011 to 2012. In 2012, she was awarded The Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award. In 2013, she was awarded the university’s Academic Achievement Award in business and economics. Currently, she is the school’s international student ambassador, and her photos are featured in the school’s magazines, brochures, posters, and website. Kieshia got married last December and added Farrell to her last name. She says, “I will not be able to attend the reunion this year, but I am looking forward to other reunions to come.”

CLASS OF 2011

Ernesto Gonzales started a new job as a design engineer for TobyRich GmbH, a firm that creates smartphone gadgets. He works with the research and development team doing numerical work in design of algorithms for embedded software applications and testing of electronic circuits. At the same time, Ernesto is finishing the last semester of his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Jacobs University Bremen in Germany.

Maximilian Schlereth and Arjan Stockhausen work in product design and public relations for ProjectTogether, a nonprofit organization that seeks to democratize professional consultation to make free business advice accessible

to social startups. They are currently developing a data bank of entrepreneurial methods that will aid startups. Maximilian says, “Personally, I very much enjoy working for ProjectTogether whilst still doing my LLB with German Law [at University College London], for I can apply my law-related analysis skills in a very creative and fast-paced environment. I want to dare to think, jointly explore ideas, and let talents become concrete deeds.”

CLASS OF 2012

Louis Lagoutte is spending this summer interning with Mercedes in Germany and will be a guest speaker at the Chocovision conference in Davos, Switzerland, alongside Nobel laureates and CEOs. Louis will talk about sustainability at the conference.

Andrew Nalani spent his spring break from Dartmouth College working with a community of migrant workers in Immokalee, Florida, on a trip facilitated by the Tucker Foundation. “The theories and concepts that I easily grasp in class are challenged by experiences in the world outside as I experienced during this spring break trip,” Andrew says. “I still

LEFT TO RIGHT: Basiel Bogaerts ’08, Leonoor Cornelissen ’09, Zahraa Khaleel ’09, and Marcin Stanek ’11 on a Lake Geneva boat cruise

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have more questions than answers to the world’s inequity. However, I have developed a capacity and maturity to stand in the gap between the world as it is and the world of peace and justice I want to participate in creating.”

Emma Smith is working with refugees in European Union camps. Emma says the refugees often focus on what they have lost, and she is designing a program to allow them to think about what they still have. Her goal is to connect people who know certain languages and skills with those who want to learn. Ultimately, Emma hopes to create an economy of skills and way for refugees to build skills while they are awaiting placement.

CLASS OF 2013

Jenish Amatya is pursuing a computer science degree at Wheaton College. The big news, however, is that Jenish and a team of fellow students won the Social Venture Challenge by Resolution Project at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) University 2014. Their project, titled “Sustainable Fish Farming and Microfinance Initiative,” has been granted $7,500 for startup in Baseri, Nepal, this summer. The project addresses the issues of women empowerment, poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, and sustainability. “It was wonderful to represent UWC-USA at the CGI conference,” Jenish says. “We had a little UWC reunion there!”

CLASS OF 2014

Welcome to our newest alumni.

“I have developed a capacity and maturity to stand in the gap between the world as it is and the world of peace and justice I want to participate in creating.” —ANDREW NALANI ’12

peer REViEW

22

LEFT TO RIGHT: Zhongliang Xing (China), Lynn Beiderer (Germany), Yvette Reyes (USA-MN), Lylla Younes (USA-LA) and Yuta Kono (Japan) walk toward the graduation stage.

Aabhusan Khadka (Nepal) does a victory dance after receiving his certificate.

The Class of 2014 included 102 students from 54 countries.

Jenish Amatya ’13 received a grant from the Clinton Global Initiative.

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“I remember with great fondness snowy trips, trying to go at the first snows of the year, along the river to boil in the springs while admiring the seasoned visitors and students who could manage to stay in the hottest pool for longer than the 30 seconds I could manage, all the while dreading the cold and wet walk back up to the Castle,” Laurie Laker ’07 recalls. The Montezuma hot springs are one of the few easily accessible and free hot springs in the state of New Mexico. However, they weren’t always free. The first people to commercially exploit the hot springs were Julian and Antonio Donaldson, who were granted the property by the

Mexican government in 1840. In 1846, they built a small bathhouse at the site and expanded it 10 years later. Although they charged hot springs visitors a fee, they found themselves in financial hot water. The U.S. State Marshals Service seized the property in 1856. In 1862, the property was sold, and in 1868, W.S. Moore built the Adobe Hotel. Billie the Kid and Jesse James were among the hotel’s many dinner guests. In 1879, a syndicate bought the hot springs property and built a new hotel and a new two-story bathhouse. Known as the Hot Springs Hotel, it later became the Old Stone Hotel. The name is still used today, although the building

now serves as UWC-USA classrooms, the library, and offices. The bathhouse was destroyed by a fire in 1881, and the promoters quickly rebuilt it at a cost of $20,000. The structure was designed to accommodate 500 guests per day. In 1882, a new inn, the Montezuma Hotel, opened with 270 luxury rooms. Sadly, the hotel burned down in 1884 because of a clogged gas line. It was quickly rebuilt on higher ground, but four months after completion, it too was demolished in a fire. The third attempt at a hotel opened in 1886 at the same site as the second hotel. Named the Phoenix (and now known as the Montezuma Castle), the hotel piped up hot springs water for use in therapeutic services: Fifty cents bought you a tub bath; 75 cents paid for a bath, vapor treatment, and shower; and for $1 you could receive all the services, including a shampoo, manicure, and “medicated and mercurial” treatments. In 1904, the Phoenix closed for good, and the building was handed over to the Montezuma Baptist College. Despite all the flux in property ownership, the hot springs gurgled along. Armand Hammer purchased the Montezuma property in 1981. According to IB history teacher and UWC-USA archivist Alexis Mamaux, the early UWC-USA team fenced off the hot springs out of concern for liability issues. However, the local community paid no attention, yanking down the fencing to get to the springs. Alexis says UWC-USA administrators relented and took the fence down, but they posted rules and

regulations that remain in effect today. The hot springs are truly a community gathering place. For students and alumni, it’s part of their shared UWC-USA experience. “In 1982, getting to the hot springs after lights out was a reasonably challenging exercise,” Sandra Thomas ’84 recalls. “It involved not only leaving the relative comforts of the Hunter House day room, navigating the mighty Gallinas in the dark without slipping on stones, perhaps in the snow, and security cruising randomly along the back road to the ice skating pond.” The trek to the hot springs became a lot easier in 2007, when Dave Bennett, retired physical plant director, built the footbridge with Lukas Strobl ’08. Regardless of how they got there, alumni often count hot springs memories among their fondest. Julia Drahoss ’13 remembers one evening in particular: “Jørgen Liland ’13 and I decided to stay up all night and do our math internal assessments (IAs). As planned, we worked through the night, finished our IAs, and at around 5 a.m., decided that it would be an excellent idea to go to the hot springs. It was still dark when we left the Castle, but we arrived just in time to experience the most amazing sunrise … which, of course, was followed by an exhausting day of classes!”

—Jennifer Rowland

Historical reference: Montezuma: The Castle in the West, by Jon Bowman; Gateway to Glorieta, by Lynn Irwin Perrigo, Ph.D.

Ah, the hot springs. Just saying the words out loud can feel like a sigh of contentment. For some UWCers, the hot springs were—and still are—a daily ritual, come rain, snow, or hail.

LOOKiNG BACK

23

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24

In crafting his will, Thomas made sure his family would be taken care of, but he felt there was room for more beneficiaries. And so he decided to include UWC-USA. “Being away from home, on your own, in such a beautiful physical setting with people from different backgrounds and similar enthusiasm and interests was perfect,” he says

about his UWC-USA days. “I feel those two years were the best years of my life.” Thomas, who was born in Germany, came to UWC-USA via Chile, where he spent the latter part of his adolescence. It was well before the arrival of the internet, and Thomas said he learned about UWC-USA from an English teacher who received a letter from the Chilean national committee. “The only thing we had to go on was a four-page brochure with an artist’s rendering of the campus,” Thomas recalls. But he was intrigued, and his mother let him take the leap to come to Montezuma, New Mexico.

An outdoor enthusiast, Thomas found his place in the Wilderness Program. “It appealed to me because it gave me the opportunity to gain confidence and learn my limits, all in stunning natural settings,” he says. “It was character forming and enriching.” Thomas graduated from UWC-USA and went on to major in economics at Yale and to earn an MBA at Harvard. He worked in banking for several years and is now self-employed. His lifestyle allows him to pursue his passions—including fly-fishing and travel. Thomas credits UWC-USA with giving him the opportunities and experiences that have shaped his adult life. Indeed, the combination of fond memories and the lifelong impact of his UWC-USA experience were key factors in his decision to make a planned gift. “UWC-USA changed my life,” Thomas says simply. However, he discovered practical reasons for making the gift, as well. Thomas says retirement assets are taxed heavily upon one’s death, particularly for green card holders. “I wanted my money to go to an organization I care about rather than to taxes,” he says. By designating his retirement assets to UWC-USA, Thomas also need not worry about outliving his savings. There are many ways to make a planned gift. The best one will balance what one wishes to accomplish for oneself, one’s family, and charitable interests in one’s overall estate and financial plans.

> Bequests. The simplest way to make a planned gift is to name UWC-USA in your will.

> Gifts from retirement plans. Retirement funds are often taxable—whether to you or your heirs—when withdrawn. Gifts made directly from a retirement fund to UWC-USA may avoid these taxes by taking an offsetting deduction for the charitable gift.

> Gifts that return financial benefits. Gifts that pay income are often favored by donors with appreciated assets such as a business, stocks, or real estate. These gifts can be structured to provide you and/or others with income, tax savings, and other benefits while leaving a lasting legacy for UWC-USA.

To learn more about making a planned gift to UWC-USA, please contact Vice President for Advancement Christie Baskett at 505-454-4214 or christie.baskett@uwc-usa.org.

Thomas Schwingeler ’86 is a pragmatic man who likes to plan ahead. For example, he already has a will prepared—perhaps not typical for a guy in his late 40s who spends his free time fly-fishing, but a practical step for someone who likes to have his affairs in place.

BiG HEART

In crafting his will, Thomas made sure his family would be taken care of, but he felt there was room for more

beneficiaries. And so he decided to include UWC-USA.

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25

Through a Microscope

iNSPiRATiON

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than the opposite.

—UWC HONORARY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA, 1918-2013

Pictured are President Emeritus Phil Geier and Nelson Mandela.

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The MAGAZiNE of UWC-USA, The ARMAND HAMMER UNiTED WORLD COLLEGE of the AMERiCAN WEST

P.O. Box 248

Montezuma, NM

87731-0248

USA

www.uwc-usa.org

UWC MAKES EDUCATiON a FORCE to UNiTE PEOPLE, NATiONS, and CULTURES for PEACE and a SUSTAiNABLE FUTURE.

PHILANTHROPIST SHELBY M.C. DAVIS HAS ISSUED A CHALLENGE: He will donate $1 million to endow a scholarship fund for students from areas of conflict if we can raise $1 million in new and increased gifts by Dec. 31, 2014. The Davis Challenge for Scholars and Programs supports four areas of impact. You can choose how you’d like to designate your gift:

> Increase the Annual Fund, which supports vital day-to-day school operations

> Endowment for scholarships for students from areas of conflict

> The UWC-USA social entrepreneurship program, which melds technology with UWC ideals to create new business models built on compassion

> The new UWC-USA Agroecology Research Center, a capstone for our robust program of environmentalism and sustainability

HOW CAN YOU HELP? If you’ve already made a gift to UWC-USA, please make another: Every dollar you contribute above what you have already given this school year qualifies for the match. If you’ve never made a gift to UWC-USA or it’s been more than 18 months since you contributed, every dollar you give toward the challenge will be doubled. Learn more at uwc-usa.org/davischallenge.

HELP UWC-USA MEET THE MATCH!

NON-PROFITORGANIZATION

US POSTAGE

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