This has been a week of celebrating our world-wide links. We welcomed an extraordinary range of distinguished visitors that reflected our place within the wider UWC network as well as our links with other agencies, either though our own alumni or NGOs. And then we celebrated UWC Day on Wednesday, a brilliant day that served to focus our attention on the vast range of dynamic links we have with other visionary schools and educators around the world.
The first of our visitors was Ms Catherine Copeland, the Head of the Primary Section of the newest United World College, UWC Maastricht (in the Netherlands), who visited on Monday morning. As LPCUWC is a senior secondary school, our students sometimes forget that there are three UWC schools in other parts of the world that teach younger children in the spirit of the UWC Mission (these schools being in the Netherlands, Swaziland and Singapore). It was great to have the opportunity to welcome UWC Maastricht’s first visitor to LPCUWC.
The second distinguished visitor was Ms Lisa Darling, the President of the United World College of the USA, which is located near Montezuma in New Mexico. Although I had visited Lisa at her College, this was her visit to LPCUWC, and indeed her first visit to Hong Kong. Lisa used the opportunity to have breakfast in the canteen with the six students currently attending LPCUWC who were selected by the US National Committee before touring the campus and attending one of my Theory of Knowledge classes.
The Executive Director of the UWC International Office in London, Mr Keith Clark, took the opportunity to visit the campus from Tuesday to Thursday on his way home following last week’s UWC meetings in Singapore. It had been seven years since Keith visited our campus, and he was keen to see the campus and its facilities in preparation for next year’s Council meeting (to be held at LPCUWC in October 2011) as well as meeting board members, staff and students. We used Keith’s visit as a basis to schedule this year’s UWC Day, which was opened on Wednesday morning with an address by Keith in the main courtyard before a wide-ranging and informative series of workshops began.
UWC Day was brilliantly organised by one of our mathematics teachers, Mrs Stella McCracken, and her team of enthusiastic students, and a key feature of the day was a series of workshops that were facilitated by young LPCUWC alumni. On the basis that I believe the measure of any school is the quality of its alumni, let me digress for a moment and share a little background of each alumnus who helped us on Wednesday:
Charlotte Sung, from Hong Kong, attended LPCUWC from 1993 to 1995. Charlotte now works in Hong Kong in the Equal Opportunities Commission, focusing on anti-discrimination issues. She originally studied civil engineering at Imperial College and then spent 6 “monotonous” years in the Hong Kong Government as a civil engineer. She changed her career direction and returned to the UK to do her Masters in Development Studies before accepting offers from the United Nations Volunteers to join the UN Peacekeepers on three separate missions (for nearly three years) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Liberia. She is now back in Hong Kong, taking a break from peacekeeping.
Fernando Perez Martin, from Spain, attended LPCUWC from 1998 to 2000. Fernando is an artist working on ‘art for social transformation’ projects. He spent several years working for NGOs in England and South Africa in humanitarian aid-development and nature conservation. He has also worked with Simón Bolivar UWC in Venezuela. He chose art as a way to channel his urge for a better world, believing that it helps to unite peoples and address important issues. Since 2006 he has been involved with his art group METASINTESIS in several social art projects, such as ARTIFARITI in Western Sahara where art is used to voice out human rights and the difficult situation of the Saharaui people. Among many other projects, he has also worked with Spanish NGOs running art workshops and activities for immigrant children.
Jing Wong, from Hong Kong, attended LPC from 1999 to 2001. Jing is the director and designer of Daydream Nation. He studied Theatre Art at Central St Martins College of Art and Design, followed by a Masters in Theatre Directing and founded Daydream Nation, a fashion arts house, in 2006. Daydream Nation is not only an international fashion brand, but also celebrates theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts. In between, Jing has designed art shows, the sets for theatre groups and toured with puppetry groups. He also loves music and as a singer-songwriter often busks on the streets of Hong Kong. He has just been signed onto an indie label, his first album will be launched later this year and he has started touring performances around Asia.
Stephanie Cheung, from Hong Kong, attended LPCUWC from 2001 to 2003. Stephanie works for Oxfam in Hong Kong. She majored in International Development Studies and Anthropology at the University of Toronto. While at university she went on an exchange to Cuba to learn about development issues there and started getting involved in Fair Trade. After returning to Hong Kong, she started to work seriously for Fair Trade – and so joined Oxfam. She is now fully committed to Oxfam, working as a grants administrator for education projects.
A-Jull Lim, from Germany (with Korean origins), attended LPC from 2002 to 2004. A-Jull has just started her PhD in Human Rights Law at Hong Kong University. After she graduated from LPCUWC, she spent six months in Peru working with street children and children with disabilities. She then studied International Relations in Germany, followed by her Masters in Geneva on Human Rights Law, Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law and Refugee Law. In between she has done internships with several NGOs and the UN.
Denise So, from Hong Kong, attended LPCUWC from 2006 to 2008. Denise is studying medicine at Hong Kong University, and is a former participant in the North Korean Goodwill Initiative. Although she only recently graduated from the College, Denise has already managed to set up (along with James Mak – also from LPCUWC) a non-profit organisation called ‘Project Little Dream’. Entirely student-run, it aims to further education in underprivileged regions of the world while offering students in Hong Kong the opportunity to volunteer for a worthwhile cause abroad. In less than two years, Project Little Dream has already built two village schools, refurbished an orphanage and constructed a sanitation block in poor regions of Cambodia.
UWC Day concluded with a fabulous music concert in the traditional location - our home - at which students performed for each other. The concert, which ran from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, was entirely organised by two students (Rudy from the Czech Republic and Cristobal from Mexico), and it provided a very fitting end to a great day of celebrations. This was the first music concert for this academic year, and the quality of the music was both sensational and humbling. The only problem was trying to squeeze everyone inside! A measure of the quality of the performances was that Keith Clark, who was attending the concert to relax after a long day of speech-making, workshop-leading, staff-meeting-attending, and so on, felt compelled to rise at its conclusion and congratulate the students on the amazing quality of the music they had presented. I happily echoed his sentiments, as it was a privilege to have such wonderful music brought into our own home.
Following UWC Day, I received a very encouraging e-mail from Mrs Francine Fu, who was one of the several board members who attended, and with her permission, I would like to share her message:
“I would like to drop you a quick note to say thank you for inviting me to Li Po Chun’s UWC Day and to congratulate you, the teachers and students for a great event. Although I only attended the morning sessions, I was impressed by what I saw. I attended the talk by Denise So who spoke about Project Little Dream. The main message I got from that is how James, Denise and others overcame the usual apathy (I am too young, I do not have the right experience, someone else with resources should do it instead) and rose to the challenge to do something dear to their hearts and what they believed would make a difference. Even better, they involved and inspired others to do the same. Although the project is an obvious success, they carried on their work with such humility, good humour and vigour. I think that this is a shining example of what the UWC education is all about. I wish to congratulate all those who helped in the UWC Day and more importantly, to all those staff who helped inspire and support the students to carry out the UWC ideals”.
The following day (Thursday), we welcomed another delegation, this time a group of 14 senior principals and educators from Mainland China under the auspices of the UNESCO to learn about the UWC model of international education, and especially its expression in Hong Kong at LPCUWC. Organised by HIESD (the Hong Kong Institute of Education for Sustainable Development) under the guidance of one of our board members, Prof Lee Ngok, the group seemed to enjoy and appreciate the one-hour illustrated bilingual presentation I gave on the UWC model of education and its expression in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world. This was followed by a short address from Mr Keith Clark, followed by a tour of the campus (including the auditorium construction site, see photo to the right), before joining the students in the canteen for lunch.
I think it is fair to say that we all finished the week somewhat tired, but nonetheless exhilarated and inspired by the practical expressions of our world-wide links that we had experienced. No-one could have been left untouched by the experiences of this week.
Footnote: In case you haven’t heard, it was announced on Thursday this week that I would be leaving LPCUWC at the end of this academic year (on 31st July 2011) to take up the headship of The Awty International School in Houston (Texas, USA). Although very sad to be leaving - or rather, being a little further away from - so many wonderful friends in Hong Kong, Di and I are really looking forward to the exciting opportunities of living in Houston, and especially leading the second largest international school in the US.
You can see the announcement letter from the Chair of the Board at LPCUWC HERE, and you can read the announcement from Awty HERE.
Thank you to all those students, alumni, parents, friends and colleagues who have sent me the many very touching congratulatory messages and e-mails. I will eventually try and answer each one, but please understand I have quite a large backlog just at the moment.