This has not been an easy week, nor is this an easy blog to write.  At the beginning of the week, we lost one of our former students through a tragic accidental drowning – the first LPCUWC student or former student to die as far as I know.  When you work in a school, it is inevitable that from time to time you are confronted by dreadful losses.  Knowing this does not really prepare you for the shock, the gloom of senseless loss or the sheer grief when it happens, however.

The words “shocked” and “saddened” are simply inadequate.   Jonia was a very special young woman in many ways.  She was our first student from East Timor, and the first East Timorese ever to attend a United World College.  More importantly, she was a vivacious, humble, courageous and enchanting young woman with a HUGE smile that proclaimed her love of life and vitality to the world.  She captivated everyone with her zest for life, her positive attitude, her refusal to be drawn into criticising others, her courage in mastering English (and the IB Diploma), her humble gratitude, her brilliant theatre performances, her sense of mischievous fun, her music and dance, and that HUGE sunny smile.  After she graduated from LPCUWC just one year ago, she gained a full scholarship to attend St Lawrence University in New York (USA).  On her day off last Saturday she went swimming in Upper Saranac Lake, which is where the tragic accident occurred.  As I wrote in my e-mail to our staff and students (almost all of whom have left the campus now for the summer break), our world is much poorer for the loss of Jonia.

Some beautiful heartfelt tributes have been written about Jonia by her friends and teachers at both LPCUWC and St Lawrence, and many of these can be read at http://www.stlawu.edu/ucomm/studentdeath0607.html and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2389968528.  Please take the time to read some of them and learn what a special young woman we have been privileged to share as part of our lives.

It has been hard to concentrate on other facets of work this week in view of Jonia’s accident, but it has been important to do so, and in any ordinary week, the achievements would be cause for joy.  We had a Management Committee meeting of the Board on Wednesday, and excellent progress was made towards starting construction of our new auditorium, and in developing policies on outdoor expeditions and student travel outside Hong Kong that will make our students’ experiences much richer and more diversified.  There is more work ahead on both these matters, but I am confident that the results of this work will bring great benefits for our students - which is why we labour, after all!

Our auditorium project is particularly exciting.  Every year, we have many highly gifted actors and actresses at LPCUWC (Jonia was one of them!) under the direction of a great Theatre Arts teacher, and we will be introducing IB Diploma Music in September for the first time this year in co-operation with Renaissance College (a new ESF school at nearby Heng On).  Furthermore, at present we have nowhere (other than our acoustically challenged Sports Centre) where the entire College community can gather under cover, and I think there are times when our sense of community suffers as a result.  The auditorium is the last phase of our building program and is long overdue - for understandable but nonetheless frustrating financial reasons.  We need the auditorium now, which is a bit sooner than when we will have it, but strong momentum is definitely building in the right direction!

I can’t wait, because we will have more and more gifted and talented performers like Jonia in the years ahead who will dance, act and perform their way into our hearts.