Three Challenges
Three Challenges
Monday, 22 September 2008
The first week of classes for 1st Year students has just finished. Actually, it was a fairly gentle beginning to the academic side of life here as last Monday was a holiday to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. Nonetheless, the pace of activity is certainly quickening, which is why I posted the image at the top of this blog – we need to remember to stop and take the time to smell the flowers from time to time (for those who are even less poetically inclined than I am, this is a metaphor for taking time to appreciate the little things that give life its full, rich quality!). Fortunately, our beautiful and spacious grounds provide more than enough scope for sniffing flowers, listening to birds, finding a quiet corner for reflection or reading, or undertaking whatever ‘time out’ strategy is needed at the time.
With the hectic program of Orientation Week behind us all, Di and I invited all the 1st Year students to come in small groups into our home this week for welcome drinks. To say we were impressed with the calibre of our new students would be an understatement. What a superb group of talented young men and women we have this year!
As part of their welcome, and to try and help them get the most from their time at the College, I gave each of the students three challenges for the coming two years.
The first challenge might sound simple, but our experience shows that it is not – I challenged the students to get enough sleep! The problem is that there are so many interesting things to do and fascinating people to talk to at LPC that finding time to sleep can be a serious problem. It is, nonetheless, extremely important. For the past few years, our College doctor has reported that over 80% of our students’ medical problems can be traced back to insufficient sleep. My advice to the students was to establish a way to manage their time effectively right from the beginning so that sleep deprivation does not become an issue as the pressures build up later in the term.
My second challenge to the students was an extension of this issue of choices. Our College is somewhat like a transitional cross between a school and a university, with greater freedom to make choices than most schools, but less than universities. With the privilege to make choices comes the responsibility to understand and handle the consequences of those choices. This is obvious with the ‘Big’ choices we make – choosing a course of study, selecting the universities to apply for, even making the big decision to move out of home (and usually to a different country) to study in a United World College. It is obvious that each these ‘Big’ choices will transform and determine the person we will be.
The point I made to the students was that ‘small’ everyday choices also influence the type of person that we will become, and perhaps in more fundamental and subtle ways. For example, if someone decides to break a rule about leaving the campus without signing out, or being in someone else’s room after curfew, or indeed decides to break any rule on the grounds that it is worth the risk of getting away with it, then that person’s idealism, integrity and principles are eroded – bit by bit, as each such choice is made. And that is extremely significant, because our students were chosen by their Selection Committees precisely because they displayed those types of qualities – integrity, idealism and principles. So, my second challenge to the students was to be aware of the consequences of their ‘small’ everyday choices and to protect the idealism and integrity that enabled them to be selected for the privilege of attending a UWC.
My third challenge also related to the students’ relationships with their Selection Committees. As I explained to the students, the cost of a fully residential education at a United World College, including LPC, is not cheap. I have been told that the cost of educating one student for two years at a UWC is about the same as the cost of building a small primary school in an East African country such as Tanzania or Zambia. The reason that people donate the substantial funds necessary for scholarships to attend a UWC is that they believe one person attending a UWC has more potential to make the world a better place than building a small primary school! That simple and stark fact is a measure of the hope people have in our students, and of course it places an enormous responsibility on the shoulders of every UWC student. Quite simply, the challenge before every one of our students is to be the person who fulfils the promise and the potential that others saw in them - the transformative person who will make our world a better place.
I was delighted that the 1st Year students embraced these three challenges with the passion, enthusiasm and idealism that I have come to expect from students in this United World College. The calibre of our students to rise to great challenges is nothing short of astounding, which is one of the (many) things that makes being an educator in a UWC so profoundly rewarding.
I honestly think that the world WILL be a better place because these particular students have been given the opportunity to study with us here at LPC, and I believe we have a great two years ahead of us.
Flowers in the College grounds, looking towards the waters of Starfish Bay in the background