Happy belated UWC Day!

My senior year at Oberlin College started as a reminder of how I ended up here in the first place. I had spent the final two years of high school before coming to Oberlin at the United World College in New Mexico, an international educational program with 18 campuses around the world. UWC is an educational institution whose mission aims to make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. The way this happened for me was through a student population of 200 students from 95 countries, celebrating each other’s holidays and learning about each other’s cultures. By the end of my experience, although I knew my classmates I met in New Mexico, I had a whole UWC network to meet from all other 17 locations. The day before the first day of classes, Oberlin gave me the reminder and opportunity to do that.

The first year I came into Oberlin, there were five UWC alums studying as Obies. This year, at a UWC welcome dinner at President Ambar’s house, I learned that there were 18.

I’ve written a few blogs before talking about the international student community on campus I am such a fan of, but have never celebrated the UWC community I wholeheartedly take a part of too. This year’s welcome dinner reminded me to do that.

The dinner was a beautiful event in which the Admissions staff gathered with the returning and new UWC students as a way to meet each other, celebrate the shared experience of going to UWC we all have, and the big moment of the event: receiving a UWC Alum globe. The students and Admissions dinners are an annual tradition in which we get to know each other and bond over the experience. Our conversations usually include elaborate discussions of which campus is the best, accompanied by delicious food. This specific dinner reminded me of how special the network is and how important it is to keep this community alive and growing.

Inspired by that touch of connection, in anticipation of September 21, which is usually celebrated as UWC Day, I decided to host a celebration. The idea was: for UWC Day, we make a UWC cake! We ended up not only baking a cake, but decorating it with an attempt of the school’s logo. We enjoyed the chocolate and frosting while bonding over our favorite UWC memories.

 

What I took away from these two bonding moments was that UWC continues to be alive here on campus too. At Oberlin, we try to start and grow that connection, through president’s dinners and UWC logos written down with frosting.

Because I love that connection, I want to take note of those of you UWC kids thinking of applying: our UWC community is slowly growing, and from where I started, we’ve already come a long way. We would love to have you join us, celebrating each other’s holidays, and continuing the passdown of hosting the UWC cake for UWC Day event. Plus, one of your UWC second-years might already be here – wouldn’t it be fun to reunite across the world and eat a delicious dinner at President Ambar’s house?