Life at UWC is made up of a world of different experiences and opportunities. So, what can you expect once you set foot on a UWC campus?
On the academic side, you are going to study a very challenging curriculum with the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP), or may choose an alternative but equally challenging pathway that is offered by some of our schools in collaboration with the IB. Far beyond this, however, a UWC education is about the wider community experience. Learning to live together with students from all continents, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds is a core component of the UWC educational model and our theory of impact:
By working on projects engaging with surrounding communities, you will learn to put your passion for change into action. By exploring different creative and physical activities – from pottery to skiing, from photography to hiking – you will develop new skills and will be encouraged to push past your comfort zone. By launching your own initiatives and projects with fellow students, you will grow as a changemaker and as an inclusive leader. By living together in school communities and shared residences with other students from all over the world, you will learn to set aside differences and overcome barriers.
Sharing a campus with teachers and staff members is another essential part of UWC community life which allows for learning to continue far beyond the classroom. Whether you need advice on future aspirations or on an upcoming assignment, teachers will be around to share insights and knowledge with you from breakfast to dinner. You will also share many of your Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) activities with your teachers and staff members. This might involve going on wilderness trips with your biology teacher, harvesting in the school garden together with the kitchen staff, or developing your own projects or service initiatives together with your global politics teacher. You will be able to form strong bonds with trusted adults who will become important parts of your UWC community and journey.
Residential Life at UWC
As a boarding student, at most of the UWC schools you will share a room with one to four other students from different countries and backgrounds. Your room will usually be part of a larger residence or boarding house, which you will share with fellow students as well as dedicated house mentors, who are teachers and staff members living on campus. Together, you will support each other and form a family away from home. All members of this residential community – students and adults – will have had all sorts of different experiences before coming to UWC and have a lot to learn from and about each other.
Although each UWC setting is unique, you can expect to find similar facilities beyond the classrooms and residences on each campus: a dining room, mensa, canteen or cafeteria (with the name depending on the local context and language), a library, medical facilities, sports facilities, social areas and more. What these facilities look like will depend on the individual school, with some campuses including gyms and swimming pools and others including specialist music facilities, for example.
The surrounding area will also vary. Some campuses are nestled in nature, such as the mountains of Maharashtra, India or the fjords of Norway. Other schools are immersed into local towns and villages, with classrooms and residences spread across the city of Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina and the town of Duino, Italy.
We won’t pretend that sharing campus spaces – from bedrooms to dining rooms – at all hours of the day with such a diverse group of people will always be easy. Disagreements will emerge and it can be intense at times. Through it all, you will learn to deal with differences and develop the essential life skills associated with living alongside people you might otherwise have never met. This can expand your perspectives and willingness to compromise on all sorts of different things – from different political opinions to different views on whether shoes should be worn in your room or what kind of music gets played.
Lifelong friendships emerge as a result, alongside the ability to see beyond the divides drawn between countries, cultures and different social groups. And by discovering the differences between your individual identities together with your fellow students, you will also have the opportunity for deeper self-exploration.
