UWC Day – 21/9/23

On Thursday 21 September the UWC movement celebrated UWC Day and the theme for this year was ‘Shaping a sustainable future’.

At Adriatic we choose to focus on one of the three pillars of sustainability: ethical and social sustainability. 4 core staff members and student volunteer students organised 4 seminars that everyone attended on a rotating basis. Here is what we got up to!

Alice, our Global Politics teacher, and her class led a workshop on ‘Debunking Stereotypes/myths for social cohesion’. The objective was understanding how implicit bias and stereotypes work and how to possibly make choices with more of an open mind.

Enea, our World Arts & Cultures teacher and his class, experimented with Symbols for inclusion and/ or exclusion, underlining that social sustainability starts with us. Students showcased the “WAC approach” to observe and consider our UWC logo, accepting the idea of having a cultural identity that is not necessarily tied to a nation. Questions such as ‘What constitutes freedom? Where does our freedom end?’ were also discussed in this inquisitive session.

Senija, our Economics teacher, with the help of brave volunteer students, delved into the topic of peace building, conflict and tension resolution. The objective of the activity was building social cohesion and making community members feel supported and understood. Highlighting individual experiences to avoid the danger of a single story needs to be intentional.

Giulia, our sustainability coordinator, together with some enthusiastic first years, proposed a hands-on activity on how to involve our local community more, ‘building bridges’ between our institution and the locals. We dreamt about ‘Opening up Adriatic’ and ‘Gardening our Community’, where topics such as events, concerts, community gardening and lots of ideas were brought to the table!