Our Alumni

When Xinan Helen Ran and Miguel Alejandro Castillo Le Maitre look back on their time at Pearson College UWC, collaboration sits at the heart of what followed. Today, the two alumni work together through Xenoduo, a creative collective that explores immigration, belonging and what it means to make a home across cultures.

Xinan, who grew up in Inner Mongolia, China, and Miguel, who is from Caracas, Venezuela, bring different histories and artistic practices into conversation. Their work blends movement, design and installation to create experiences that invite people in rather than speak at them.

Their best-known project, A Mobile Home, is a collapsible performance platform shaped like an emergency shelter. Installed in public spaces across New York City, it functions as both a sculpture and a stage. The piece draws attention to the emotional weight and everyday bureaucracy of migration, while creating space for people to share their own stories and reflect together.

Xinan is now based in Brooklyn, where she works across installation, design, education and public art. Her practice looks at migration, labour and how people create a sense of home in changing environments, often using everyday materials and a quiet sense of humour. Her work has been recognised through fellowships and grants, and she has collaborated with institutions including the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and the Beam Centre on Governors Island.

Miguel’s practice moves between choreography, directing, installation and education. He is currently the Opera Directing Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Marcus Institute of Vocal Arts. His work focuses on diasporic imagination and the creative possibilities that emerge when people from different backgrounds work together. Alongside Xenoduo, he performs and collaborates internationally across dance, theatre and opera.

For Xinan, the connection back to UWC remains clear. “The values I learned at Pearson College still guide my work,” she says. “When I question why I make art, I come back to my relationship with the communities and worlds around me.”

Through Xenoduo, Xinan and Miguel continue to carry those values forward, using art to open conversations, build empathy and create shared spaces of belonging.

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Ralitza Dekova (Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa, 2003-2009)

Ralitza is committed to transforming how communities respond to global health challenges. With a Master’s in Global Health, she began her career working on a scientific journal dedicated to HIV research, focusing on self-testing and innovations. Her passion for public health soon took her back home to Mbabane, Eswatini, where she managed an HIV self-testing program in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Her work became especially impactful during the COVID-19 pandemic, when HIV self-testing enabled people to access this critical service despite the lockdowns. From there, Ralitza went on to manage the Monitoring and Evaluation department at the international NGO she worked for, using data to improve program delivery across the country.

Today, Ralitza is pursuing a PhD in Implementation Science within public health and working at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, where she manages two EU-funded research projects focused on novel diagnostics for tuberculosis and respiratory infections. She thrives at the intersection of disciplines, where diverse expertise, innovation, and implementation meet to improve health outcomes globally. Reflecting on the role UWC played in shaping her path, she shares:

“Being surrounded with a diversity (of origins, upbringing, skin colours, religions and interests) was the norm for me, having spent all of my teen years at a UWC. I only realised much later the rare gift that that was. But the lessons I learned in listening, questioning, understanding and accepting different points of view stay with me from back then, whether they were implicitly learned or openly discussed.”

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Argentinian actor, singer and director Juan Pablo Di Pace (UWC Adriatic, 1997-1999) is best known for his roles as Jesus in NBC’s A.D. The Bible Continues, Fernando in Netflix’s Fuller House and his appearance in Mamma Mia! After graduating from UWC Adriatic, Juan Pablo trained at the London Studio Centre and launched his career on stage in Chicago. He credits his time at UWC with shaping his passion for bringing people together through storytelling.

“UWC Adriatic showed me the power of art to connect people from different backgrounds – a lesson I carry with me every day,” he says. 

Juan Pablo has remained closely connected to the UWC movement by giving his time as a host and speaker at UWC galas and events. He also continues to celebrate UWC through his work, recently filming projects like Admission and Before We Forget at his former college’s beautiful Duino campus. 

A special online screening of Before We Forget is exclusively available for the UWC community – a chance to celebrate the creative spirit and lifelong impact of a UWC education

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Deren Sanıvar – UWC Cyprus National Committee | EU Scholarship Programme for Cypriot Youth recipient.

Deren Sanıvar is dedicated to all forms of transformative education and sustainability, with a journey that connects activism, community engagement, interdisciplinary studies and art. Growing up in Cyprus, a post-conflict society, Deren developed a strong commitment to intercultural understanding and empathy, values that have continuously guided their work.

After graduating from UWC, Deren took a gap year to collaborate with the UWC Cyprus committee, leading workshops on power dynamics, gender diversity and conflict resolution, while also supporting the national committee’s scholarship selections. Around the same time, they joined the board of directors at Zero Food Waste Cyprus, helping tackle local food waste challenges and support marginalised communities. 

Deren is studying Global Sustainability Science at Utrecht University, with a focus on governance and societal transformation combined with international perspectives on education and youth. Alongside their studies, they are also an artist and bodyworker, co-developing a movement practice they named Mookore, which invites embodied self-acceptance and exploration. Through movement and poetry, they cultivate personal transformation that roots and enriches their work at the intersection of inner growth and systems change. Their vision is clear: to keep advocating for education that is adaptive, inclusive and responsive to global challenges.

As the keynote speaker for the UWC Red Cross Nordic’s Class of 2025 graduation, Deren sent a message to all members of the UWC community and beyond:

“So here’s my call to you: stay whimsical! Keep your wonder intact. Let joy be part of your resistance. Find it in the simplest of things, a conversation, a beam of light, the sound of your own laughter echoing in a kitchen. Cultivate a wonder that refuses to die. Stay mindful, stay enchanted and let that enchantment anchor you to the world you’re trying to protect. Because your capacity for wonder and spiritual aliveness isn’t naive – in a world that wants you numb, staying alive to beauty is a form of defiance.”

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Jessica Broder’s career, from community work in India to wildland firefighting in British Columbia, reflects a deep commitment to service and environmental stewardship. 

After graduating from UWC Mahindra, she worked with education-focused non-profit Pudhiyadhor in India, and later with Spirit North in Canada, delivering outdoor education programmes to young Indigenous people. In 2021, she joined the BC Wildfire Service, spending three seasons on the frontlines as an Initial Attack and Unit Crew member, while also training as a faller and danger tree assessor. 

Today, Jessica is a wildfire and forestry technician with Cathro Consulting Ltd, where she helps communities develop fuel management and wildfire resiliency plans. She advocates for the return of prescribed and cultural fire to the land, recognising Indigenous stewardship as essential to reducing megafires in the face of climate change.

Reflecting on her UWC experience, she shares:

“My experience at Mahindra College was undeniably formative. I am who I am today in large part because I had the privilege of spending my later teenage years in one of the most challenging, unique and inspiring environments. A UWC education has a way of making the world feel a little smaller – and it gave me a deep confidence in my capacity to dream big and accomplish even bigger things.”

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Pringgo joined UWC Mostar in 2022 as a scholar on the UWC-Pestalozzi Scholar Programme, which has been running since 2019. The programme encourages students to find ways to make a positive impact within their communities, and Pringgo has certainly found a way to do just that. Returning to his rural village in Indonesia over the summer break, Pringgo saw an opportunity to use his skills to help those around him, and what started as a small project quickly grew as demand increased.

Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide. Find mentoring opportunities, seek advice and support, engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Robin has been a volunteer with the Royal National Lifeboat Service (RNLI) in the UK since he was 16, working on the lifeboat at UWC Atlantic during his student years. Over the past nine years, he has volunteered with various NGOs to help save lives in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas and is the Founder and CEO of Atlantic Pacific International Rescue Ltd. 

Based in South Wales, London and Northern Japan, Atlantic Pacific is dedicated to reducing global drowning, which is the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths worldwide.  Established in 2016, Atlantic Pacific offers the UK’s only publicly accessible training for search and rescue at sea, covering areas such as Search and Rescue at Sea, First Aid, Psychological First Aid and Migration Studies. The organisation aims to train as many individuals as possible to address both the current drowning crisis in the Mediterranean and future crises.

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Nosipho Gwebu Storer is the founder and director of Goshen, a shelter for women and children in Eswatini. With over 20 years of experience in public health and community development, Nosipho has pioneered programmes in paediatric HIV care and community-based health initiatives. In 2020, she established Goshen to provide comprehensive support to women escaping gender-based violence, offering immediate safety, counselling, medical care, economic empowerment and legal aid. Goshen’s mission is to help survivors heal from trauma, regain stability and rebuild their lives for a more secure future.

Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide. Find mentoring opportunities, seek advice and support, engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!

Meredith Andrews (Bermuda/UK, UWC Atlantic 1993-1995) is a Bermudian photographer and artist with nearly 20 years of professional experience. Her focus lies in portraying untold stories of everyday people and exploring surrounding cultures and societies. Andrews’ work has been featured in dozens of international exhibitions such as the 2009 and 2019 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at National Portrait Gallery in London, UK, the Portrait of Humanity, the Royal Photographic Society, OpenWalls Arles, the Copenhagen Photo Festival and a solo show at the Bermuda National Gallery in 2021. In recent years Meredith has turned her attention to Bermuda’s delicate natural environment and the global problem of plastics in our oceans by creating images and sculptures crafted from reclaimed ocean plastic.

*The UWC Hub is an online space for members of the UWC community to meet, connect and collaborate; it is open to UWC students (in the IBDP years), alumni, staff, national committee members and participants in UWC short courses.

Fellow UWC South East Asia alums, Ju Shen Lee and Jeevan Sellappah decided to set up a private, self-funded UWC Ideals in Action project to photograph the remarkable people they come across on their travels to remote locations in Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Nepal. They hope their project will inspire individuals, organisations and agencies to visit, create jobs and build businesses that foster sustainable growth, development and prosperity for these communities. Ju Shen’s award-winning ‘Real . Life . Photos’ document long-standing social responsibility, environmental sustainability and ecological regeneration practices at work in these remote communities. Through this project, Ju Shen and Jeevan hope to open people’s eyes, hearts and minds to different cultures, and to encourage people to share skills and contribute time to these communities.

*Join the UWC Hub to connect with UWCers worldwide by location, profession and interests. Give back by mentoring or offering opportunities; seek advice and support; and engage in projects and stay informed about events. Embrace the UWC spirit – complete your profile and start connecting today!