Team

Briana joined UWC International as a Programmes Coordinator for the Global Selection Programme in September 2023. Her role focuses on running the Global Selection Program through managing applications, reviews, and selection.

Briana holds a BA in Anthropology from Trent University and MA in Cultural Heritage Management and Conservation from Sir Sandford Fleming College. She spent several years in the heritage sector as an artefact conservator before deciding to make a change and enter into education admissions and selection. Prior to joining UWC, she worked as a Programme Coordinator for the Rise scholarship, where she was first introduced to the UWC movement. She quickly became passionate about enacting social change through aiding young people to achieve their academic dreams. 

Briana is originally from Ottawa, Canada, and moved to the UK and settled in Oxfordshire in 2022. She has also lived in the United States of America and Malta.

Outside of work, Briana spends her time crocheting, baking, playing tennis with friends and travelling around the UK and beyond. 

Email: briana.ippolito@uwcio.uwc.org

Briana joined UWC International in January 2022 as Programmes team intern and is now working as Programmes Officer in the Berlin office. She works to support and strengthen UWC schools, colleges and national committees in their processes and operations. 

Prior to joining UWC, Briana graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a BA in International Development and Political Science. Since then she has worked for various national and international non-profit and charity organizations. In her most recent roles, she worked as programmes coordinator for organizations providing mentoring and education opportunities to young black men and women, both in Canada and the UK. Driven by her passion for education and social justice, Briana is excited to be working for such an international and wide-reaching movement like UWC that is providing incredible education opportunities to youth all over the world. 

In her spare time, Briana can be found bouldering, reading, traveling, listening to podcasts, and eating her way through Berlin (or anywhere else). 

Email: briana.wilson@uwcio.uwc.org 

Deekshya is the Student Application Platform Project Officer based in Berlin. She holds a BA in Sociology and dual MA degrees in Sociology and Medical Anthropology. Her academic journey highlights her interest in varied topics ranging from socio-political movements, health and visual anthropology, gender studies, science and technology studies. 

Prior to joining UWC, Deekshya worked as a long term Research Assistant at both Heidelberg University and the Max Planck Institute for International Peace and Rule of Law, where she gained skills in research, project management and demonstrated commitment to fostering academic excellence. 

Growing up in India she was exposed to social inequalities quite early in her life and has been passionate about topics relating to indigenous peoples’ right to health, education, social security etc. In the past Deekshya has worked with several non-profits that focused on these issues and now hopes to extend the UWC experience to young minds from all over the world, particularly from disadvantaged groups.

Deekshya’s willingness to “try everything at least once” and adventurous mindset is what motivates her to explore Berlin one activity at a time. 

Email: deekshya.bhal@uwcio.uwc.org 

Inês joined UWC International in December 2022 as a Temporary Programmes Officer and is now working as a Programmes Coordinator, based in Berlin, with a focus on fundraising capacity building in the NC system. They are a UWC Short Course alumni (2014) and have volunteered for the Portuguese national committee for six years. 

Their academic background is in International Relations and Gender Studies, and before joining UWC International they worked for different non-profit and civil society organisations in Portugal. Their roles included Project Coordinator with an association whose work is based on a harm-reduction approach for people facing homelessness, people who use drugs, migrants and refugees; and as a Gender Policy Officer, supporting the development of gender equality diagnosis and plans for entities working with people with functional diversity. 

Outside of work, Inês loves to experiment with analog photography, participate in slam poetry events and is involved with social justice movements – a feminist collective and a housing rights movement. 

Email: ines.colaco@uwcio.uwc.org  

Based between Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Beirut, Lebanon, Kaya has joined UWC International to support the fundraising potential of 40 national committees within the fold of the UWC movement. Kaya has been chairing the UWC Lebanon National Committee since 2013, which has given her first-hand experience of the structures, operational challenges and needs of national committees. Regularly attending regional workshops, as well as two UWC congresses, contributed to her understanding of UWC as an ecosystem and the potential of strength through collaboration. The experience of organising the yearly UWC Lebanon camp, which brought together diverse and often divided local communities, became her initiative to launch two short courses in Lebanon in 2018 and 2019 for local, regional and international students, obtaining funding in order to ensure socio-economic as well as cultural diversity.

Kaya is a British/Lebanese bi-national who grew up in Zimbabwe and attended UWC SEA from 1983 to 1985, which was instrumental in triggering her later interest in investing in communities through culture and education. She went on to study Post-colonialist literature and Japanese at the University of Auckland before moving to Tokyo to work in the journalism sector and on community-based art projects. In 1993, she moved to Beirut with her partner and collaborated on the development of art projects in Beirut, Prague, London, Melbourne, Japan and around the Middle East, co-writing and editing all of the publications associated with these temporary and permanent projects. Currently on the board of Wellspring Learning Community in Beirut, she is interested in applying UWC principles of experiential education to the wider local community.

Kaya is excited to be working with UWC International on the national committee development programme to help develop fundraising potential within its constituents. 

Email: kaya.karam@uwcio.uwc.org

Megan joined UWC International as a Programmes Officer in August 2023. Her role is focused on National Committee capacity building with an emphasis on promotion projects. 

Megan holds a BA in International Relations, and an MA in Gender, Violence and Conflict from the University of Sussex. Predominantly focused on refugee mental health support and access to education, she has spent most of her career in UK-based NGOs working to make support systems more relevant and accessible to migrants. Prior to joining UWC, Megan worked as a Modern Slavery and Victim Care Advisor at Migrant Help, a UK based charity supporting survivors of exploitation. 

Passionate about mental health support, she currently volunteers as a Listening Volunteer for the Samaritans. 

Megan grew up in Kenya and has a love for travel that she tries to build into her work and personal life. In her spare time Megan enjoys jewellery making, painting, digital art, wild swimming and cooking. 

Email: megan.mcgurk@uwcio.uwc.org

Michael joined UWC in April 2020 as a Senior Programme Officer and took on the role of Global Admissions Manager in January 2024. He oversees the admissions process for IB students and works with national committees and schools and colleges in their work to drive forward UWC’s mission. Michael passionately believes in the power of young people to be a uniting force for positive change in the world, and in the crucial role that UWC’s ethos and holistic approach to education play in making this possible. He is particularly proud to be part of a global educational movement looking to instill universal values in young people across traditional cultural divides.   

After volunteering in Thailand, Peru and Brazil, Michael worked with Restless Development, a youth-led development agency, where he coordinated a cross-cultural volunteering programme focusing on employability and sexual health rights for young people. Prior to joining UWC, Michael managed a government funded multi-million pound grant for a consortium of development agencies working across three continents, which aimed to empower local communities. 

Michael holds a BA in History and French, and an MA in International Relations. Outside of work, you’ll often find Michael in a Capoeira roda, on a ski slope, or reading a book. He also has a keen interest in cooking, live music and yoga. Having grown up in Belgium, Switzerland and the UK, he speaks a number of European languages with varying degrees of confidence. 
 

Email: michael.royce@uwcio.uwc.org

Miranda joined UWC International in September 2023 and is currently working as a Programmes Officer, based in London. Her work involves capacity building national committees fundraising projects. Miranda is originally from Norway and is a UWC alumni from Maastricht (2016-2018). 

After graduating from UWCM, she pursued her BA in Social Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Manchester and an Msc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics. Prior to joining UWC International she has worked in fundraising for UNICEF Norway, as a blogger and as a humanitarian consultant. 

Miranda is passionate about women’s education and empowerment. She previously volunteered at a women’s refugee centre in Manchester and is currently involved with a London-based NGO delivering education projects to women in the Global South. 

Outside of work she enjoys exploring London, reading, learning to cook new vegetarian dishes and spending time with her loved ones. 

Email: miranda.neal@uwcio.uwc.org

Radka is a UWC Mostar alumna from Czech Republic who has been with UWC International since August 2019, minus a sabbatical where she explored innovations in media related to peacebuilding. Currently she serves as Programmes Data Manager with her previous roles involving the delivery of the 2024 UWC International Congress and discovering UWC data as Data Analyst.

Before UWC, Radka has worked mainly in International Development and alongside journalists, trying to make the most out of her academic background in public policy with concentration on global media and Middle Eastern studies. Although Radka humbly does not regard herself as a tech wizard like some of her colleagues, she enjoys trying to find innovative and tech-based solutions to help with her work and that of others.

Outside of UWC, Radka embraces slow-life hobbies such as sourdough and knitting, but she also volunteers as track & field official and a board member of the International Debate Education Association (IDEA). Learning a new language is always a welcome challenge for her.

Email: radka.pudilova@uwcio.uwc.org

Sonam is a Berlin-based Programmes Officer who joined the UWCIO in September 2023. She is engaged in the National Committee capacity building initiatives, with a particular focus on selections.
Sonam was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. She completed her B.A. and M.A. in Political Science in Germany.

Prior to joining UWC, she worked as a research assistant for the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Sonam’s interests range from political sociology and history to film and literature. Having engaged with educational initiatives in the past as well, she truly believes in the role that education can play to materialize positive changes in the world.

In her spare time, Sonam delights in reading and going to the cinemas – with Kino Babylon being her favourite cinema in Berlin. She also likes wandering around the city’s several neighbourhoods and flohmarkts. 

Email: sonam.gurung@uwcio.uwc.org