Kaleidoscope Summer 2016

Volume 50 Fall 2016

page 4

Meet Dr. Victoria Mora, our new president page 8

Monique Seefried, an IB champion page 14

Tito and Mary Chavez build bridges to the community

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TABLE of CONTENTS

PRESIDENT PROFILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

MONIQUE SEEFRIED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Meet Dr. Victoria Mora, UWC-USA’s fifth president who started August 1. Her nickname growing up in a traditional New Mexico family was “sin verguenza,” and her accomplishments at Yale, St. John’s College in Santa Fe, and in the community paint the picture of a person uniquely equipped to lead UWC-USA going forward.

Board member Monique Seefried brings her experience with the International Baccalaureate to her work chairing the Board’s Education Committee. UWC-USA history teacher Alexis Mamaux, a longtime friend and collaborator, claims that Monique “is determined to maximize the academic experience of our students.”

CHANGE AGENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 It’s relatively easy to have big ideas about how to help developing countries – it’s entirely something else to effectively implement a vaccination program in Mozambique. Nono Harhoff ’12 masters the details for UNICEF.

CONNECTED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Tito and Mary have been teaching jewelry-making at UWC-USA for over twenty years. In addition to sharing their home and their creativity, they provide a bridge to the Las Vegas community for UWC-USA students.

SPOTLIGHT.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Melanie Brennand is the person who helps UWC-USA students get into college – but she wants to help them find the best fit.

SPECIAL TRIBUTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Giulio Regeni ’07 was tragically killed while conducting research in Egypt this past winter.

There may be no way to make sense of this loss to the UWC-USA community, but his life and work inspire us to live the UWC mission.

BIG HEART.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Barbara Ann Bernard LPC’99 is racing to build support for UWC-USA in The Bahamas.

INSPIRATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 PEER REVIEW.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Find out what your classmates are doing in the big world!

ONE OF US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The first children of UWC-USA alumni are beginning to make their way to Montezuma. As he encounters UWC-USA again through the eyes of his daughter Abhithi ’16, Pankaj Vaish ’85 reflects on how things have changed and how they are still the same.

VIEWPOINT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Anupama Pattabiraman visited UWC-USA this winter for several days. She shares her “outsider” insights into why a UWC-USA education is so effective and important.

Cover photo: Victoria Mora photographed by Carl-Martin Nelson

The magazine of UWC-USA, The Armand Hammer United World College of the American West Volume 50, Fall 2016 Vice President for Advancement: Christie Baskett Editor: Carl-Martin Nelson Peer Review Editor: Jose-Pablo Salas Rojas ’06 Copy Editor: Jeannine Santiago Designer: Liz Burrill Contributing Writers: Christie Baskett, Dana Micucci, Carl-Martin Nelson, Anupama Pattabiraman, Jose-Pablo SalasRojas ’06, Nadia Sheppard ’17 (USA-NC), Stella Tangiyan ’16 (Armenia), Contributing Photographers: Josselin Brémaud – Press Office – Embassy of France to the US, Josefine Bruun-Meyer ’17 (Denmark), Nono Harhoff ’02, Carl-Martin Nelson, Paul Phillips/Competitive Image, Tara Trudell Contact: UWC-USA P.O. Box 248 Montezuma, NM 87731 publications@uwc-usa.org

Kaleidoscope is published biannually by the UWC-USA Advancement Office to sustain connection with alumni and the school’s extended community.

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DEAR ALUMNI &

friends

This issue of Kaleidoscope celebrates what makes us most proud when we think of UWC-USA. We have outstanding alumni like Nono Harhoff ’02 doing great work in the world, remarkably experienced leadership in our college counseling office in Melanie Brennand, Tito and Mary Chavez’s great work over decades in our jewelry-making ExEd, and a new president dedicated to building on the success of the past while embracing the challenges of the future. I encourage you to get to know Victoria Mora, our fifth president, by reading the profile in this magazine, reaching out to her for a conversation or visit, or taking advantage of the opportunities we will create here in the US and around the world to get to know her in person.

Enjoy this issue of Kaleidoscope and stay in touch!

STEVE DICHTER Board Chair

GREETINGS FROM

montezuma It has been a pleasure and an honor to be the steward of this great institution (and even greater students) these past months. As I greeted and cried with our graduates on stage during commencement this spring I thought of a quote by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss: Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes.

Spring reminds us of hope and the possibility of a fresh start.

We need to live our lives in this optimism, looking for possibilities for renewal.

I encourage all members of our community to look forward to the new season, like our graduates, with hope and enthusiasm. Engage with your family, friends, and community and embrace all life has to offer.

MARTINA MOETZ Head of School

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LETTER FROM THE

president Greetings from beautiful Montezuma!

As I write this, I joyfully anticipate my first opportunity to meet with UWC-USA’s Second-years and the First-years with whom I will share my own first year as president. The reception since the announcement of my appointment has been warm and welcoming, on campus and within the larger UWC movement. But I know from years of experience that the full spirit of a campus community comes alive with the arrival of students. Their energy and sense of possibility remind all of us who dedicate ourselves to a residential learning community why we are here and why it matters.

I will be guided during my tenure at UWC-USA by the mission of UWC and by the spirit in which our students undertake it. I look forward to getting to know the UWC community over the next several months, including the leadership team and faculty and staff with whom I will work side by side, and the alumni and friends who make our work possible. I take seriously the privilege of being a First-year at this exceptional school and within this extraordinary and timely movement. And I will dedicate my inaugural year to learning from all around me about the UWC-USA that is, and about the UWC-USA that is possible.

Looking forward, VICTORIA MORA President (and First-year!)

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BY CARL-MARTIN NELSON DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Getting Personal

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For Dr. Victoria Mora, UWC-USA’s fifth president, a UWC-USA education is personal. A first-generation college graduate from a large, traditional New Mexico family, Mora saw up close the power of the UWC model when her daughter attended school in Montezuma graduating in 2013.

“I SAW MARISOL IMMERSED IN A PLACE THAT VALUES

academic excellence, something deeply important to me given my experience as a first-generation college student.

But I saw her character being educated, as well, including a deeper understanding of herself and a growing sense of the importance of her actions and interactions.” This understanding of self as it relates to community is an important motif in Victoria’s life and education and drives her quest to create transformational educational experiences for students.

With a family on both sides that traces its history in New Mexico back several generations, Victoria sees the importance of a group of people who provide support, love, and guidance. She and her husband, Tomás Fernández, raised his three children and their two children, Marisol ’13 and Alejandro. Marisol is a senior at Smith College, and Alejandro attends an International Baccalaureate school in Santa Fe. With dozens of cousins, aunts, and uncles ranging from Albuquerque to the East Mountains, the family community that supports Victoria is enormous. When adding her husband’s extended family throughout northern New Mexico, the network increases dramatically with weekends and holidays providing a wide array of gatherings and festivities.

Growing up in a lower middle-class family in the West Mesa neighborhood of Albuquerque with five siblings, she credits the support of her family as she pursued her educational goals at the University of New Mexico and later Yale University. Victoria graduated (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) with a degree in English and philosophy from UNM in 1985 and completed her Ph.D. with distinction in philosophy from

Yale in 1992. Returning to New Mexico, she worked as a tutor (faculty member) at St. John’s College in Santa Fe from 1992 until she became the dean of the college in 2006. As chief academic officer, she was responsible for the academic program of the college, coordinated accreditation efforts, launched the St. John’s Summer Academy for high-school students, and increased student domestic diversity and international diversity dramatically. In 2011, Victoria assumed the role of vice president for advancement and ultimately senior vice president for development and alumni relations across both campuses of St. John’s. Under her leadership of the advancement and development efforts, St. John’s College saw a 15 percent increase in alumni participation, met and exceeded annual fund projections, and helped develop a stronger ethos of giving among alumni and donors. Susan Kaplan, associate vice president for advancement at St. John’s College, sees Victoria’s success as a matter of relationships. “Victoria’s real strength as a fundraiser rests in her innate ability to build robust and respectful relationships with people,” Kaplan says. “She is not a fundraiser by training; most of her career has been in the classroom and then as dean before moving to development. It is her interpersonal skills that have made her so successful in the classroom, with donors, with board members, and with her colleagues. She also has a remarkable capacity to build and energize teams of people to get the job done. Victoria conceived, managed, and implemented the campaign in support of the 50th anniversary of the St John’s College Santa Fe campus.

The goal was $20 million; the total funds raised were over $32 million.”

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Aligned with the Mission Beginning with her high-school education and undergraduate experience at the University of New Mexico, Victoria learned the importance of developing strong communities and how important relationships are to learning. Annette Prapasiri, a former student, mentee, and friend, who now runs a branding and design company in Santa Fe, speaks highly of Victoria’s commitment to building and sustaining community.

“Victoria is always thinking about the well-being of the whole but never loses sight of the needs of the individuals,” Prapasiri says. Victoria understands that the challenges and rewards of building community are at the center of the UWC experience and mission. “The UWC mission is fundamentally about connecting people to each other across real and perceived barriers,” according to Victoria. “It is more relevant than ever. As borders and boundaries continue to shift and break down, the face to face, up-close learning and living experience UWC’s students have with one another holds out the best hope for embracing an uncertain future without fear.”

For Victoria, an openness to learning means being open to the transformations that accompany a powerful educational experience, as a parent, teacher, student, or colleague. According to Victoria, our work as educators is not fundamentally about training, and our learning goes beyond our time in the classroom. “A transformational education prepares us for life and its personal and professional eventualities,” she explains. “I think the primary feature of a transformational education is that it speaks to us at multiple levels of our being: intellect, imagination, heart, will. Maybe what transformational education does best is integrate us—bring our intellect, imagination, heart, and will together in the lives we lead.”

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Over the course of conversation and correspondence for this profile, it became very clear that Victoria understands the power of words. Her answers to questions are thoughtful, deliberate, and insightful.

Another former student, Shawn Watts, who now teaches at Columbia Law School, sees her relationship with words as an extension of her relationship with people.

“Even though I was a rather immature 19-year-old, Victoria treated me in conversation as another adult with ideas and perspectives worthy of respect and discussion,” Watts says. “She is always clear about what she thinks—and you are also very clear about what she thinks—but the way she engages others engenders respect and loyalty.” Victoria explains that she “is blessed with a great feeling of liberty in expressing my mind and my heart” but that she encourages “the kind of honest dialogue that clarifies meaning and intention,” however challenging that dialogue may be. “Peace is a beautiful thing—at home and in the concentric circles that make up our social and political life. But peace at the price of dishonesty, or silence motivated by fear, is no better than the loud polarity that seems to be so prevalent today.”

Victoria sees herself as the product of her family, her education, and the diverse cultures that make up New Mexico. As the first UWC-USA president who is also a native of New Mexico, Victoria embraces the challenges of cultural diversity right here at home.

“New Mexico celebrates its three primary cultures: Hispanic, Native American, Anglo,” she says. “I love the thought that UWC-USA could be a greater catalyst for increasing dialogue and understanding, especially given its commitment to learning through cultural exchange.” Mukul Kumar ’89, her predecessor, prioritized partnerships with Luna Community College, New Mexico Highlands University, and other educational organizations in the area, and Victoria sees opportunities to build on that good work while exploring how UWCUSA can increase collaboration between disparate cultures right here in northern New Mexico.

Building Support An interest in aligning the interests of individuals with causes they believe in is also fundamental to one of Victoria’s great strengths: fundraising. By all accounts, Victoria’s leadership of the development team at St. John’s College was tremendously successful. She credits the outstanding team at St. John’s with the successful completion of the recent campaign celebrating the

50th anniversary of the Santa Fe campus. When pressed on her own role in that success, she laughs. “I think my success in fundraising has been a matter of shamelessness. As a child, I thought my nickname was ‘Sin Verguenza’ (shameless) because I heard it from my father so much!” she claims. “If I believe in something, I want to tell everyone about it. If I am enriched by something, I want everyone to be enriched by it. When I ask for money, I feel like I’m doing a great good for the individual or other entity I am asking, even as they are doing a great good through their philanthropy. I am helping them to see how their resources can contribute to something worthwhile and important and impactful.

I do this ‘shamelessly’ because there is nothing shameful in helping people see the wonderful thing that something is and the wonderful thing it might become through their commitment.”

With the Armand Hammer Trust running out several years ago, the school’s reserves set to be depleted by 2020, and the need to invest in an aging infrastructure on campus, Victoria knows the challenges that await her in the coming months and years and looks forward to working with faculty, staff, alumni, and donors to find the resources necessary to sustain the school and continue to improve the student experience. With increased alumni giving this past fiscal year, successful completion of Annual Fund goals, another successful Davis Challenge met, and 100 percent student giving, Victoria is confident that the conditions for success are already in place.

Looking Ahead

But her goals for UWC-USA are not just about raising money. Victoria has been very clear that, in order to chart the course forward effectively, she needs to understand the concerns and priorities of the board, alumni, faculty, staff, and students and to listen closely to them. “It has been a long time since I have been a newbie within a school or community,” she acknowledges. But she feels energized by the opportunities to grow and lead. Her views on leadership are tied to her views on compassion and community. She cites the quote from Kurt Hahn about the importance of compassion and service in education as a way to understand what she wants to accomplish at UWC-USA. “Enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self-denial—all these are things each of us might pursue individually. But

“Compassion is hugely important if we are to have full access to others and a shared world.”

compassion requires an ‘other,’ with her or his own curiosity, spirit, tenacity, and self. And these things about the other aren’t necessarily shared by us, maybe even can’t be shared, in some deep sense. So compassion is hugely important if we are to have full access to others and a shared world.”

The past 12 months have been challenging for the students and faculty at UWC-USA with a number of changes in leadership, faculty, and staff and a new schedule for classes approved this spring. With so many changes afoot at the same time, Victoria understands the hard work ahead of her but emphasizes that success isn’t about the efforts of one person alone. “UWCUSA belongs to all of us who participate in it and act to sustain it. I’m joining UWC-USA as part of a larger leadership team, a larger community,” she says. “I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work on behalf of UWC-USA. But I see myself as part of a multiplication of forces that will determine the future of the U.S. campus within the movement.”

With a firsthand understanding of the impact of a UWC-USA education on her daughter and a profound understanding of the importance of the UWC mission, Victoria wants to strengthen the UWC-USA community while making the school a model for other UWCs. “Modeling compassion and creating conditions within which it can grow is the first principle that makes family life and community possible,” Victoria says. “It really isn’t all about me or all about you. It’s about us—so, too, for intellectual pursuit. Yes, we learn for our own growth and ongoing success. But in becoming more integrated human beings, we stand to contribute more richly and effectively to the communities we inhabit. I’m looking forward to being part of a community that lives that aspiration every day.“ 7

BY DANA MICUCCI

A Mission to Serve TRUSTEE MONIQUE SEEFRIED BRINGS HER PASSION FOR EDUCATION TO UWC-USA.

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DUCATION VISIONARY, HISTORIAN, AND UWC-USA TRUSTEE MONIQUE SEEFRIED

was born to serve. Her distinguished international career, culminating in her current post as commissioner of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, has been allied from the start with the UWC mission to make education a unifying force in the world.

Born in Tunisia and educated in Austria, France, and Italy, Seefried, 67, who is of French descent, traces her passion for history and education to her early years growing up in the heady, high-stakes world of politics. She was particularly inspired by her father René Brouillet, who was part of the French Resistance underground and worked alongside Gen. Charles de Gaulle to rebuild France after World War II. Brouillet served as deputy chief and chief of Cabinet for de Gaulle before becoming ambassador of France to Austria and then to the Holy See. Seefried credits France’s system of scholarships and free education for giving her father—the son of a school teacher from a small village in France—opportunities he would not have had otherwise. Seefried herself also benefited from the French system of free education, having attended French schools worldwide as well as the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history and geography and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in history.

“I view education as a privilege, but you have to be willing to take on this privilege and make something of it,” Seefried says. “In my youth, I was surrounded by people with high ideals who were driven to be of service in the world. These are the same values embodied by the founders and leaders of the International Baccalaureate Organization and the United World College movement.”

“I VIEW EDUCATION AS A PRIVILEGE, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO TAKE ON THIS PRIVILEGE AND MAKE SOMETHING OF IT.”

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and Unite

AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES, GÉRARD ARNAUD, AWARDING THE INSIGNIA OF CHEVALIER (KNIGHT) IN THE NATIONAL ORDER OF THE LEGION OF HONOR.

Founder and chair of the education committee of UWC-USA’s Board of Trustees, Seefried has more than a professional connection to UWC. Her Austrian-born husband’s family knew German educator Kurt Hahn, who founded the first UWC—Atlantic College in Wales— more than 50 years ago. Seefried says Hahn’s mission to provide top-quality education as a force of positive global change was ignited by his life-altering experience of World War I, when he was private secretary to Prince Max von Baden, the last chancellor of Imperial Germany.

Believing that a new kind of service-oriented, experiential education was needed to counter the prevailing consciousness of war and separation, Hahn and Prince von Baden founded the Salem School in 1920, a private boarding school in Salem, Germany, that served as Hahn’s first experiment for UWC. “Kurt Hahn’s vision of empowering young people all over the world with a quality education, so they can give back and make a difference, has been such a huge inspiration to me and my work, and it is the foundation of the International Baccalaureate (IB) creativity, action, service requirement,” Seefried says.

Her experience as former chair of the IB Board of Governors; founder and trustee of the Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education (CASIE) in Atlanta, where she has lived for the past 40 years; and former chair of the Board of Trustees of Atlanta International School, among other prestigious posts, has established her as an international education leader.

Seefried is also a teacher, historian, and archeologist who taught the history of Islamic art at Emory University in Atlanta and served for 20 years as curator of Near Eastern Art at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum, which she helped to establish in 1982. She says her interest in Islamic art stems from her desire to “bring about a better understanding of the Muslim world.”

Indeed, Seefried’s life’s journey has embodied the UWC mission to unite people, nations, and cultures through education aimed at creating a better world. In her latest role as commissioner of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, Seefried continues to see herself as a “builder of bridges”—between France and the U.S., past and future, education and opportunity. Whether she is attending events worldwide commemorating the U.S. role in World War I or leading groups to sites in eastern France, where American soldiers fought from 1917 to 1918, Seefried takes pride in keeping alive the memory of a pivotal time in history that not only inspired education leaders like Kurt Hahn but also offers valuable leadership lessons for the present, political and otherwise.

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“I want to ensure that Americans remember the important role the U.S. played in helping to win the war and then build peace through generous acts of philanthropy, for example, and the founding of the League of Nations, President Woodrow Wilson’s brainchild, which later gave birth to the United Nations,” says Seefried. “The depth of gratitude to the U.S. for its assistance in both World War I and World War II is still very much alive in France. So a big part of my service work in the U.S. is to give back and say, ‘Thank you.’”

In recognition of her outstanding public service, Seefried was recently awarded the insignia of chevalier (knight) in the National Order of the Legion of Honor— France’s highest distinction for military and civil merits established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. Upon bestowing the award in a ceremony in January in Washington, D.C., the ambassador of France to the U.S. Gérard Arnaud cited Seefried’s “passion” for “education, the transfer of knowledge, openness to the world, and FrenchAmerican friendship.”

Seefried brings that same passion and international spirit to her work as founder and chair of the education committee of UWC-USA’s Board of Trustees. When a UWCUSA alumnus invited her to join the school’s board in 2010, Seefried had already visited several UWC colleges, including UWC-USA, during her time as chair of the IB Board of Governors from 2003 to 2009.

She accepted the position as a UWC-USA trustee because she “admired the strong emphasis on service” at the United World Colleges she visited. She was also “very impressed” by the quality of the UWC teachers who led the IB teacher training at CASIE, which she founded in 1999 to educate teachers and parents in the Southeast on how to better serve students from diverse cultures and refugee communities.

Being of service at the highest level, however, requires a commitment to the academic excellence that the IB upholds, according to Seefried, who in her capacity as a trustee on the UWC-USA board created an education committee to ensure that UWCUSA continues to adhere to the high academic standards of the IB. “I felt it was important for the board to learn as much as possible about what is going on at the school so that students receive a well-balanced learning experience that does not detract from getting a superior education,” says Seefried, whose three children are IB graduates and who believes that the IB should be available to all students, not just a privileged few. “I’ve been pushing, especially, for a better understanding of the IB and making sure that students are not kept so busy that they can’t focus enough on academics.”

To that end, Seefried has opened up a line of communication for the first time between the board and the academic and residential leadership, teachers, and students at UWC-USA through yearly meetings with the board’s education committee. History teacher Alexis Mamaux says this dialogue has created a positive shift in the life of the school and is helping to address academic issues such as faculty welfare, professional development, and class size.

“When Monique joined the board, I knew how fortunate we were,” says Mamaux, who worked with Seefried 16 years ago at CASIE, where she trained teachers how to teach IB history. “Monique is a dedicated, hands-on leader with such a wealth of experience. She does what it takes to get things done. And she is determined to maximize the academic experience of our students.”

Students have also benefited from increased contact with the board. At one of the education committee meetings with student council members, Christian Morales ’17, Ohio, was so inspired by Seefried that he decided to spearhead the creation of a World War I memorial on the Montezuma campus that will honor Kurt Hahn’s legacy and the soldiers who fought in the war, including those from Las Vegas, New Mexico.

“Monique is very motivating,” says Morales, who plans to create the memorial with fellow students from his metal workshop class. “Her personality and passion align with the UWC mission, and living this by example she inspires us students to do the same.”

Seefried also initiated student contact with the board to show students how the board governs and how trustees give back by donating their time and financial resources for the benefit of the school. As someone who walks her talk, Seefried’s deep commitment to UWC and its values has extended all the way to the Balkans, where she and husband Ferdinand Carlos Seefried—a real estate developer and honorary consul general of Austria in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee—contributed a significant sum toward the creation of UWC-Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006.

“I’m so proud to be part of the UWC community,” Seefried says. “UWC is a wonderful example of how to educate young people to contribute to an increasingly interconnected, complex world. And UWC students embody what the early leaders of the International Baccalaureate Organization sought to instill—‘the power to think, the will to act, and the courage to persevere.’”

SEEFRIED WAS RECENTLY

AWARDED THE INSIGNIA OF CHEVALIER (KNIGHT) IN THE NATIONAL ORDER OF THE LEGION OF HONOR—FRANCE’S HIGHEST DISTINCTION FOR MILITARY AND CIVIL MERITS ESTABLISHED BY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE IN 1802.

Dana Micucci is a widely published journalist and author. Her books include Sojourns of the Soul: One Woman’s Journey Around the World and Into Her Truth, a Gold winner in the 2013 Nautilus Book Awards, and a new novel, The Third Muse.

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CHANGE AGENTS

BY CARL-MARTIN NELSON DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

“I always knew that I wasn’t an average Danish person,” says Nono Harhoff ’02 of herself before she came to UWC-USA. In fact, she felt a bit like an outcast, though her background seems ready-made for attending a UWC. Her father, a judge with a focus on human rights, and her mother, a lawyer representing labor rights, treated her “like a little adult” from a fairly early age. In contrast to many of her co-years who felt that UWC-USA was a place where they suddenly had more freedom and less structure, Nono at first struggled with having

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to tell adults where she was going or what she was doing. Despite the challenges of adjusting to a new environment, she says that “UWC was this thing I didn’t know I was looking for.” One of her strongest qualities before coming to UWC-USA was an inclination to organize and plan, which she could employ in new and more

sophisticated ways at UWCUSA. From organizing cultural shows, speakers, events, or trips, she found a new and exciting venue for her talents. “It was great—I got to organize and plan stuff!” Nono says.

Organizing and planning European National Day in 2001 was a fairly easy task compared to the work Nono does today for UNICEF as a program specialist.

Stationed in Mozambique, she works with 124 different partners, mostly governmental agencies, to advance UNICEF priorities and build the capacity of the government to support the needs of children. This involves developing long-

With Muaz Abudalo ‘02 and Zik Illo ‘03 at the UWC Reunion in 2013 in Montezuma, New Mexico. – “Apart in distance, but never in spirit”

range plans for AIDS/HIV education, for example, and then designing short-term plans to help reach the larger goal. In addition, she is in charge of coordinating the services and programs UNICEF advances with other United Nations agencies. Both UNICEF and the U.N. World Food Programme have initiatives that emphasize nutrition, for example, so communication and organization across U.N. agencies is critical to success. Before working in Mozambique, Nono filled various roles for UNICEF, other U.N. organizations, and nongovernmental organizations in Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and Cambodia.

Looking back on her experience at UWC-USA, Nono refers frequently to the quality education but drifts invariably to the community and people. “It’s such a gift to be around such interesting and like-minded people,” she says. Nono stays in touch with her UWC-USA friends more than friends from other schools she has attended, and she echoes what many alumni say: “The people who’ve stayed with me are

In Old City Sana’a, Yemen in 2014 – “Visiting urban Communities in Sana’a and meeting three amazing grandmothers” In Moamba, Mozambique in 2015 - “Visiting child-headed households in Moamba and having some fun letting the children take the pictures”

my UWC friends.” In that regard, she looks back a little ruefully at the pressure UWC-USA students feel to get into great colleges.

“I know that I worried too much about grades and getting into university,” she says. “Grades and university acceptance don’t define you in the same way that your community and your worldview do.”

After graduating from UWC-USA, Nono studied International Relations and Development Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. She went on to the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London School of Hygiene

& Tropical Medicine to earn a joint degree (Master of Science) in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing. No one who knew her when she was a student in Montezuma is surprised at her success and commitment to the needs of children around the world.

Kurt Lucas, her A2 English teacher, respects her dedication and compassion.

“Nono lived the ideals of the UWC movement during her time at Montezuma.”

Kurt says. “While

studying English, she possessed a keen ability for introspection, a prerequisite for any individual to compassionately impact the world. In the early 2000s, our English classes functioned with the assumption that UWC students hold a moral responsibility to change the world for the better; Nono—both on the Montezuma campus and in her life decisions after graduation—embodies that lofty goal.” Nono, for her

part, credits Lucas with helping her choose her path in life. “Kurt Lucas challenged me to think about the kind of person I wanted to be in the world,” she says.

While Nono clearly came to UWC-USA with skills, grit, and determination, she emerged with a supportive community and sense of purpose that she relies on every day in her work helping children in Mozambique.

“While studying English, she possessed a keen ability for introspection, a prerequisite for any individual to compassionately impact the world. In the early 2000s, our English classes functioned with the assumption that UWC students hold a moral responsibility to change the world for the better; Nono—both on the Montezuma campus and in her life decisions after graduation—embodies that lofty goal.”

—KURT LUCAS

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CONNECTED

STELLA: Why and when did you start making jewelry?

BY STELLA TANGIYAN ’16 (ARMENIA)

Tito and Mary Chavez are an irreplaceable part of the UWC-USA family. Twice a week, during an ExEd (Experiential Education class), they take time out from working in their jewelry shop in town to help UWC-USA students become more creative and transform their dream jewelry into reality. They also provide an important connection between UWC-USA and the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many alumni know them because they have been part of our community for 26 years. Stella Tangiyan ’16 spoke with Tito and Mary about their many years working with students and the importance of creativity.

Tito and Mary Chavez share their creativity with UWCUSA students while building bridges to the Las Vegas community.

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TITO: I started making jewelry in 1968 when I was working at a craft store at the University of New Mexico. We were renting equipment to art students to finish their projects, and one day, I decided to try it myself. I got a piece of copper, made it round into a ring, soldered it, and my first ring was ready. After that, I went to a silver shop, bought some silver—which was enough to make one ring—and that was my second ring. The next time I got paid, I bought more silver, which was enough for two rings, and it hasn’t stopped. I started numbering my jewelry in 2000, and since then, I’ve identified 11,230 completed pieces of jewelry. I never get tired of making jewelry and watching other people making it.

STELLA: What do you like best about your involvement with UWC-USA? TITO: I started working with UWC-USA students in 1990. One of the art students wanted to make jewelry and came to our shop and asked me if I could help her. I spoke with art teacher Colin Lanham about her project, and that’s how everything started.

That year, we had six or seven students and now we have 25 to 30 students.

Mary and I enjoy being with students; that is the greatest thing about being part of UWC-USA.

STELLA: You put so much effort in jewelry-making.

Why do you think it is an important ExEd? TITO: I think making jewelry gives people an outlet for creativity and provides opportunities to experiment for students at UWC-USA. In the class, we cover technical information like metallurgy along with skills like designing, drawing, cutting metals, measuring, filing, and soldering.

STELLA: What is your favorite memory connected with UWC-USA? MARY: There are a lot of memories connected with this place and with students from here. Our favorite memory probably is watching students graduate and head off on their next journey. It is sad when they are saying goodbye to each other, but at the same time, they’re excited to be moving forward.

STELLA: In addition to leading this ExEd , you are Get-Away parents, too.

Why did you decided to participate in the Get-Away Program?

MARY: We enjoy getting to know students. This is a chance thing, you never know who you are going to get as your Get-Away student, but 99 percent of the time, we got wonderful students. One of the positive sides of being GetAway parents is that we are here twice a week and get to see our students more often than other Get-Away parents do.

STELLA: How is Las Vegas important to UWC-USA and, conversely, how is UWC-USA important for Las Vegas?

TITO: We try to help our Get-Away students learn more about Las Vegas like the layout of the town and some of the history, and I think that UWC-USA is critical to Las Vegas. I always point out to people in town how much the students volunteer in the community. It’s important that the town and the school understand how much they rely on each other. Mary and I think we are a pretty good bridge between the two.

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SPOTLIGHT

BY CARL-MARTIN NELSON DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Melanie Brennand, UWC-USA’s new director of Admissions and College Counseling, remembers playing soccer on the fields below the Castle as a middle school and high school student. “I remember looking up at the Castle and thinking what a magical place New Mexico is,” she recounts.

“I never thought I would end up working at UWCUSA with an office in the Castle someday.” Melanie grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and while she has lived, studied, and worked in New England since she graduated from St. Michael’s High School in the mid90s, she has long felt the pull of the Southwest and was eager to come back.

“People in Boston would ask me what I miss most about New Mexico, and I would always say the openness and the sky—the night sky in particular,” Melanie says.

When the chance to return to New Mexico and work at UWC-USA presented itself, she was thrilled to pursue the opportunity.

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After leaving New Mexico almost 20 years ago, Melanie studied American history and literature as an undergraduate at Harvard College, eventually earning a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

After working as a senior Admissions and Financial Aid officer at Harvard until 2009, Melanie began work at City Year Inc., a program dedicated to increasing educational opportunities and the graduation rate for students in high-poverty

Melanie Brennand provides students with gentle guidance and good ideas.

communities. As vice president for Recruitment and Admissions, she managed and directed the national recruitment and selection strategy for 3,000 AmericCorps volunteers and managed a team of 100 staff members across more than 26 locations. Head of School Martina Moetz is pleased that Melanie joined UWC-USA. “Melanie is, first and foremost, a person who has the best interests of students at heart,” Martina says. “She quickly became an important part of our community by driving students to activities, providing a supportive ear to concerned college applicants, and bringing the wealth of her experience to bear on this institution.”

At UWC-USA, she works with a smaller budget, has fewer direct reports, but enjoys spending more time directly with students. “A major focus of my career so far has been connecting students to opportunities, and this is a fantastic place to continue this work,” Melanie says. Her particular focus throughout the fall and winter has been on college counseling, which is tremendously

important to students as they look ahead to their time after UWC. Melanie likes to emphasize the word counseling rather than the word college in her position description. She argues that it’s important for students to recognize where they’ve come from, to take stock of how they have changed at UWC-USA, and then thoughtfully plan the next, logical step. “For some, that might be an Ivy League school, while for others, it might be a school that has a program that is a perfect match for their interests,” she says. “And though many might find it slightly heretical, for some it might be different kinds of training or experience.” Students can find themselves swept up in a bit of a furor to get into the most prestigious school, she claims, and they often are pulled in a direction that might not be the most helpful or productive.

When she begins the conversation with students at the beginning of the college counseling cycle, Melanie offers a piece of advice that she often returns to throughout the process: “Be authentic and true to yourself, and be

open to new possibilities or schools you maybe have never heard of before.”

Entering into the process with preconceived ideas or a desire for a school with significant status can sometimes go wrong.

Her advice to parents is similar. She wants parents to understand that students are encouraged to explore many new interests at UWC-USA. A student who arrives as a 16-year-old with an interest in biology or medicine may develop a passion for outdoor education or environmental advocacy. UWC-USA is an intensive, transformative experience. The plans that students have when they leave home may well change, and everyone should be supportive and encouraging in this process.

The good news is that all the UWC schools enjoy a very strong reputation at colleges and universities across the U.S. and around the world. As a member of the committee that reviewed international applicants at Harvard, Melanie has seen firsthand the value of the reputation the UWCs have. “There has already been an important filter applied to these students,” Melanie says. “The National Committee of a country has indicated that this young person has the skills and attitudes necessary to represent his/her country in a rigorous academic, social, and experiential education environment.”

From her office in the Castle, she enjoys being part of this powerful experience while helping students reflect on and find their passions.

GIULIO REGENI ’07 LIVING THE UWC MISSION

BY JOSE-PABLO SALAS ROJAS ‘06 ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS AND ADMISSIONS GIULIO REGENI ’07, A DOCTORAL STUDENT AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY, TRAVELED

to Cairo in September 2015 to research industrial policy and economic globalization with a focus on dependent and independent trade unions. On the evening of the fifth anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests, Giulio left his apartment to meet a friend and never returned.

To this day, while no one knows what happened that night, Giulio was found dead with signs of extensive torture about a week later. From the moment of his disappearance until today, the Egyptian government has stated that they do not know what really happened to Giulio, and, above all, that they are not responsible for his death.

While Giulio’s death has had a significant impact on relations between Egypt and Italy, his family, friends, and fellow UWC alumni have been left to grapple with the meaning of a senseless and tragic loss.

In a Facebook post from early February, the UWC Egyptian National Committee challenged the government to address fundamental questions about the safety of both citizens and visitors. “How was it possible for Giulio to be kidnapped, under the eyes of the security, which is supposed to watch over the safety of every individual, be they citizens or visitors?” The post goes on to decry “forced disappearances” and the “discourse of intimidation, conspiracy, and xenophobia sponsored by the state.”

The Egyptian National Committee joined with thousands of UWC alumni and academics around the world demanding a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. While rhetoric has escalated in the past months, the Egyptian government has done little other than issuing confusing and, at times, conflicting statements.

While we seek justice for our friend and member of the UWC community, we also have to place this tragedy in a context that makes sense. Nour Haridy ’17 (Egypt), who led several student initiatives on campus this winter, including a vigil and letter-writing campaign, claims the torture and death of Giulio is a call to action and has changed the political climate in Egypt. “The murder of Giulio Regeni has had a significant impact on the political scene in Egypt by increasing international scrutiny on forced disappearances and police violations,” Nour says. “There have been hundreds of victims, but Giulio’s case has brought this issue under the spotlight.” With help from many UWCers and international organizations, including Amnesty International, Giulio’s parents have since become involved in campaigns to seek justice for Giulio and others that have disappeared in Egypt under similar circumstances.

UWC-USA is proud of Giulio’s work. Through his academic studies, Giulio further developed the principles of tolerance, attention to others, and social justice.

We select students with a strong predisposition to be change-makers, immerse them in an academic culture that encourages the heart to model the way by enabling action, and send them forth with a mandate to make the world a better place.

In the middle of our grief, Giulio is an exemplar to us all.

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BIG HEART

BY CHRISTIE BASKETT VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT

Barbara Ann Bernard LPC’99 founded the UWC Triathlon Bahamas in 2011 in an attempt to raise UWC scholarship funds, raise awareness about UWC in the Bahamas, and to introduce the sport to Nassau.

Recently, she donated the $25,000 proceeds from the fall 2015 race to UWC-USA to fund a scholarship in the name of professional triathlete Linsey Corbin (pictured). Barbara Ann and Linsey met when they competed in an Ironman race in 2010. Linsey is a five-time Ironman champion and ran the Kids Triathlon Clinic at the 2015 UWC Triathlon Bahamas.

The UWC-USA scholarship in her name will go toward a female football (soccer) player from Cottingham, U.K. The UWC Triathlon Bahamas is a grass-roots race but was voted one of the top eight destinations in the world by Triathlete magazine last year. Barbara Ann flies in timers, photographers, and professionals to set the course. She hires police, medical professionals, and lifeguards who make the race safe and successful. The race has attracted many of the world’s best athletes, including Olympic triathletes from other countries and even tennis stars such as Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. They, like everyone else, participate because they enjoy being a part of a race for a good cause. Gwen Jorgensen, the 2012 and 2016 USA Olympian triathlete, contributed her prize money to UWC when she won the UWC Triathlon Bahamas in 2014.

Barbara Ann first learned about UWC as a child when her family visited Atlantic College, which her uncle, Frank Crothers, supported and believed in. “We were greeted by the headmaster, who gave us a wonderful tour of the campus,” she recalls. “I was seriously impressed that the students were the Coast Guard for the area and equally unimpressed by the headmaster’s story of the ghost in the dining hall! The tour made a huge impression on me, and studying hard enough to be able to attend a UWC one day became a goal of mine.”

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Kotaro Urakami AC’85, Barbara Ann Bernard LPC’99, and Linsey Corbin at the UWC Triathlon Bahamas

Barbara Ann’s experience at UWC-LPC was transformational and formative of her character. “Because attending a UWC was a dream I had worked hard to achieve, the process of getting in taught me a lifelong lesson: If you have the courage to start and continue chasing your dreams, you not only reach your full potential, but the journey is incredibly fulfilling,” she says.

After UWC, Barbara Ann attended the London School of Economics where she became chairwoman of the LSE Business Society. She then worked for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank in London before spending a decade at a large hedge fund. Recently, she founded an asset management firm (currently all women), Wincrest Capital, where she is CEO and portfolio manager of a global equity hedge fund. By striving to build a firm where people feel valued, different skill sets are celebrated, and colleagues are encouraged to give back to their community, she feels her firm’s culture embodies the core of what made UWC so special.

“Selecting investments entails traveling from the Bahamas to interview senior management teams in countries as far as Brazil, Norway, India, or Japan, which feels perfectly normal to me because UWC made the world a global village,” Barbara Ann says. “UWC encouraged the intellectual curiosity that is required to explore new ideas, demanded analytical thinking—which is essential to challenging valuation and investment theses—and cultivated the international understanding that brings so much joy to this globe-trotting journey.”

Barbara Ann has served on the UWC Bahamian National Committee for a decade and says that joining the UWC-USA board “will provide wonderful insight as to how challenges are perceived and solved” at one of the flagship UWCs. She looks forward to serving UWC in this way and continuing to build the UWC Bahamas Triathlon in order to raise more scholarship funds. “I hope to be able to attract corporate sponsorship to help offset the cost of the triathlon so that a larger percentage of the race entry fees can go toward scholarships,” she says. “I also hope to keep attracting more UWC alumni to come race! Last year, Kotaro Urakami AC’85 from Japan came!”

INSPIRATION

Many contend that the strength of a UWC-USA education comes from both looking out and looking in.

We discover important truths about ourselves and others by looking at something new together.�

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Current students and alumni gather at New York Alumni Project Week at Meera Gandhi’s home (PC’82).

REVIEW

Karen Taylor de Caballero ’87 and daughter Sarah

CLASS OF 1985

Irfan Hasan and Kevin Jackson ’06 were the main organizers of the second annual Project Week trip to New York City. With the help of Claire Bruten AC’85, Meera Gandhi PC’82, Veronica Trujillo LPC’00, Carlos Varela ’95, Bela August Walker ’95, Pilar Weiss ’94, and Melanie Weston ’86, 14 current students focused on service learning at Adaptive Design Association, God’s Love We Deliver, and the Mental Health Association of New York.

Pankaj Vaish lives in New York City and will be working in Mexico City to run Citi’s Mexican market business called Banamex.

CLASS OF 1986

Last February, Bonnie (Horie) Bennet ’85, Ken Neal ’85, Diego Pérez-Salicrup, and Melanie Weston came back to campus and all were found squeezed into the phone booth of HamerHodges House.

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TOP ROW LEFT TO RIGHT: Rebecca Lloyd ’86, Diego Pérez-

Salicrup ’86, Eugenio Ruggiero ’84, Theotonio Monteiro de Barros ’85, (bottom) Gian Paolo Ruggiero ’86 and wife Lena

including large-scale deployment, as well as the sharing of knowledge and information about these technologies.

CLASS OF 1987

Gian Paolo Ruggiero got married! “Time stopped for an entire weekend as the world witnessed the first UWC-USA alumnus with a perfect IB score engage in a real-life international experience by marrying Lena, his lovely new Russian wife. The ceremony was followed by a party that would put Martin Scorsese to shame. It is now easy to understand the real reasons behind Italy’s trade deficit,” said Diego Pérez-Salicrup, who attended the ceremony.

Other classmates who also attended the celebration were Rebecca Lloyd, Theotonio Monteiro de Barros ’85, and Eugenio Ruggiero ’84.

Ivor Frischknecht has worked tirelessly to support alternative energy sources and invest in companies that promote clean technology such as energy, water, and environmental technologies. He is currently the CEO for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The agency’s responsibilities cover funding of renewable energy research and development, demonstration, and commercialization, Bonnie (Horie) Bennet ’85, Diego Pérez-Salicrup ’86, Melanie Weston ’86, and Ken Neal ’85

Karen Taylor de Caballero is director of English Language Training Solutions and co-author of The Color Vowel Chart.

After seven years in New Mexico, Karen and her family are preparing to move back to Washington, D.C., so that Karen can further develop her company.

CLASS OF 1988

Mudit Tyagi is working with Vishal Bharam ’10 and other peers in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on a project called MathYogi.

Earlier this year at the education technology Bett conference in London, this product was well-received by teachers from all around the world for its in-depth error analysis report.

CLASS OF 1989

Last April, Diego Lopez came back to New Mexico to run the Cedro Peak Ultra Marathon with some then-current students, including Jani Ijas ’17, Ivik

Ivik Johansen ’16, Ana Pereda ’16, Nicolas Lopez ’16, Diego Lopez ’89, and Jani Iljas ’17

Hans Christian Waever Johansen ’16, Nicolas Lopez ’16 (his son), and Ana Pereda ’16.

CLASS OF 1990

Zulfiqar Ali hosted six students at his home near Washington, D.C., for Project Week. With help from David Evans ’94, Francisco Ferreira ’86, Joel Hunt ’00, Yoomie Huynh ’00, Liane Lohde ’94, and Laura TaylorKale ’96, students learned about politics and global economy while connecting with organizations such as the Delegation of the European Union, International Finance Corporation, Little Friends for Peace, National Institute of Justice, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Republican and Democratic National Committees, The Wall Street Journal, The World Bank, and also visiting the senators of Minnesota and Oregon.

CLASS OF 1991

Kolo Wamba ’93 and family

Will Mendoza ’95 with Boston Alumni group

For the second year in a row, Flannery Burke connected students during Project Week with community activist and educational networks to learn more about race relations in Ferguson, Missouri.

Michael Sugar produced the Academy Awardwinning film Spotlight.

This film emphasizes the importance of investigative journalism and giving voice to victims of sexual abuse.

Michael also produces The Knick (Cinemax).

Rajesh Vedanthan and Sujatha Srinivasan, who serves on the UWCUSA Board of Trustees, welcomed their second baby girl on May 10.

CLASS OF 1993

Kolo Wamba recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Kolo has been in

San Diego for almost eight years working as a research scientist, having finished his Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford in 2007. Kolo met his lovely wife Alice in college, and they now have two girls, Lulu (12) and Sana (8).

Megan Minoka Hill has been working with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development as the director of Honoring Nations for the last nine years. The Harvard Project aims to understand and foster the condition under which sustained, self-determined, social, and economic development is

Washington, DC Project Week with Alumni

achieved among American Indian nations through applied research and service.

CLASS OF 1994

Annelise Sprenger is a senior policy officer at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands.

CLASS OF 1995

Will Mendoza lives in Boston and is a marketing manager for W.R. Grace.

Will has been working very closely with the UWC alumni group of New England alongside fellow alumni Mariana Hardy PC’94 and Marimer Llatas LPC’07.

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peer REVIEW CLASS OF 1996

Aleem Siddiqui and his wife had their first baby in April.

Sebastien de Halleux continues to serve on the UWC-USA Board of Trustees. Sebastien is the COO at Saildrone Inc., a company designing wind and solar-powered unmanned surface vehicles aiming at revolutionizing ocean data collection. This past Project Week, Sebastien, with the help of Fernando Sandoval Jimenez ’10, Ken Neil ’85, Klaus Desmet ’88, Kristian Segerstråle, Luke Pustejovsky, Manolo Espinosa ’87, and Paul Moore ’85, hosted six UWC-USA students in San Francisco for a project called Global Social Impact.

CLASS OF 1997

Tyler Davis is the CFO of PotaVida (a Smart Solar Purifier), where he is responsible for building the business models and leading PotaVida’s grant writing efforts. Early this year, PotaVida received a grant of $150,000 from the Washington Global Health Alliance.

Lena BoesserKoschmann ’98

CLASS OF 1998

May 7, 2016, marked the 15-year anniversary of Lena Boesser-Koschmann’s permanent employment with the National Park Service (NPS). Lena started working seasonally for the NPS while she was completing her undergraduate degree in environmental studies and politics at Whitman College.

Once she graduated, she was hired permanently at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska as a law-enforcement park ranger. She has since worked at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and Arizona; Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia; and Fire Island National Seashore in New York before moving into her current job at the Intermountain Regional Office of the NPS in Colorado.

Nkululeko “Nguni” Phakelais ’02 and Andrew Mellaneo ’02

Yumna Harisingh Jawa lives in Bangalore in India.

Yumna and husband Vineet had a son, Agastya. Yumna continues to work in the art and culture space with her nongovernmental organization ArtMantram.

CLASS OF 2002

Nkululeko “Nguni” Phakelais was a senior software developer at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa for more than six years. In March, Nguni began developing a two-way marketing/communication mobile app, which has developed into a startup tech company named Seeein. Recently, Andrew Mellaneo visited Nguni in South Africa.

Ryan Richards and his wife Claire had their first baby, Paxton Richards.

CLASS OF 2003

Hanna Celina celebrated her fifth anniversary with Google, currently acting as a financial analyst. Hanna is also the founder of UWC Online, which organizes online short courses in partnership with United World Colleges. Through an interactive five-week online program, UWC Online brings the benefits of international education in the spirit of building a more peaceful and sustainable world to a much wider audience.

James Byrne married Maggie Byrne, and they are expecting twins in September.

Matt Desruisseaux is a tech entrepreneur with a startup and has management consulting experience in product development, operations, business development, marketing, and media. He is a co-founder of Fluent.ai.

Sebastien de Halleux ’96 (FAR RIGHT) and Ken Neal ’85 with students during Project Week in San Francisco

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Phuentsho Wangmo ’03 and family

Erick Ruiz ’04 with Gabi Bonilla of Costa Rica National Committee

A new book by Naleli Morojele ’05

LEFT TO RIGHT: Laro Escalada Navamuel ’04, Rebecca Lloyd ’86,

Brais Louro Lariño ’05, Leonarda Aguilar Da Costa ’04, Subitha Subramaniam ’88, Sarah Stamp Kenningham ’90, Vareeya Thanggnirundr ’04, Marc Figueras Benedito ’10

Phuentsho Wangmo finished her Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry from Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She is happily married and now a mother of a 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son.

They live in Bhutan where Phuentsho runs a music and art school for children.

CLASS OF 2004

Erick Ruiz is a junior engineer at Enel Green Power Costa Rica, a company that focuses on construction and operation of alternative energy plants around the world. Erick travels between Costa Rica and China as an expediting coordinator for Asia. Additionally, Erick continues to volunteer with the Costa Rican National

Committee where this year, alongside 19 UWC alumni volunteers, they processed 115 applications.

Leonardo Aguilar Da Costa lives in London and has been running the UWC London SSS group.

Last April, the first of many events to come took place with the hope to connect the 100-plus UWC-USA alumni in the London area.

Vikram Anand married Aditi Dokras in April.

Division of the Office of Minority Health at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in Baltimore.

Diplomacy in Practice at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the think tank of the German Green Party.

Gautier Péchadre (CPA) is now a senior manager in the restructuring department at Grant Thornton Paris.

Naleli Morojele published her book Women Political Leaders in Rwanda and South Africa. Naleli’s book explores the successes, challenges, and controversies of women’s post-conflict political leadership. It situates their (women who have held significant leadership positions) stories within historical and contemporary political contexts, illustrating the gendered ways in which women experience politics as citizens and politicians.

Joanna Bronowicka is a Polish sociologist and politician. She coordinates research projects at the Centre for Internet and Human Rights in Berlin.

Her research interests include human rights, migrations, and digital rights, especially in the EU and neighboring countries.

Joanna is a member of a newly formed Polish party Razem, and in October 2015, she ran for office as a member of Parliament.

In April, Joanna gave a workshop about human rights in Auschwitz and a lecture titled Digital

Pem Lama is leading Bhutan’s Green Public Procurement initiative, a great opportunity to promote local environmentally responsible

CLASS OF 2005

Christina Dragon is a statistician and team leader for Sexual and Gender Minority Populations in the Data and Policy

LEFT: Joanna Bronowicka ’05 RIGHT: Pem Lama ’05

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peer REVIEW businesses and put Gross National Happiness into action for the country’s quickly developing economy.

Avia Tadmor ’06

Daniel Franz ’06 and fiance

Yukio Iseki lives in New York working as a deputy representative for Development Bank of Japan Inc. CLASS OF 2006

Avia Tadmor holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Harvard University and is completing her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and literary translation at Columbia University, where she also teaches undergraduate writing. Avia is the director of the Columbia Artist/ Teacher Program (CA/T), an organization dedicated to community outreach and teaching creative writing in underserved schools and community organizations in New York City. Avia leads poetry writing workshops at Gilda’s Club (named after the comedian Gilda Radner), a support center for people living with cancer and their families. Her work appeared or is forthcoming in Asymptote, Columbia Journal, Barely South Review, The Grief Diaries, and Mantis.

Charlie Baughan is a primary teacher at Ashley Down Primary School in the U.K.

Daniel Franz completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Virginia. This fall, Daniel will begin working as a visiting assistant professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

Last December, Daniel got engaged to Jeff Curtis.

Kari Hommedal is a chiropractor at Valdres Kiropraktikk in Norway.

Kari recently got engaged to Vigleik Aaring. They will marry on July 30.

Ma’rifa Hassan is finishing her master’s in social development practice at University College London.

Macarena Fernandez Robaina has been working at Tata Consulting Services (Uruguay) for six years as a graphic designer and team leader backup. This year, Macarena began her second degree in business administration at

Universidad Catolica del Uruguay. Macarena has served on the Uruguayan National Committee for eight years.

Ramon Taylor lives in New York City where he is pursuing his master’s degree in media studies from The New School. Ramon is also an international correspondent at Voice of America. He is reporting on the U.S. election and stories of migration and refugees.

In the last few years, he has covered President Obama’s trip to Cuba, Pope Francis’ election in the Vatican, and Nelson Mandela’s funeral in South Africa.

Rosie Osire Emerson is the managing director and founder of Ushauri Global Inc., which focuses on innovative approaches to development and public policy in Africa. Last November, Rosie and her husband Frank welcomed their second baby girl, Angeline.

Sonam Lhamo finished her master’s in development policy in South Korea

LEFT: Kari Hommedal ’06 and

fiance Vigleik Aaring 24

RIGHT: Sonam Lhamo ’06 and

husband Sam

and now lives in Bangkok with her husband where she is working for ECPAT International, a nongovernmental organization working against commercial sexual exploitation of children.

In early May, Yolisa Nalule-Forster and Felix Forster ’05 had a baby girl, Lea Sanyu Forster.

CLASS OF 2007

Aaron Bos-Lun recently finished his fourth year in Teach for America in South Florida, working as a teacher and then instructional coach. During the summer of 2016, he is completing the Urban Leaders Fellowship for educators to transition into policy work, and beginning in the fall of 2016, he will be studying Education Policy and Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Aymeric Grant recently graduated with his MBA in management from the University of Technology Sydney. Aymeric is a junior strategy analyst at Foxtel Broadcast Media.

CLASS OF 2008

Pablo Santaeufemia is the CEO and co-founder of Bridge for Billions, an online incubator for global entrepreneurs who lack access to support networks.

Kirsten Ward started a pre-med post-baccalaureate program at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

Tamas Kolos-Lakatos is a Ph.D. candidate in air transportation systems at MIT. Last May, he got engaged to Heidi LaVigne.

Thomas Compier is working with the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore and doing a research internship as part of his Master of Science in medicine at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Thomas’ research focuses on identifying behaviors that can be effectively targeted in order to prevent obesity in preschool children.

Nina Maja Bergmar is an associate attorney at Hall, Arbery, Gilligan, Roberts & Shanlever LLP in Atlanta.

Nina Maja represents clients in all aspects of employment law, including litigation and counseling in the areas of employment discrimination; wage and hour compliance; family and medical leave compliance; restrictive covenants, trade secrets, related tort and contract claims; and employmentbased immigration.

Carlos Grandet is attending the University of Chicago as a graduate candidate for a master’s in computational analysis and public policy.

Mark Andrew ’09

Spence Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works as a literacy fellow for The Work First Foundation.

CLASS OF 2009

Anjali Appadurai came back to UWC-USA as the keynote speaker for this year’s Annual Conference, which focused on climate change and energy innovation. Anjali was joined by a stellar group of alumni who presented a series of workshops and lectures. The lineup included Jim Bowen ’96, Floor Fiers ’15, Ken Neal ’85, Len Necefer ’07, Diego Perez-Salicrup ’86, and Luke Pustejovsky ’86.

Marco Sebastian Gallardo completed his Master of Arts in Latin American studies and Master of Science in community and regional planning from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mark Andrew lives in New York City and is successfully pursuing his performance career. Some of his latest work includes Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights at The Gallery Players (off-off Broadway) and performing in an industry showcase with Broadway Dance Center’s Professional

Semester. Mark will also reprise his role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee, during Christmas. “Anyone planning to visit during the holidays, I’d love to give y’all a backstage tour,” Mark said.

his first book titled Godless Circumcisions: A Recollecting & Re-membering of Blackness, Queerness & Flows of Survivance. Godless Circumcisions is a study of race, sex, and politics in contemporary culture.

Stephan Grabner is working with Student Diplomacy Corps, a nonprofit that sends students from underserved communities on incredible summer programs across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Stephan led one of the trips last summer, and this summer he will lead another trip to Mexico.

This summer, Michael Aleman is heading to Bali, Indonesia, as the first Fulbright on medical waste management. Michael will be doing three months of language training in Yogyakarta followed by nine months of research working with a Bali medical clinic/ hospital.

Stuart Villegas lives in Costa Rica and works as reservations supervisor at Andaz Papagayo by Hyatt.

Tabias Wilson released

CLASS OF 2010

Beginning this summer, Mishel Mussali will travel the world to learn what food and land mean to people of different cultural and religious backgrounds and discover how societies and food systems would change if the spiritual roots of food and farming were reclaimed. This yearlong project, Conversing with the Spirit of the Land, was awarded $30,000 for a year of independent study traveling outside the United 25

Mishel Mussali ’10

peer REVIEW States. Mishel was one of 40 students nationwide whose projects were selected for the annual Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Her research will span eight countries: Australia, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, Peru, and Senegal

Elizabeth Villalobos Zamora ’10 and husband Carlos Chaverri

Esteban Arguedas ’11, Juan Pablo Rabanales Lau ’11, and Charles-Antoine Archambeau ’12

Last February, Elizabeth Villalobos Zamora married Carlos Chaverri in Costa Rica.

CLASS OF 2011

Since his graduation from the University of Florida last year, Ahmed Hemeid deferred graduate school and started a company with two fellow UWC alumni, Ismail Abushamma UWCCR’11 and Victor Borsche MUWCI’11. They will be taking their startup to a business incubator in Denver to grow the company under niche mentorship.

Esteban Arguedas lives in Costa Rica where he is the country director of Walking Tree Travel, an organization that inspires individuals to become global citizens by taking an active interest in the world around them. Esteban recently met with Juan Pablo Rabanales Lau and Charles-Antoine Archambeau ’12 in Costa Rica.

Omar Bello Chavolla is a M.D./Ph.D. student and an assistant physiology professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a new program that Mexico is pushing toward developing a consistent framework for

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the development of clinical research. Omar is working on his Ph.D. thesis, which focuses on the relationship between Alzheimer’s dementia and Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Mexico.

Simultaneously, Omar works on research in Type 2 diabetes and lipid disorders, which are a significant health problem for the Mexican population. In the upcoming year, Omar will be working in collaboration with University of Bordeaux to develop a prognostic risk model to predict dementia risk in Type 2 diabetes mellitus within the elderly population.

CLASS OF 2012

Hannah Freedman lives in Chicago and works at a community center called El Centro Autónomo, an organization that supports autonomous social movement organizing in Chicago.

Jane Huber recently completed her public policy undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago.

Nicol Chinchilla ’12 and Leslie Ossete ’12

Jane was instrumental in the development of Project Week in Chicago this year.

With the help of Leonor Añó Stephens ’06, Gavin Chuck ’88, Ben Jones AC’91, Jen Romero ’05, María Salvador López ’06, and Jeremiah Stevens ’94, nine UWC-USA students experienced firsthand how restorative justice, community development, community arts, and the judicial and educational system work and reflect the diversity of Chicago by visiting Cook County Jail, East Village Young Program, Mesirow Financial, Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation, SkyArt, and Wolcott School.

Leslie Ossete is a finalist

for the Hult Prize, which brings together the brightest college and university students from around the globe to focus on solving one of the world’s key social challenges and awards $1 million in startup capital to the winner. The Hult Prize is the world’s largest student competition for social good.

Nicol Chinchilla Cordero recently graduated from Earlham College in Indiana. In June, Nicol will travel to Ecuador for two months to lead a social entrepreneurship program with Amigos de las Américas in Chimborazo. Upon her return to Costa Rica, Nicol will focus on yet another social entrepreneurship project called Transforma.

ONE OF US

SEEING UWC-USA

AGAIN

BY NADIA SHEPPARD ’17 (USA-NC)

At UWC, we often imagine the previous generations of UWCers who roamed this campus and what they think of UWC-USA now. How much has the campus changed?

How have the students and faculty changed? Pankaj Vaish ’85 offers a unique perspective on this particular question.

PANKAJ CAME TO UWC-USA IN 1983, AND 33 YEARS

later, his daughter Abhiti Vaish is a member of the 2016 UWC-USA graduating class.

Abhiti’s attendance here has allowed Pankaj to see the school in a new light. Although more than 30 years have passed, the spirit of the school is still much the same. “I get the impression that it still has that special bond, still has the feeling of a unique place,” Pankaj says. However he suggests that the administration might be more rigid and there seems to be a greater divide between students and administration than he recalls.

For Pankaj, moving to the U.S. as “a little boy in India who went to a proper all-boys school” was a tremendous adventure. Greater access to travel may make coming to the U.S. less glamorous, but he believes this doesn’t take away from the experience, as long as a student possesses “the innate hunger and enthusiasm for getting to know people and learning.”

The campus grounds have changed tremendously, as well. Pankaj remembers the campus as greener, but readily admits he may have gotten caught up in the school’s grandeur as a student. Las Vegas, on the other hand, hasn’t changed all that much, despite America’s tremendous growth in gross domestic product. The economic stagnation of Las Vegas, however, serves as a great lesson to students that problems of extreme poverty and inequity exist in an exceedingly wealthy country.

Today, Pankaj works as the services head at Citi’s Mexico Markets and Securities. His experience at UWC helped him “learn to accept people’s differences … [which is] very handy when working in a multinational, global environment.”

Pankaj remains strongly connected with his fellow classmates through a Facebook group of the early years. He briefly served on the Advisory Committee of the International Committee of UWC Development, but his professional life keeps him very busy.

For Abhiti, she “love[s] talking to [her] father about all that’s changed, and even more shocking—all that’s stayed the same.” While it might be easy to set unreasonable expectations on a child of an alumnus, Abhiti feels nothing but support from her dad. “He wants me to enjoy it all,” she says.

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VIEWPOINT

BY ANUPAMA PATTABIRAMAN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ’10

For the past four years, I’ve worked with schools and school districts across the U.S. to help them improve schools in urban settings. As I’ve worked with traditional public high schools, I’ve wondered how they compared to UWCs. I am not a UWC alumna, but I met many UWC alumni in college who spoke about how “transformative” their UWC experience had been; few alumni whom I met from other high schools would describe their high school experiences as “transformative.” I decided to visit UWC-USA this spring to learn more about what makes the UWC experience “transformative” for students and think about the take-aways for more traditional high school settings in which I work. There were two particular aspects of the UWC experience that stood out to me.

FREEDOM. On the first evening of my visit, a student took me to a cafe in the Castle after we had dinner together, and we conversed for a few hours about UWC, international education systems, and the Montezuma community.

Another time, a student took me to the Dwan Light Sanctuary after her last trial exam, and we spent 28

the afternoon discussing various educational models we’d studied and the pros and cons of each.

In most U.S. high schools, students are not given such freedom to schedule their time; rather, parents or school administrators can dictate students’ schedules inside and outside of class time.

Although we know students will need to be able to manage their own time once they are in college, we tend to think that they may not be ready for that level of responsibility before they turn 18. UWC proves that high school students can

learn to manage their own time if they are given the freedom to do so.

DIALOGUE. Students whom I spoke to on campus consistently cited the nature of dialogue with their peers as a defining difference between UWC and their high schools back home. UWC students were uniquely interested in engaging in dialogue that pulled from students’ cross-national experiences and enabled them to think about their global impact and personal identity. I witnessed this in a history classroom where the teacher asked students to comment on world events based on their experiences in their home countries. I also saw this in the dining hall where students spoke over lunch about the extent to which they identified with the nation represented on their passport.

In many U.S. high schools, students are reluctant to engage in authentic conversation about their similarities and differences, afraid that their differences will not be accepted. The quality of dialogue I encountered at UWC proved to me that students can more meaningfully engage

in dialogue about their differences and can learn from the exchange once they move past an initial reluctance.

I came to UWC-USA expecting to find a specific academic framework that could perhaps be applied in other settings. Indeed, students seem to enjoy the International Baccalaureate curriculum, and several said that the unique Experiential Education program provided their best educational experiences on and off campus. But I found that what differentiated the UWC experience from more traditional high schools was a foundational trust in students to manage their time in pursuit of their goals and to engage with each other in meaningful ways.

The views expressed in this piece solely represent the views of the author and do not represent the views of any organization. Anupama Pattabiraman is interested in hearing readers’ perspectives on UWC-USA and can be reached at apattabipieces@ gmail.com.

UWC students were uniquely interested in engaging in dialogue that pulled from students’ cross-national experiences and enabled them to think about their global impact and personal identity.

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COMING SOON

THE UWC HUB The UWC Hub, to be launched in autumn 2016, will be the go-to place for all UWC alumni to connect and collaborate with each other across colleges, locations, professions, and interests. The UWC Hub will be your space – a space not only to find each other but to post and view volunteer and job opportunities. The UWC Hub is designed to help alumni collaborate on projects, causes, and events that are important to you.