Alumni giving How alumni are enhancing the experience for present and future students at UWCSEA

ALUMNI GIVING

Below are just a few stories which highlight how support from our alumni community is helping to enrich diversity at the College through the Scholarship Programme, expand the reach of our environmental initiatives and enhance the learning experience for all.

S$590,361

Gifts from alumni in 2016/2017

21%

Of 2016/2017 donors are alumni

53%

Of Reunion 2017* attendees participated in Reunion Class Giving

* Reunion 2017 celebrated the Classes of ’72, ’77, ’82, ’87, ’92, ’97 and ’07.

To support others to experience a UWC education …

Sisters, Nang Lang Kham ’07, Nang Kham Noung (Marlene) ’09 and Nang Mo Hom ’14, created a two-year scholarship for a student from their home country of Myanmar.

“A United World College education is a unique way of learning that prepares every student for the wider world. As students, we were not only taught a varied curriculum but also the core values of mutual respect, integrity and investing back into our community. For our family, the decision to sponsor a scholarship was an obvious choice. As it has provided us with an opportunity to pay it forward and provide a student with an invaluable education that will set them up for life.”

Leon Le Mercier ’94, made a gift to the Scholarship Programme to enable more students to experience a UWC education.

“Exposure at such a formative time in your life to so many cultures, beliefs and attitudes give you a different outlook on life. I believe that if you can help kids from less-privileged backgrounds to attend the College, and they then take the UWC values back to positively impact their communities, it can be a game changer. It could solve a lot of problems in the world.”

To support the health of our planet …

Solar for Dover is a student-led initiative, which aims to reduce the carbon emissions of the College. What began as one student’s Grade 5 Exhibition of Learning project has grown into a College-wide movement to increase our use of solar energy. Since 2014, over 500 panels have been installed on Dover Campus through the student-led Solar for Dover programme. Having just passed the half-way point of this ambitious plan, the students are already seeing fantastic results with the panels providing enough energy to light 70 classrooms.

The alumni community has been incredibly supportive of this initiative by adopting a total of 83 panels and contributing S$60,000 in donations towards Solar for Dover.

Jorge Vizcaino, ’87, chose to adopt a panel.

“As a former student of UWCSEA, I firmly believe in the mission and goals of UWCSEA and their support for renewable energies. The Solar for Dover project exemplifies this mission and is a valuable step in empowering our young citizens of the world. By creating a world consciousness of these renewable sources of energy, it will ultimately make a difference in the health of our planet”.

To support promising students of refugee and/or stateless status to build a future with a UWC education …

Earlier this year, UWCSEA joined forces with the global UWC movement to launch the UWC Refugee Initiative. The UWCSEA Kay Everett Refugee Scholarship, named in memory of a member of the Class of 1991, a humanitarian lawyer who passed away in 2016, has created two UWC IB Diploma Scholarships. One, for a young girl, Nancy, from South Sudan, has been funded by an anonymous UWCSEA family. The second, for a young man Mahmoud from Palestine, has been funded by gifts from the College community.

Nancy, scholar from South Sudan Mahmoud, scholar from Palestine

The support for this initiative, particularly from our alumni community has been humbling. The Class Gifts from Reunion 2017 in Singapore also raised Each year, the graduating classes on both

scholarship opportunities with 53% of reunion attendees making a gift.

To enable scholars to pursue passions outside the classroom …

The Iain Ewing Memorial Endowment was established in the name of the father of a former UWCSEA student, to enable more scholars at UWCSEA to take part in the wide range of extracurricular activities on offer at the College. Kovenda, a Grade 11 scholar

from Namibia was the first student to benefit from this fund and was able to develop his love of music through a songwriting workshop with Songwork International, a songwriting and music production company in Singapore.

“I believe in the UWC mission and values and although I can never thank you nor opportunities that you have brought into my life, I hope that one day I will be able to pay forward with gratitude what I cannot repay.”

To allow others to make the most of opportunities …

Fredrik Fosse ’03, Scholar from Norway, set up a scholarship enrichment endowment to ensure scholars following in his footsteps were able to make the most of all the UWC opportunities on offer to them.

“The UWC mission is as relevant as ever. I strongly believe that diversity of nations, cultures and socioeconomic background is key to giving the full UWC experience, and the scholarship programme is an integral part of this. The scholarship I received fifteen years ago gave me opportunities that now allow me to afford others the same.”

To leave a legacy …

the school enough for the wonderful campuses come together to leave a gift to those following in their UWC footsteps. This year, the Class of 2017 on Dover chose to fund a mini rainforest nursery while their peers on East supported a new social area for High School students. “The class gift has given our grade the opportunity to express our gratitude for the experiences and values UWCSEA considerable support for future refugee

has given us. We hope that the gift is something both sustainable and accessible to all.” Annabelle ’17 and Surabhi ’17, East.

“It feels great to give something back to the community that we’ve been a part of for years.” Reka ’17, Dover