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Parent Community
We are fortunate to have an active and engaged parent community, and enjoy an exceptional level of support from parent volunteers.
Parents’ Associations On both campuses our hard-working Parents’ Associations (PA) are managed by an elected committee of enthusiastic volunteers—all parents at the school, who offer their time to serve the school community. In addition, a large number of parent volunteers support the many events and programmes run by the PA throughout the year. By helping parents connect with one another and to other important groups, the PA contributes significantly to one of the College’s most important strategic goals: to build a united, diverse and strong community. In a typical year, the PAs organise an exciting and diverse array of events and activities, from large, campus-wide events, to social coffees and lunches, to regular and one-off activities or outings. They are also generous supporters of the UWCSEA Foundation (refer to the Impact of Giving Report 2019/2020). This year, many of the events on the annual cycle of activities were interrupted by COVID-19; at the same time however, there were many opportunities to support the community in different ways. Our PA volunteers rallied and continued to contribute as class or grade-level and nationality representatives to coordinate information flow and feedback in these unusual times. Importantly, they were also integral in supporting our boarding and scholar communities during the trying period of lockdown and into the summer holidays when many could not travel home. Many boarding students were welcomed into the home of our community during this period. Events that did take place included buddy programmes to welcome new families joining the school in August 2019 and January 2020, support for the annual Admissions Open Days in September and October 2019, the annual High School Careers Fair and Transition to University events in early 2020, and welcome events for scholars at the start of the school year. Both Parents’ Association are registered as a society in Singapore under the Societies Act. They operate individually and have independent constitutions and Managing Committee structures which are governed by a constitution and bye-laws, with independently audited financial statements available to members each year.
Parents’ Action for Community and Education (PACE) A volunteer, parent-led organisation that falls under the Service umbrella of the College, PACE serves the UWCSEA parent community across both campuses. Their annual schedule of activities and events provides both a social network and many opportunities to contribute to the Singapore community and beyond. Over the last 20 years, with the support of volunteers, PACE has established two libraries in Myanmar, built 12 schools in South East Asia, provided 20 years of hospice volunteer services in Singapore, donated over 200,000 lunches to children in need and helped over 100 children graduate from college in the Philippines. In 2019, a change to the Singapore Charities Act no longer allowed PACE to raise funds inside Singapore for charities not based in Singapore. As the Charities Act’s change came into effect, PACE looked for new ways to fulfil obligations to the PACE-funded Nutrition Programme in the Philippines and to build a long-planned school in Myanmar. The result was an oncampus community event, held in November 2019. In a spectacular effort, the two Willy Wonka themed community dances went ahead simultaneously, attended by 400 parents and students, and supported by 120 UWCSEA staff. When the dancing stopped, following months of effort, PACE had raised much more than they ever expected, and with the support of the UWCSEA community, earned enough to fund the Nutrition Programme and build a middle school in Myanmar. PACE’s dedication to serving their partners abroad while overcoming the challenges at home, is a great example of the embodiment of the UWC mission made possible through the strength and generosity of the UWCSEA community.
UWCSEA Foundation Parent Ambassadors The UWCSEA Foundation Parent Ambassadors are a group of over 100 passionate and committed parents who represent the Foundation within the UWCSEA community. The Ambassadors champion and support activities and events, increasing awareness of the impact of giving to the College and encouraging members of the community to make a contribution to the College of time, treasure or talent. In November 2019, the Parent Ambassadors hosted the annual Dinner with Scholars evening, bringing the community together with our scholars over a family-style meal to share stories and welcome them to our community. Together with the Dover Parents’ Association, they also hosted Climate Conversations giving parents the chance to engage in sustainability conversations and discussion with other community members. The global pandemic challenged them to re-shape and re-shift the remainder of their activities, and they responded by ensuring the sustainability tours which they were no longer able to run on campus were documented and ready to upload into a virtual format.
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