Life at UWC Atlantic College
UWC Atlantic College is not a place for the faint-hearted, nor should it be. Approximately 170 young people from over 80 different countries and from a spectrum of socio-economic backgrounds, cultures and creeds, congregate for their first year each September at the college. I suspect that, for a fleeting moment, many wish that they had never embarked upon the journey in the first place - the arrival at the gates of a medieval castle can be over-whelming. In no time at all, however, the warmth of the welcome provided by the second year students banish all doubts, and the new arrivals embark upon one of the most amazing and privileged journeys that they will make in their lives. It will not be easy - we set out to challenge - but it will certainly be worth it.
A lecture visit in 1956 to the NATO Defence College in Paris saw the beginnings of ideas on what would become a global education movement. It was at this meeting that British Commandant Air Marshal Sir Lawrence Darvall was inspired by Kurt Hahn's analysis of the state of the young. Hahn's ideas were original, imaginative and far-sighted enough to conceive a two year college bringing together students from all over the world, selected on personal merit, irrespective of race, religion, politics and the ability to pay, with the explicit aim of fostering international understanding. Both Kurt Hahn and Lawrence Darvall saw the college as a demonstration of how conflict and hostility could be overcome if young people from different nations, races and religions could be brought together to learn from each other.
The core mission has not changed, and there is a passion at the heart of the college that is still as vibrant as it was at its foundation, fifty years ago. What has changed, of course, is the world context. The stark simplification of a world divided into two armed camps, the superpowers, protecting and promoting their political and economic ideologies, has been replaced by a world possibly more connected and yet more divided than at any other period in History, and in this fragmented world the prospect of peace seems to be just as elusive as ever.
Today, the economic powerhouses tend to stride the globe, overriding the simple and geographically limited constraints of national law, and it is into this disconnect between the moral concept of human rights and the global economic imperative that much of the student energy is focused. However, whereas the ‘big issues' inspire debate, it is in sharing the same limited space with students of other cultures and creeds that leave the lasting, life-long impressions. It could be argued that such residual impact is found amongst students who attend other types of international schools, or schools that are multi-national, but the UWC go way beyond the capacities of these other institutions to create an authentic international experience with such opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue.
UWC Atlantic College was founded upon, some would say, the hopelessly romantic notion of promoting world peace - yet young people from virtually all the nations of the world have embraced this mission, and have committed their lives to it. In this twenty-first century, there are still wars to protest, and refugees to embrace; conflict still seems to be a part of the human condition, but it is surely within the grasp of educated young people to make a difference.
At UWC Atlantic College you will have the opportunity to reach across cultural, political and economic barriers, and to examine your own values in an environment where all things - and especially peace - are still possible. I remain convinced that students of the college will continue to exert a positive influence in the world, and in particular upon the underlying economic imperatives that have created the vast inequalities that feed so many of the world's conflicts. Our global world is too complex for single leaders to act alone as a force for good - I can only pin my faith, and my future, in the hands of the young people that I see daily as I go about my duties. The college strives to provide an education that begins and ends with our common humanity, and one that transcends the narrow ideologies that plague the world. This makes a difference. For all our sakes, it has to.
