Thanks for thinking of donating!

 

So what is this UWC stuff all about anyway? And why should you part with some of your hard earned cash / ill gotten gains (delete as appropriate) to help them out?

 

Well... when I was 16 I got a scholarship to study at an international school in Canada. It felt like a pretty big deal to me at the time, and over 20 years later it feels like an even bigger deal. Back then United World Colleges (UWC) were all about furthering world peace by educating young people of many nationalities and faiths together, in an environment where views and opinions were sought and challenged. Today there's a little more world peace doing the rounds, but just a little. There's more to do, and UWC still has a role to play in that. And I'm more convinced than ever that young people of exceptional promise are the key to developing the sustainable and peaceful future that the UWC movement has been striving for these last 49 years - yep, BIG birthday coming up next year.

 

But in the last 49 years it has gotten increasingly tough to keep the scholarship coffers anywhere near adequate. Especially in the developed world where even the poorest live in relative affluence compared to some other nationalities. BUT, make no mistake we have poverty, and we have disadvanatge here in the UK. And a young person from that background can have just as much of the exceptional promise we look for in a UWC student, and they have the potential to be future agents of change - whether that be on a micro or macro level.

 

The UWC GB National Committee are committed to selecting those exceptional young people, regardless of their ability to pay. We want to work harder to reach out to students from tougher backgrounds, but if we're going to do that we need to have scholarships to offer them.

 

And given that I'm the UWC GB Fundraising Officer the buck kind of stops with me... so in the interests of putting my money where my mouth is (or legs are, maybe) I am running the Aldbourne 10k, which is a dedicated fundraising event for the UWC GB National Committee. ANd its got hills. Too many hills for a girl who is training on the edge of the Somerset levels.

 

And this is a significant personal challenge to me - because I am to running what crocodiles are to petting zoos. A disaster waiting to happen. And this is a year of personal challenges for me - I turned 40 in December 2011 and I'm trying to do 40 new things before I turn 41. Read more about that at www.40things.co.uk 

 

So please, dig deep. I certainly will be! 

 

Emma, Pearson College 1989

 

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