February has flown by, and I am finally on the ground long enough to write you an update! Arts Events January started with several fun events.
Seven-time Grammy nominee John McCutcheon, an activist folk singer and song writer, performed both on campus and in nearby Las Vegas, NM.
We also held the Fifth 24-Hour Playwriting Project, during which participants met at 8pm on a Saturday night and were given casting requirements for their script, a stimulus (from a fortune cookie), a director and until 8 o'clock the following morning to write a play.. At 8am the following morning, the director received the script, cast the play from a pool of actors and went straight into rehearsal. The director and actors then had until 8 pm Sunday to rehearse, learn lines, collect props/costumes and organize sound and lighting in time for a world premiere of each play, in the auditorium, exactly 24-hours after first meeting. Nearly seventy students and community members registered to participate, and the public was invited to the free performance of eleven world premieres on Sunday night.
Other arts events in January and February included African Cultural Day, two music concerts in the Castle, and two student performances of the play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Global Issues We have also had several student-led events on global issues so far this year.
Our African students led one evening of workshops exploring such topics as inflation in Zimbabwe, the Kenyan presidency, child soldiers and the legacy of the African Diaspora.
Another evening was devoted to "The Baltics, the Balkans and Between," during which student representatives from those regions explained the Balkan conflict, the Orange Revolution, emerging European nations, and transition economies.
Finally, through a student initiative, February was declared a month of events devoted to learning about Iraq. This idea originated in a Group 2 English class, where one of the assignments had been to prepare a presentation about a chosen global issue. First-year Zahraa Mohsin Al-Janabi from Iraq gave a presentation about her home country, and her class thought that the whole UWC community should have access to such information. One of the class projects they developed was a student-written magazine to present the testimony of the Iraqi students and the English class's point of view about Iraq-related issues. Conferences We also held two conferences in February:
The Annual Conference features a topic chosen by the student body. This year's topic was "the politics of popular culture" and featured guests from academia, media and the performing arts.
There was also the Bartos Institute's annual youth conference. This year's conference was entitled "New Mexico Peace Works" and focused on creating a better world through social justice. Topics addressed ranged from human rights, youth leadership, and media access to climate change, civil disobedience, and racial justice. UWC Travel During the last part of January, Adriana Botero, UWC-USA's Vice President, visited our sister UWC in Venezuela, Simon Bolivar UWC. She was there as part of a UWC assessment process of peer review. Adriana came back very much inspired by the good work being done there in sustainable agriculture-despite very difficult conditions. Funding for Simon Bolivar is not secure, and the school's infrastructure is in great need of support. Those working and learning at the College remain motivated by and committed to UWC ideals, and their outreach to the local community has had meaningful impact on the standard of living.
The first week of February found me in Mumbai, India, for the UWC International Board meeting. While there, I was able to meet with a few of our Mumbai-based alumni, see the Mahindra UWC campus, and visit the Akshara Project, an education initiative for Indian village children founded by one of our own alumni.
As those in National Committees will already know, the exciting news from the International Board meeting was the election and approval of the next UWC, UWC-Maastricht in the Netherlands, scheduled to open its doors in 2009.
I spent the last week in February with our Board and administrators in New York, where we attended a series of professional development workshops at the annual conference of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the largest annual gathering of independent school leaders, administrators, and teachers (this year's attendance was about 6,500 people).
While participating in this professional conference, we also threw a social and networking event for New York area alumni and friends, met with foundations and individuals who have generously supported UWC-USA through scholarships and endowments, and held our February Board meeting.
I was thrilled to be able to connect with so many colleagues and UWCers--an intensely busy and thoroughly rewarding week! Building Our Global Profile As a movement, UWC is working hard to enlarge its global profile, and we at UWC-USA are tracking our own recent media coverage to get an idea of where we are now and where we want to be.
Media coverage of UWC-USA from October 2007 to February 2008 included 28 articles in seven newspapers (one local, two regional, and four national or international), as well as in one national magazine, one international magazine, on regional television and radio, in several personal blogs and on YouTube. Anything that any of us can do to spread the word about our remarkable schools, committees, and short courses can only benefit the UWC as a whole.
Please keep us in mind when writing and blogging! Project Week Last Friday and Saturday saw students heading off on Project Week. This year, we are offering the following faculty-sponsored projects:
Second-Year On-Campus Option Big Bend Nature Adventure USA-Mexico Border Towns Copper Canyon Phoenix Baseball Spring Training Trip Tucson & Baja California Biology Adventure Southern New Mexico Tour Los Angeles Homeless Trip Conflict Resolution in Seattle Adaptive Skiing Program in Colorado Now Hiring I end with a quick word to our active UWC network: we are seeking to hire a biology teacher for next year. Please pass on our information to anyone whom you feel might be interested and qualified.
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