A Message from the President
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Hello,
Alumni!
It’s only a little
over a month since the Montezuma reunion, but much has happened since
then. I wanted to fill in those of you whom I didn’t see at reunion on
some summer news and alert everyone to some exciting upcoming events.
INH and NAIS
I started the summer with an annual commitment I have with
the Institute for New Heads (INH)—a “school” for new heads of schools run by
the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). I get to do some
teaching and mentoring there every summer and am able to create good networks
with new colleagues as well as spread the word about UWC.
Summer Programs
I was back on campus for much of the rest of the summer as
our Summer Programs rolled along at full tilt. We had over 1,000
participants this year—mostly teachers from US public schools that are
incorporating the IB into their curricula. Among the Summer Program
faculty this summer was our very own Max Jones ’91, who led an English A1
workshop.
Rio Gallinas
An exciting opportunity presented itself mid-summer: a young
local charter school, Rio Gallinas, was ready to expand
to offer second and third grades but arrangements for the site of the new
classrooms fell through, displacing the school’s seventh and eight grades.
Some of you from the pioneer class will remember when our
own school opened without completed dorms, without science labs, without even
the grass and trees that we take for granted today. In our time of need,
the Las Vegas community made great efforts to make sure that our programs could
proceed—the public schools lent us classroom space in town, the university
allowed us to use its labs and allowed access to special equipment for a
special-needs student, donations of books poured in to start our library.
We saw an opportunity to return the favor by helping out the
Rio Gallinas
School. We offered a
temporary space to house their seventh and eighth graders while their
"green" portable classrooms are built. Several of our faculty
and staff children attend the school, so the Rio Gallinas students are by no
means strangers to UWC. They will be in the basement of the Castle, in a
room with natural light and its own private courtyard.
Before agreeing to do this, we checked in with returning
second-year students, employees and the Board. The response was
overwhelmingly positive with many declaring it a great opportunity for expanded
cultural exchange, youth leadership and meaningful community service.
Montezuma Reunion and Other Alumni News
Highlights of this great five-day event include a screening
of a documentary produced by Ramon Taylor ’06, the beginnings of a UWC
Mentorship program fostered by the Class of 1987, an all-community service project
at the hot springs and skating pond, and a spectacular Blue Moon Café
Redux. Photos and video will soon be up on the alumni
site—and you can upload your own photos to the site as well.
Other alumni news that has just come in:
A stroke of luck brought Jacqueline Vargas Arellanes ’87 and
Nydia Iglesias, an Atlantic College alumna, to our
area of the world this week, and they agreed to give a last-minute presentation
for our community on Mexican
Politics last night. It was well attended and much appreciated.
Many of
you will remember Greg Walsh, who coordinated student services, the GetAway
program, school assembly and admissions and also provided university counseling
for several years. Greg is now the university counselor at UWC-CR (Costa
Rica), and our very own Ugo Gragnolati ’02
will be teaching economics there starting this semester.
Upcoming Events
Some events that I know will be of interest to you:
September 14 and 15
We will be hosting a conference on Human Rights in an Age of
Fear and Terror, which we are co-sponsoring with the Las Vegas Amnesty
International group. On Friday night, Larry Cox, Executive Director of
Amnesty International USA, will speak. On Saturday, there will be a
series of workshops offered on the following themes:
·
International
implications of US anti-terror policies
·
Human
trafficking
·
The
human rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers
·
The
global trade in small arms
·
International
response to genocide and mass killings
All parts of
this conference are free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided.
Pre-registration is requested—email Sharon.Seto@uwc-usa.org if you’d like to come.
Childcare is available with one week’s notice of need.
Friday-Sunday,
October 12-14
It’s our 25th
Anniversary Founders' Weekend! On Friday, we’ll have a gala dinner to
celebrate, and on Saturday there will be a symposium with some interesting
speakers (including alumni, of course!) on sustainability and peace-related
issues as well as a community service project. Sunday will offer some
special alumni events—stayed tuned for more details.
A year-long lecture series
There is also a very exciting series of lectures being held
at the College of Santa
Fe, sponsored in part by the UWC-USA Bartos
Institute. They are free and open to the public. Topics include:
You can find more information about each lecture on our web site.
Iraq
and Iran!
El Salvador
and Honduras!
In the class of 2009, we have two students from Iraq
and one from Iran—firsts
for us. Two other possible firsts (and please correct me if I’m mistaken)
are students from El Salvador
and Honduras.
We have also found funding for an additional Afghan student. Admitting
more than one scholar from a country has great advantages for the
students—language-mates and country-mates can provide tremendous support—but it
also lowers the overall number of countries represented. We are at 85
countries this year, which is still pretty darn diverse.
Orientation
For orientation this year, we tried something new: the
entire campus moved to Ghost
Ranch in Abiquiu for four days and three nights. There was a packed
schedule of expeditions, mural painting, documentary making, challenge-course
activities, mission statement workshops, intercultural games, bon fires,
diversity workshops and much more. Click here
for some great photos from the week.
Alumni Profiles
Many thanks to those of you who have helped us assemble alumni profiles for our web
site and for the UWC International web site. If
you haven’t seen these profiles yet, take a look! They are
inspiring. If you know of an alum who should be profiled, please let us
know—you can contact Jeremiah in the alumni office at (505) 454-4214 or at Jeremiah.Stevens@uwc-usa.org.
Kaleidoscope
The Kaleidoscope is still at the printer, but the online
version is up and ready—you can find it here.
The Montezuma post is online here. Don’t
forget to update your class agent with news for the next Montezuma Post!
Please stay in touch, and we’ll continue to keep you
updated!
All the best,
Lisa
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