Message from the Head of College

Dear Community,

The last two months have seen a flurry of activities at UWC Mahindra College. First and second year students have gotten to know each other and their surroundings while being involved in a range of activities and taking up new challenges in the classroom, in the local community and in their personal interactions. This year, we have welcomed more students than in the past and have recently opened a new Wada in order to be able to provide the UWC education to an increasing number of students.

Our Outreach and Development Office has changed as well in an effort to reach out and better engage with our stakeholders. In the following months, you will hear from Nandita, Raïsa and Usha as well as some O2D students about on-going activities and alumni activities that are being planned.

In September, we commemorated the 50^th year of the UWC movement- a time of celebrations of past achievements while looking to the future for our schools. At MUWCI, we have been looking forward and preparing to celebrate the 15^th year anniversary of our own College, which will take place on November 24^th and 25^th. You will shortly receive an invitation to join us during these two days and we sincerely hope that you will come back to the Hill and be a part of these festivities. If you cannot make it to the College, we invite you to contribute through in our Visioning activities as we look forward to build a vision of what we hope MUWCI will look like in 2022.

Please join us! You are all an invaluable part of the UWC Mahindra College community and remain an integral part as we move forward.

                Pelham Lindfield Roberts

                   Head of College

Join Us For UWC Mahindra's 15th Anniversary!

 Schedule of Events


Saturday 24th November:

1000 - 1100: Arrival on campus
1100 – 1200: Short programme

1200 - 1300 Lunch
1315 – 1355 International Office presentation on UWCs’ present and future
1400 – 1445 Chai in the cafeteria
1500 – 1545 Silde show by Oscar Akerberg (’00) and Clara Benedito (’13) and keynote address by Anand Mahindra
1800 – 1845 Student Presentations
1900 onwards Dinner at Headmaster’s home followed by an auction of pictures

Sunday 25th November begins at a leisurely pace after brunch and then leads into workshops where we brainstorm for the future. We will end by 4pm.

On behalf of all of us on campus I do very much hope you will take the time to join us. Please RSVP Usha Sundaram at development@muwci.net and for details on accommodation or for more information. 

Winner of Aug-Sept UWC Photo Competition

A BIG Congratulations from all of us at UWC Mahindra College to Clara Figueras Benedito who was the winner for the months of August and September in the UWC Norge Photo Competition with her photo entitled "I dare you to taste a sample of my life". The winning photos will be printed and put on display outside by the Oslo City Hall in connection with the 50th anniversary celebration in October 2012, for a duration of 6 weeks. 

This is what the judges had to say about the photo:

UWC 50th Celebrations: DAY 4

by Cyrus Vakil (Faculty) 

 Photo by Oscar Akerburg

DAY 4 was planned around the themes of biodiversity and sustainability. The afternoon began with a slideshow of campus fauna by Sharada Vakil. All photographs displayed were taken by faculty over the years, on campus. The diversity of fauna explained why the Sahyadri region, in which the College is nestled, is ranked among the top 20 ecological hotspots in the world. Birds and reptiles made the greatest impression on students and their predatory habits were discussed. The importance of not walking barefoot in the dark was stressed: snakes will avoid humans till trodden on!

Kurush Canteenwalla spoke next. An award-winning documentary film-maker who has also taught Film part-time at MUWCI (2006-2009), Kurush talked about predatory behaviour of a different kind – illegal mining in the Goan Sahyadris. Though it was not known to the audience at the time the subject was very topical. Earlier this week the Indian Supreme Court has suspended all mining in Goa till environmental clearances are checked. 

The last and most detailed presentation was by Farhad Contractor, who has worked with local communities to complete over 800 water harvesting and water-table recharging projects in India, mostly in Rajasthan and the Himalayan foothills. Given a brief to generate momentum for a water harvesting program on campus, Farhad spoke of the cost and the ethics of drawing water from the riverbed and pumping it up the hill. Given the high rainfall at MUWCI (>2000mm/year) Farhad argued that check dams and storage wells at strategic points on the slope had the potential to make the campus self-sufficient in water. 

Farhad offered a number of examples and visuals from Western Rajasthan and Kutch where communities overcame chronic water shortages through water harvesting, even though the rainfall there is only 250-400mm/yr and gradients are much lower. Farhad’s talk turned out to be the best-attended event of the four-day celebrations and was followed by lively Q&A and discussion. The debates included  whether rainwater was fit to drink without further treatment, the ethics of having a swimming pool and growing lawns and crops atop the hill, and whether check dams would hurt or help the rice valley below.

On Saturday we have invited a guest to speak to the college on an important topic: "Rain water harvesting to make our campus sustainable". The session started at 4pm and was very relevant for the school.

UWC 50th Celebrations: DAY 3

by Pelham Lindfield Roberts (Head of College) 

The 21 September every year is the UN Day of Peace known as "Peace One Day". This fitted our schedule well as we worked through our mission on the final two days of celebrations with a day of engagement about "peace" on the 21st and a day of engagement about "sustainability" on the 22nd September.

The events started with an introductory session on Peace defining it as "social justice" rather than simply as the "absence of war", or the "absence of direct physical violence". 

After this Mahindra students presented 7 workshops on various conflicts from around the world ranging from conflicts over land to conflicts about culture and language and identity.    

We had a skype interaction with UWC Mostar focussing on the role of education in addressing conflict and we linked up with  Saim Saeed  a former student  from Pakistan who had been at UWC Mahindra College in 2008 when the terrorist attacks occurred. The head pledged to work towards securing visas for Pakistani studnets to return to the college.

Finally students engaged in an interesting workshop, used in other UWC's, entitled "Red Team / Blue Team" to discover their desire to be competitive or collaborative. The workshops were facilitated by student volunteers and revealed some interesting issues and challenges. 

The day was a fitting way to celebrate 50 Years of UWC!

UWC 50th Celebrations DAY 2

by Usha Rajaram (Staff) 

Day 2: Let's Celebrate With Action

Thursday, September 20^th, was a day when we celebrated action and tried to explore what activism could mean. We had a meeting with the local Community Engagement partners, which was very successful. Not only did they interact with us, but also with each other, and some partners actually met each other for the first time. 

From 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm there were presentations of projects proposed by students, which would bring UWC ideals alive. It began with a lovely video on the local partners and their community engagement activities. The presentation proposals ranged from starting an organic farm on our campus, to teaching the high school students of the local schools the idea of energy conservation, to renovating and painting one of local high school's classrooms. The idea was that these proposals would come to some fruition by the 27^th of November which is  15^th anniversary of  UWC Mahindra College .  

After dinner, there was a live transmission from the UWC forum in London. The first panel discussion was on ‘Sustainability and supply: Can science provide the long term solution to increase consumption?’ We watched this, accompanied by UWC chai, but we couldn't watch the second panel discussion, because the live transmission broke down.

It was lovely having our local Community Engagement partners with us, because they served as genuine role models for UWC activism. 

You can watch the UWC Anniversary Formal Celebrations here: 

http://www.atlanticcollege.org/50th-anniversary-formal-ceremony-live-stream/ 
 

UWC 50th Celebrations DAY 1

 by Oscar Akerburg (Faculty)

During the 50^th anniversary celebrations, MUWCI hosted series of events on each day between Wednesday, September 19^th 2012 and Sunday, September 23^rd.

The 50^th anniversary celebrations at MUWCI were also marked by a joyous event in India: the birthday of Lord Ganesha, which is one of the largest festivals in the state of Maharashtra. This coincidence was remarkable because in Hinduism Lord Ganesha is also known as the Lord of Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles.

On the first day, students organized activities aimed at bringing the spirit of all the different UWCs onto our campus and bringing the UWC movement and ideals into the everyone’s minds.

To start, MUWCI staff members brought a figure of Lord Ganesha to a place in the school where various ceremonies were held. A priest conducted a ceremony in which our Head of College participated. This ceremony represented not only the start of the Ganesha festivities, but also the start of the celebrations of the 50^th anniversary of UWC.

The main activity of the first day of festivities was to bring to life each one of the different UWCs in our academic area, the AQ. In the AQ there are currently 11 classrooms and apart from MUWCI there are 11 other UWCs. Students thus came up with the idea of renaming each of the classrooms with the names of all the current UWCs. Each UWC was assigned to a classroom in chronological order: A1 became Atlantic College, A2 South East Asia, A3 Pearson College, etc. Each of the classrooms was decorated according to the spirit of its namesake and the students displayed videos, photos and gave talks about what is currently happening at other UWCs.  After the students’ presentations were finished, the classrooms kept their new UWC names, so we can always remember that we are not alone in our UWC mission.

In the middle of the UWC presentations, staff from the cafeteria brought a cake to the AQ. Students and faculty gathered around the common room of the AQ to listen as a student read the speech that Queen Noor had written for these celebrations. These motivating words were followed by a speech from the Head of College. Finally, all sang a Happy Birthday song for UWC and had a delicious taste of the cake!

After dinner, many students gathered in the MPH to see the live broadcast of the 50^th anniversary inauguration ceremony at Atlantic College.

The activities of the first day concluded with a panel discussion about the UWC movement, which asked: where do we come from and where are we going? The panel consisted of four members of our faculty, one MUWCI alumnus and a student moderator. The discussion was very interesting and raised topics relevant in our quest to both reshape MUWCI and find its place in the context of the UWC movement.

The 50^th anniversary of UWC celebrates more than the beginning of the movement, the beginning of the next 50 years, which will be difficult and full of obstacles. For this reason, we at MUWCI are very happy to have experienced a wonderful coincidence of the 50^th anniversary of UWCs and the birthday of the Lord of Beginnings, the Obstacle Remover, Lord Ganesha. 

Fashion Show Fundraiser

 by Trisha Iyengar 

MUWCI is reputed for being a hub of co-curricular activity where all interests are encouraged. In line with this, the students of MUWCI, more specifically, a student group known as Community Fund, recently put up a spectacular fashion show.

Community Fund, or CF, as we like to call it, is a student volunteer-based initiative which aims to raise funds for the welfare of the MUWCI staff community. In case of medical or other emergencies faced by any member of the community, they can apply for aid from CF and the funds we raise then go towards paying a percentage of their expenses. 

In order to raise these funds, CF holds regular fund-raisers, such as the fashion show in question, where approximately Rs. 14,000 was raised through a system wherein the community voted for their favourite participants in the show. The winners were Junesoo Shin and Kim Dae Yong, two first year students from Korea. 

Photos by Siddharth Atre

Class of 2012 graduation

For the first time in the history of UWC Mahindra College, the graduating class was captured on video for your enjoyment. To all our alumni and to the parents of the Class of 2012, we hope this video provides a taste of the wonderful day we spent together.

I will be leaving the college at the end of this month to return to the UK to spend time with my mother. I will look back on my time in India with beautiful memories and many lessons learned and wish all the UWC community God's blessings in the years ahead.

Penny Fidler

Head of External Relations

Recognition

A very big thank you to Malte Warburg Sorensen (alumnus) who donated to the new gap year project and Nitish Hemdani who donated to the scholarship fund.

We would also like to thank the parents of the Class of 2012 who so generously donated all or part of their children's caution money to the college scholarship fund.

Thank you!!

Celebrate with Action - UWC’s 50th anniversary

Wednesday 19 – Sunday 23 September 2012

UWC is celebrating its 50th anniversary in September!

UWC Atlantic College is starting the celebrations on Wednesday 19 September and the event will be streamed for all UWC alumni to see.

50th celebration scholarship

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of UWC and the 21st anniversary of the Polish National Committee, six Polish alumni of the UWCs and Colby College recently established the United Colby Scholarship: the first-ever scholarship supporting a Polish student attending a UWC that is fully funded by a specific group of Polish UWC alumni. Our aim is to inspire other Polish UWC alumni to give more generously in support of current and future Polish students pursuing a UWC education. We want to show our peers that the 150 Polish alumni are quite capable of making up the funding shortfall resulting from the financial straits of many UWCs.

This and next year, United Colby will donate US$ 3,000 per year to cover the co-payment needed for a Polish teenager to attend UWC Mahindra College in India. That teenager was selected last weekend by Poland UWC National Committee - She is 16-year-old Sonia from Brzesko Okocim near Cracow.

@PolishAlumni: The ball's in your court.

Post taken from the UWC extranet

In memory of Einat Tabori

Einat Tabori studied in UWC Mahindra College in the years 1999 – 2001. After graduating she volunteered in various NGO’s, worked with asylum seekers and refugees and was very active in the UWC Israeli national committee.

UWC Nordic photography contest

Congratulations to UWC Mahindra College who had 5 finalists out of the 10 chosen pictures and to Katja who won the April-May section of the contest with her unusual take on the Taj Mahal...

Student profile

Wanyi China - Class of 2012

Wanyi is from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China and started at UWC Mahindra College, India, in September 2010.

Alumni profile

Julie Zimbabwe - Class of 1999

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Julie was one of the MUWCI pioneers in 1997-1999. 

Reminiscences with the Class of 2000

Football team had a uniform
Faculty had cigarettes
Number of bow tied cafeteria workers increases to five

Head of College's message

Dear Community,

It will soon be May Day when, every year, all over the world, millions of workers lay down tools whilst tens of thousands of students take up arms ready to face a few weeks of intense academic toil completing their IB examinations. In a UWC this is immediately followed by an emotional farewell, farewell to friends who have shared an unforgettable experience and farewell to a place, which has become home for two years.

Recognition

Thanks to Anis Mebarki (alumnus) and Aimable Mugara (alumnus) for their donations to the Scholarship Endowment Fund.


UWC Mahindra College makes donating easy through their online donation form on the website.


To make a donation.

Thank you!

Reminiscing with the Pioneers

The Pioneers’ Year Book 1997-1999

The opening of the MUWCI of India in September 1997…… hum~!

What's new?

FACULTY APPOINTMENTS 2012 - 13
I am delighted to announce the following appointments for the 2012 - 13 academic year. 

GAP year developments

Dear MUWCI alumni,

Greetings from the hill! We are writing in order to inform you about some changes that we are making to our gap year programme structure and to see how you might be able to be a part of it!

Student profile

Maria Victoria Venezuela Class of 2012

Favourite quote: “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” - Gabriel García Márquez

Hobbies: Writing, walking, hiking, swimming

Languages: Spanish, English & a little French

Why did you choose UWC Mahindra College?: Out of all the options, I thought if I was going to have a UWC experience it should be the furthest away from what I had experienced up until now. I had finished school before I came here and I wanted to do something not only academic (as I already had my high school diploma) before going to college but also learn English, mixing the cultural exchange with the language.

Alumni Profile

Malika graduated from UWC Mahindra College in 2001 and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago in Public Policy. She then won a Fulbright Fellowship and went to the Dominican Republic to study MicroFinance.

INC weekend

Almost a month after the INC selection weekend, the campus awaits the final list of Indian students who will be joining us next year.

Buried Moon Theatre

Greetings friends, friends of friends or UWC alumni with a social conscience!

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

In less than a month we will be packing up our puppets and our skills as Community Theatre practitioners and researchers and heading to India…

The Gomukh Organic Farmer’s Market

Gomukh farm is part of the GORUS farming cooperative that promotes organic farming in the Kolvan valley of Maharashtra, India. A number of students from the college walk down to work here on a weekly basis, and have been doing so for over a year now.

Reflections from visiting UWCSEA students

Guiding questions:

How did you find out about UWC?

How did you apply?

How was the feeling of getting accepted?

Why did you decide to come to India for project week?

How did UWC change your life?

What are the differences between UWCSEA and UWC Mahindra College?

Relate your experiences in Project Week and how do you feel about it?

Ludmila

Head of College's message

Dear MUWCI Community,

I am spellbound by my new home. The beauty and potential of this unique UWC, poised on a hill, home to a typically exceptional group of people, overlooking valleys inhabited by rural communities with life circumstances so different to our students, wrestling with the paradoxes of our human condition, and I am in India! In January I arrived in the eye of a storm;  centre stage, mid performance, a theatre “in-the-round”, closely observed, I found a seat.

INC weekend

Once again its time for the INC weekend! Three days of the year during which the UWC Mahindra College community and the Indian National Committee (INC) work intensively together to select the Indian students who will join us in August 2012.

Speeding up

The video below will give you some idea of the pace of life on campus these last 2 months!! Things were so hectic we didn't even manage to send out the February newsletter (sorry for this!) as it coincided with our Travel Week and everyone ran off for 10 days to get some Indian experiences that our isolated campus does not allow.

For what its worth...

A critique of the offerings in this year’s Theatre Season.....

I’m not a theatre critic and not much given to reading critics either.  However, it seems only fair, after so much work and dedication by so many, that some written feedback should be forthcoming, hence these appreciative reviews. There is criticism here too, though, because one important feature of the theatre season is its potential as a learning ground: an active forum of questioning, skill development and creative experiment. Theatre Season this year was better than it’s ever been. Fifteen productions took place over the course of a packed month of plays and the variety of offerings took in everything from psychodrama to community theatre, from the experiential to the experimental and from classic high drama to improvisation competitions. Especially impressive this year was the amount of plays written by students themselves and the smooth interaction of this huge event with the ongoing academic life of the college – completion of TOK, EE and World Literature papers all due at around the same time. This bears witness to the dedication of students and the appreciation by faculty of the value of this tradition at this college. Long may it continue to be the unique and powerfully enriching festival of creativity, humour, challenge and vision that it has become.

Benedict Clark

Head of Aesthetics

Aman - theatre season 2012

Aman’s show fell into three distinct parts. The first of these was delivered by a rather stiff character, wearing evening dress and a mask.

The General - theatre season 2012

What a tour de force!  

La Casa De Bernarda Alba - theatre season 2012

Arriving at La Casa the audience is confronted by a wake outside the door of Wada 1 House 3.  This was surprisingly affecting.  

Bricks - theatre season 2012

Fernanda has cleverly constructed a dark ‘murder mystery’ psychodrama about a suicide, which is entirely suffused with guilt and regret, as, character by character, the truth is revealed to us in a series of family confessions.  

Dogtooth - theatre season 2012

The directors of ‘Dogtooth’ transferred a film onto the stage, which is an awkward move and a difficult challenge. The camera has a different intensity, intimacy and a different sense of time. 

The Selfish Rakshas - theatre season 2012

This year’s Theatre Season had an unusual opening: an Oscar Wilde adaptation whose main stars were not UWC Mahindra College students, but 32 nine graders from a local school in Asade, a village 3 km from the campus. 

Fight or Flight - theatre season 2012

The proof of this will be in the feedback that comes from the participants, because this was not theatre for an audience, but an interactive role-play exercise attempting to force a new immediacy of experience in relation to the issue of dispossession and refugees.

Response - theatre season 2012 - the other side of humanity

Inspired by the International Red Cross Organization, MUWCI's first all-night refugee simulation theatre project, "Fight and Flight",  was carried out on 17 of February 2012. Students and faculty were exposed for 12 hours to the elements in the school’s large Biodiversity Reserve, human bureaucracy, discrimination, absurdity and the sense of not knowing what could happen next. Twenty three participants were assigned the roles of refugees along with twenty five actors and crew, complete with roles such as border policemen, bureaucrats, rebels and humanitarian workers.

Clara, an actress playing the role of a co-refugee, accounts for her experience:
 

The other side of humanity

 
Darkness.Solitude. Mistrust. I never imagined the power of acting could have such an impact on me. Putting myself in the situation of a refugee together with many of my good friends, I ended up feeling alone and desperate. We were a group of illegal immigrants, trying to cross the border from "Arumland" to "Babistan" at night, through what were our well-known surroundings but became unrecognizable and mysterious roads. The trust between us became threatened as we were standing inline for hours, filling papers in an unknown language, trying to bribe police officers in vain, walking aimlessly in the dark. The simulation lasted for more than 8 hours, through which I had to stay in character but at the same time remind myself of reality.

I was overwhelmed by the feelings that came to me as I went deeper inside my character; suddenly the insults of the police officers had a true impact on me and my real feelings became those of the refugee I was pretending to be. Some of the participants abandoned the idea of acting, maybe because it implied facing the fact that what they were going through could have been a real-life situation. The confusion was growing deeper in my head as I was separated from my peers,''attacked by rebels'', taken into an isolation place and ''abused''.At some point, I was so depressed and into my character that I lost the sense of reality and wondered about the possibility of other people actually having to face such traumatic experiences.

Finally,once I was directed towards a refugee camp, and as I began to regain hope, all my expectations were destroyed. I was hoping to see solidarity between the people, all working together, helping and caring for each other. But I saw none of that, rather the contrary. I noticed that my own friends, when put in this extreme situation of desperation for shelter and food, disregarded any suffering external to them. They were driven by their survival instinct and searched for individual protection, prioritizing their needs before those of others. Though making myself believe that it was only a simulation,deep inside I knew that I was looking straight into the selfish nature of a human being, and that I had no choice but to face it.

Written by Mark, Emilie and Clara

Photograph Sreedevi and edited by Mark

Shadow Liberation - theatre season 2012

Thanks to Evan Hastings and the students of Shrishti College Bangalore for stopping off on their tour to Pune to spend an evening with us. 

Antigone - theatre season 2012

What a wonderful play – a tragedy, a critique of tragedy and a comedy all in one. I didn’t know it in advance, and so was startled by the effectiveness of its murder mystery aspect - something this production emphasised by its setting and style. 

Lettres d’Amour - theatre season 2012

To the repeated strains of “La Vie En Rose”, Margot’s edited and adapted romantic comedy had us seated for half an hour in something of a boutique theatre, MUWCI style.  The director had taken care to provide carpeted seating areas and a cinema layout.

Trial of my Mind - theatre season 2012

A late entrant into the Theatre Season this year, Trial of My Mind certainly proved its worth.  And this was interesting timing too, because with TOK presentations and essays looming, this play attacked the question of a case of ‘inaccurate memory’.  

12 Angry Men - theatre season 2012

Despite threatening to be renamed ‘11 awkward men’, this production had a confident sense of where it was going from the start. Combining inventive staging and sensitive direction, it was a very convincing piece of work, and a tribute to a good-natured teamwork rare in this age group.  

9 Parts of Desire - theatre season 2012

Without much sense of irony, “9 Parts of Desire” focuses on the lives of some women caught in Iraq at the time of Sadam Hussain’s fall.  It aims, apparently, to give the audience a sense of the brutalization of individual lives in the tumult of a confused war. However, written by an American Iraqi, it was difficult for this viewer not to conclude in places that the piece was, essentially, veiled propaganda.  
 

Letters from 91 - theatre season 2012

Letters from 91

What they said about themselves.......

As the spring of 1991 sets in, the Himalayan snow begins to melt and the waters of the river Jhelum gain momentum. 

Impro Luchas - theatre season 2012

Just in case Theatre Season should pass by untouched by the world of glamorous hype and celebrity culture, Impro Luchas was here to make up for it. 

Parent profile

Marie, mother of Emil Class of 2013

Marie and her daughter Ella visited the college during the month of February and were lucky to spend a week here with Emil, visiting classes, eating in the caf, taking part in theatre week, and watching the sunset over the hill. 

Student Profile

Zibusiso - Zimbabwe Class of 2012

Favourite quote: "What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal." Albert Pike

Alumni profile

Neha India Class of 2007

Neha is from Pune and considered MUWCI a home within a home in her years here. She graduated in 2007 and went on to obtain a combined degree in Earth and Space Sciences in Germany, specializing in environmental physics and ranking amongst the President’s list of outstanding academicians.

Urus celebrations

CHIKHALGAON URUS

On 8 February 2012, the village of Chikhalgaon began their annual Urus celebrations. The Urus is a festival held in every village in most parts of Maharashtra. It is a collective effort by the whole village where every family contributes to the organisation of the festival. The Urus consists of religious discourses and entertainment for the people in the village and neighbouring villages.

Kisses for sale....

'Kisses For Somalia' was a Valentine's mini-fundraiser, part of the 'Somalia Project', which consisted of raising money and sending it to the International Red Cross of Somalia on behalf of UWC Mahindra College by end of April. 

When I close my eyes all I can see are boulders and chalk

In March 2012, twenty-three climbers from across the community embarked on a bouldering trip to Karnataka. A world heritage centre containing an infinite supply of boulders, Hampi really is an ideal setting for climbers of all abilities.

Head of College's message

Welcome from the Head of College

Visiting the rural villages in the valley last week, where our students engage with our local community, made me fully aware of the incredible opportunity and obligation we have as a UWC. 

Survey results

Thank you to all the people from a wide section of the UWC community who took the time and trouble to complete the survey which went out with last month's newsletter. Although the numbers were small, we were able to gauge your opinions with the help of Google Surveys! Yeh for Google!

Results do confirm your acceptance of the newsletter in its existing form and comments were supportive and positive. Ideas to include different articles will try to be accommodated and we will try to provide more photos, though this is always a big challenge; getting just some of the millions of photos that are taken each month uploaded onto a common drive so we can all share them! I'll do my best.....

You can review the results of the survey here. When you can see the spread sheet, if you go to the drop down horizontal menu and click on Form and then Show summary of responses you will get the information in chart form which is easier to read.

Penny Fidler
Head of External Relations / Webmaster

Recognition

A very big thanks to Dr Julie Taylor, Pioneer Class of 1999, who donated a matching gift to help sponsor a Zimbabwean (or otherwise African) student.

We would also like to recognize all members of the community who, in eating one simple dinner per week (austerity dinner), allow the difference in cost of the meal to support our scholarship fund.

Your gifts help UWC Mahindra College to arrive at its vision target of welcoming 100% scholarship students.

Thank you!

GAP year opportunities

UWC Mahindra College welcomed Kevin Morley, the Head of GAP year projects in UWCSEA, during the month of January.

Learning through extending our resources

In February 2011 on a campus roof top a small group of students gathered and started to plot; soon after, the Climb Committee was born. 

Exploration Society

The newly formed Exploration Society has split into two separate segments, an official off / on campus and a student initiative.

Student Profile

Marte Norway Class of 2012

Favourite quote: "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken" Oscar Wilde
 

Parent Profile

Jeff & Nannette - parents of Max Class of 2012

This is the first time Jeff & Nannette have visited India and is the first big international trip they have made together. 

UWC TV channel

LipPoChun UWC contacted the linking group to suggest starting a new online television channel so that the different UWCs around the world could keep informed and connected with each other. 

New Science block

The ground floor of the new Science Block was inaugurated on 12 January by the Head of College, members of the administration and the science faculty. The ground floor classroom can accommodate around 40 students and provides a light and well equipped space for teaching and experimental work.

UWC Mahindra College ambulance

The college received its new ambulance on 14 January which was duly "blessed" and made ready for any emergencies. Let's hope we don't need!

Living below the poverty line

First of all, we are both terribly sorry for being quite so awful at following up the final phase of us living on £1 a day. It has been playing on our conscience for a long time, made worse by all the media attention to the crisis in East Africa. We have no excuses, but at least finally, we’re doing it!

School Leadership Programme

The UWC Mahindra College campus hosted Shikshangan, an organisation committed to quality education for every child, who conducted a series of workshops on campus as part of their 17th offering of the School Leadership Programme, a 6-day residential workshop for current and aspiring school leaders, Academic Supervisors, Administrators, Vice-Principals, Principals, Curriculum / Content Planners, senior teachers, interested management members, as well as others engaged in the education sector.

The workshops addressed the three components of Personal , Academic and Organizational Leadership and were conducted by Vijay Gupta & Devika Nadig, both co-directors of Shikshangan and participants included Ms Dolly Jacob and Ms Hema Shrivastava from RBK School, Mumbai; Ms Benaifer Kutir from JB Petit, Mumbai; Mr Dawood Vaid and Mr Javed Khan of Burooj Realizations, Mumbai; Mr Nabeel Muhameed of Peace Educational Foundation, Mumbai and Mr Ajit from Krishamurthy Public School, Begusarai.  More info is available on their website.

Alumni assistance required....

Are you a MUWCI alumni? Interested in staying connected to our college on the hill? Excited by an Inclusive Arts Project aimed at connecting alumni, MUWCI students and the surrounding communities? Want to know how you can help make this happen? Then please take a few minutes to read over our proposal…....

Alumni Profile

Eduardo graduated from The Mahindra United World College of India in 2004. "It was while at the college that I received first-hand experience with economic, social and cultural realities completely different to my own; a contact that not only enriched me on a personal level, but also inspired my career ambitions." he recalls.