United World College: Embracing the world to promote peace through education
In August, two of Junyi School of Innovation students, Chen Wenjun and Chou Tzi-chen, will start on the two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) at the United World College (UWC) campuses in Canada and Germany. In line with the hopes of The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) and Junyi to encourage high-performing Junyi students to pursue overseas education to broaden their horizons. The two students are part of 18 students chosen by the UWC Taiwan Selection Committee to represent Taiwan at the global preparatory college this year. Both will receive the UWC bursary.
The UWC is a global education movement in over 150 countries and selections are held for youths aged 16-18 each year to represent their countries in the global network of schools. Lives of students from impoverished backgrounds are changed through funding for such international education. UWC Taiwan Committee was set up in 2015, headed by President Ashlee Chen, from Hong Kong, who relocated to Taiwan. With her support, 40 Taiwanese students are in UWC schools now.
Impressed by the quality of Junyi students demonstrated during the selections, President Chen visited Junyi this March. She said Junyi is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural school, with a liberal learning environment, focus on character and multi-faceted development, through life discovery lessons in Huatung. She also lauded Junyi for tapping on external resources like the HASSE scholarship, bringing in international culinary experts for skills training, enlisting American interns for English learning amongst other initiatives.
Student Chen, from the Beinan tribe, will pursue studies at Canada’s Pearson College UWC, which its campus is in the First Nations’ territory, with rich cultural resources and indigenous cultures to learn from. Student Chou was a scout leader and student committee Chair at Junyi. In Germany’s Robert Bosch UWC, he wishes to focus on philosophical studies, as well as attend seminars at the nearby University of Freiburg.
Each UWC campus has about 200 students, with one to three of them from the same country. Each school is like a small United Nations, boasting diverse learning environments which teaches students to respect differences. The IBDP is offered at the UWC is equivalent to Taiwan’s Grade 11 and 12, and is recognized by 1,500 universities worldwide such as Harvard, Yale and Oxbridge, with a year of exemption awarded to those with outstanding results.
Fueled by a sense of mission to help youths discover themselves and give back to society, President Chen and her team at UWC Taiwan took three years since 2016 to promote the UWC mission. The UWC global headquarters sees UWC Taiwan as one of the fastest-growing committees. The IB curriculum reduced reliance on textbooks and rote learning, but focuses on initiated research, interdisciplinary learning and holistic development. Each school term, more than 100 hours of community service is facilitated through the CAS program, letting students choose from one area of the following – Creativity, Activity and Service – to complete a thematic project. Experiential learning, multicultural learning, responsibility for the community and the world are inculcated.
Fueled by a sense of mission to help youths discover themselves and give back to society, President Chen and her team at UWC Taiwan took three years since 2016 to promote the UWC mission. The UWC global headquarters sees UWC Taiwan as one of the fastest-growing committees. The IB curriculum reduced reliance on textbooks and rote learning, but focuses on initiated research, interdisciplinary learning and holistic development. Each school term, more than 100 hours of community service is facilitated through the CAS program, letting students choose from one area of the following – Creativity, Activity and Service – to complete a thematic project. Experiential learning, multicultural learning, responsibility for the community and the world are inculcated.
UWC is an environment which challenges each individual, where you can find yourself through change and growth, said Li Ching, a Taiwanese student at UWC Hong Kong, formerly from Ci-xin Waldorf School. Student Li added when she was faced with the frequent question if Taiwan is a country, it helped her understand the importance of stating her position to other students from the rest of the world. Schooling at UWC encourages her to live a vibrant life and make the world a better place.
Lauded as the Top Ten best in the practice of education globally, UWC has seventeen schools with individual specialization united by a common mission statement. Each UWC graduate is an architect of world peace for the future, quoted by Queen Noor of Jordan, UWC’s current President.
Lauded as the Top Ten best in the practice of education globally, UWC has seventeen schools with individual specialization united by a common mission statement. Each UWC graduate is an architect of world peace for the future, quoted by Queen Noor of Jordan, UWC’s current President.
Set up in England in 1962, by pioneering German educationalist Kurt Hahn, the UWC education movement was founded during the Cold War. Its values of community service, social enterprise, affective learning, service to others and adventure as well as cross-cultural youth leadership and the internationalization of youth which UWC aims for is similar to Junyi’s vision.
Related information
UWC website
UWC Taiwan FB
Related information
UWC website
UWC Taiwan FB
