Head of College's message

The College year came to an end yesterday in the joy and celebration of Graduation.  Like all transitions in life Graduation brings mixed emotions – the excitement of new opportunity and the sadness of farewell.  Graduation often feels like a conclusion – but it is also a staging post of a much longer journey.

As the Honorary President of UWC, Nelson Mandela put it:

I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

Graduating from a UWC is not just any old transition.  When students arrive at a UWC it is to take on a unique and exceptional challenge - to be part of an experience which could so profoundly change their lives that they would leave determined to make the world a better place.

As with all earthly utopias, UWC has its quirks and tensions, its odd mix of magical ideal and murky reality.  Those who graduated as members of the Class of 2011 have been touched by UWC’s unique alchemy and know that life can never be the same because of this experience.

UWC’s task has always been to help young people find their ‘grand passion’ in life, that ‘one thing’ which is, alone, worth living and striving for.  Many of our graduates find things of enduring value here which shape their sense of that ‘one thing’ besides which all else is trivial and of no real consequence.  And what do we do when we find that ‘one thing?’  Rumi, the well-known 13^th century mystic poet once penned these words, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”