UWCiM March Newsletter

8/7/2019 UWCiM March Newsletter

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The United World College in MostarMarch 2011 School year 2010-201123

In partnership with


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News UWC MOSTAR NEWSUWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER News

The Most Successful MUN in the UWCiM

Sharing the Passion of DebatingAfter months of preparations, meetings, to-do-lists and lots of stress, it finally happened on March 25:the Model United Nations in Mostar Conference took place. Heated debates, lively parties, crazy per-formances, but above all the formation of new friendships happened live on UWCiM for the duration ofthree days.

From March 25-27, over130 students comingfrom different UWCs(Maastricht and Adriatic)and other European and

Mostar high-schools took part inthe MUN Conference organizedby UWCiM students. The openingceremony started with a minute ofsilence for all the victims of earth-quake and tsunami in Japan. Ourkey note speaker for the occasionwas Mr. Metin Ergin, the Turkishconsul in Mostar who encouragedall the participants by saying thatthe event s like this are perfect op-portunity for future leaders to get

better understanding of the world.Our headmistress, Ms. Valen-tina Mindoljevi emphasized thatyoung generations would have op-portunity to shape the world andthat MUN is a perfect event forunderstanding different views andopinions. After a small banquet forour guests, the real MUN began.In this three-day event, studentswere invited to research the posi-tion of a country on two specificissues. After that, they had todefend the interests of the countryin a replication of the real UnitedNations. The goal of their discus-sions was to create a resolution

that could attempt to solve theissue that was discussed.Due to a large number of par-ticipants, it was decided that thedelegates would be divided intofour different councils, Security,Environmental, Human Rights andEconomical and Social, depend-ing on the issues discussed. Apartfrom issues of global importance,every council also debated onan issue relevant to the Balkansregion, in order to increase aware-ness of a number of problems thatthe Balkan countries are facing.For many participants, the MUNiMconference was a good way of

Delegates were accommodated in the UWCiMs Musala House whichoffered a spacious environment to interact and make new connec-tions and friendships. This wise decision of the Organizational Com-mittee just added to overall positive feelings about the conference.

"The quality of discussions was on a very high level but even moreimportantly our decision to accommodate all the participants in oneof our residences allowed them a genuine UWC experience at leastfor one weekend. This added to interactions among all the partici-pants and many of them didnt want to leave! said MUNiM co-organ-iser Caroline Gobena (Germany). The feedback from all participatingstudents was very positive, especially from our colleagues from UWCMaastricht. Thank you for being such a wonderful hosts and formaking us feel at home in those 5 days we spent in Mostar. We arecertainly coming to the next years conference was written on thegreeting card from UWC Maastricht.

improving public speaking skills,gaining knowledge about countriesand specific issues and simplyhaving a good time. On the secondday of the Conference, Dr. RonaldSturm, an Austrian diplomat andUWC Atlantic College alumnus,delivered a lecture entitled Worldwithout Nuclear Weapons whichwas central to inspiring much ofthe debate during the SecurityCouncil's consideration of movingtowards a nuclear weapon-freeworld.In order to make the delegatesenjoy their time as much as pos-sible there were a number of social

Globalvision 2011

Great Party for All our MGuests

Globalvision is a tradi-tional song/performingcontest held every

year in UWCiM as partof MUN conference

entertainment programme. Thesignificance of this event is con-tained in its ability to give studentsa chance to show their talents andcreativity providing lots of fun andgood vibrations for all participantsand guests. The Globalvision is oneof the greatest opportunities forstudents to relax from everyday IBassignments they have to work on,and to show the other UWCiM sidedifferent from studying creativ-ity. To put it simply, the Globalvi-sion is the most hilarious yearlyevent in the UWCiM.Basically, Globalvision is a compe-tition similar to Eurovision/Euro-song, with some differences. Thefirst difference is that Globalvision

allows participants to representany country in the world with anysong they want. The second dif-ference is that participants donthave to sing only, but they canshow their creativity and dancing

talent by making choreography fora song and perform it on the stage.Afterwards, the winner is decided

by the same voting system used inthe Eurovision each country rep-resented in the competition givestheir points to other countrieswithout the possibility to vote fortheir own representatives.This years Global Vision wasspecial comparing to those b efore.First of all, Globalvision wasorganized in the best possibleplace for such kind of an event- in the big hall of the AbraeviYouth Centre. Here our specialthanks go to the people fromAbraevi for letting us use theirspace free of charge. For the firsttime, UWCiMs Globalvision hadcontestants representing differ-ent schools from all around B&H the participants of our MUNiMConference. We had professional

MC Nathaniel Joselson Natecon-gratulations on brilliant master-ing and for helping out in severalperformances! And what you couldsee on stage was really great. Atone point, if you had closed your

events organized during theConference. On the first nightall the delegates were invited toa party, where students got toknow each other while leavingthe stress of the heated debatesbehind. On the second night weparticipated in the global eventEarth Hour. Together withlocal high-school students, a

60+ sign was made of studentsholding candle lights in front ofthe Gymnasium Mostar building.Afterwards, the Globalvisionevent was organized. In thisevent, all the delegates had thepossibility to perform a songor dance and in the style of thefamous Eurovision they weregraded afterwards. A wide rangeof performances varying fromVivaldis spring to the Yugosla-vian Brko brkane managed tokeep the audience entertainedfor two hours.The closinh day was marked bythe General Assembly in whichall the Councils joined togetherfor the final vote on all theproposed resolutions. In theamphitheater of the University of

Mostar, one resolution for eachtopic was discussed and followedby voting. Four out of eightresolutions discussed got thenecessary two thirds of votes.After all the issues had beenvoted on, the delegates receivedcertificates of participation andthe best speaker awards werehanded out to the most inspiringdelegates. Sadly enough, GeneralAssembly was followed by thedeparture of most delegates,and since it was impossible tocontinue the Conference withoutdelegates, this marked the endof MUNiM.Many factors made the MUNiMconference a success. The orga-nizers, Caroline Gobena, MarinaAndrijevi, Benedikt Gottwald

and I would like to thank theschool for support, all the peoplewho helped us during the entireConference for making our guestsfeel comfortable from the verybeginning and last but not least,the participants whose activeparticipation made the MUNiM2011 an unforgettable experience.

Marius Kat, one of MUNiMorganizers, the Netherlands

eyes you would haAdele with her ultRollin in the Deep

or that you were iopera! In order to even more speciathe Earth Hour, wlights and electrichour and lit the cashow respect to ththree great acousmade everyone replanet we live on.The funniest and tlarious performanfor the very end wstudents represenwith the dance pecombining a hit B&Brkane with turboProdigys Diesel Pments needed!). Ysympathies of motries and perform

frantic atmospherWe were so proudwe could show oubest light to all ou

Selmir Klii, Mr. Sturm's lecture Voting within the council

Consultations

MUN Organisation Committee (from left):Caroline, Benedikt, Marius and Marina

Earth Hour in front of Gymnasium Mostar

6. MUNiM General Assembly

Global Vision Atmosphere UK performance: Adele from Maglaj Czech Republic: Na

Globalvision winners: Yugoslavia

Croatia: Mateusz &Co


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News UWC-IB Initiative in BiH NEWSUWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER News

FIRST Robotics Competition in Israel 2011

New Award for Mostar Robotics TeamAfter six hard and exciting weeks, Mostar Robotics Team Spirit of the United Neretva finished theirbeloved robot and sent it to Israel hoping for the best. A few weeks later, eleven of us, including ourtwo mentors, went to Israel to join our robot in the real competition. The event took place in the NokiaArena in Tel Aviv, from March 14-16, and it gathered 48 teams from across Israel, one team from theUSA and our team representing Mostar, B&H, the Balkans, UWC

This years challenge wasto build robot that willbe able to pick up tubesand to put them on thehooks on three different

levels. The additional assignmentwas to build a mini robot able toclimb up the tube and turn on thelight on the top of the tower.Our first day in Israel was veryexhausting, since we had a lot ofwork to do in order to get 100%ready for the intense competitionthat followed. Helped and encour-aged by our mentors, the teammanaged to overcome the initialmechanical problems we faced andwe went happy for the sightsee-ing tour with other participants.

We had a chance to meet a lot ofnew people who share the sameinterests in science and technol-ogy, because interaction withother teams was one of the crucialthings in implementing the valuesof the FIRST movement.The two following days werereserved for robot matches onthe field. Even though some bigproblems occurred with the robot

mechanics and many other teams,the positive atmosphere of theFIRST survived until the very end.Big crowds of people were cheer-ing, dancing, singing all around thefiled, and putting the whole com-petition on higher intensity level.The robotics teams were fighting,struggling and doing their best toscore as much as possible. Peoplewere running from arena to thepits area making good atmosphereand lifting the spirits of other teammembers. In this very inspiringatmosphere many new friendshipswere made, and good relationsamong competing teams wereestablished for sure.All the members of our team were

very enthusiastic giving a hugesupport to the team members whowere in charge of navigation andoverall robot performance on thefield. Fortunately, at competitionslike this, there is always some-one who notices your qualitiesand awards you for that. That isexactly what happened to ourteam. Our good will and strongspirit was recognized and we came

Call for UWCScholarshipsfor B&Hstudents

The promotional activitieswithin this year's call forUWC Scholarships for localstudents, organized in closecooperation with the UWC

National Comitte of Bosnia and Her-zegovina, received lots of attentionfrom our targeted population. FromMarch 10-31, the National Commiteerecived 150 application from acrossthe country for 39 UWC scholar-ships for B&H candidates. Such a bignumber of applicatios resulted fromseveral important factors. UWCiMstudents held 20 presentations invarious towns across the coun-try: Biha, Cazin, Bijeljina, Brko,Tuzla, Doboj, Viegrad, Rogatica,Zavidivoi, Zenica, G.Vakuf-Uskoplje,Bugojno, epe, Mostar, Nevesinje,Trebinje, Ljubuki and Grude. The

presentations were held in frontof more than 700 2nd graders.We were particularly happy to beable to organize the presentationsabout the UWC scholarship for allsecond-grade students in Gym-nasium Mostar and receive manyapplications from the other MostarGymnasium. The media reportsand articles about the activities ofUWCiM students (namely the MUNiMConference and Robotics Team)ensured constant publicity of theapplication process.Trying to improve the selectionprocess and mke it more fair andtransparent, the UWC NationalCommitee decided to give a chanceto all the candidates who met allthe critieria for being invited tointerview in the so-called preselec-

tion process. A special workshopwas also organized to inform theNational Commitee members aboutselection criteria and UWC movmentguidelines for the selection ofcandidates. We hope that all thesewill help the members of the UWCNational Commitee of B&H to selectthe best candidates.

back home with the Team SpiritAward. The award was given to usfor demonstrating how one teamshould function and behave inorder to be a representative of thetrue FIRST spirit and movement.We were very happy and excitedabout the award, since it meantrecognition of all our efforts inmaking positive changes in ourlocal community. Our energy,determination and efforts in-vested in bringing together youngpeople from different backgroundstogether were recognized. In addi-tion to that, we managed to makea team with the best spirit! Thisfact was so amazing and somehowit gave us additional inspiration for

the next years competition. Feel-ing that our team is going to makea change in our society is amazing,and it can be already seen howyoung people positively react toour success.Our trip to Israel was also a greatopportunity to enjoy the beautiesof that amazing land and in thatway our hard work really paid.Sara Lori, UWCiM student, B&H

CPDT: Study Visit to Slovenia for Mathematics anMother Tongue Teachers

Teaching Practice in the Slovenian GymnasiaThe Foundation Education in Actions Centre for the Professiona

ment of Teachers in B&H (CPDT) organized a study visit to Slovemathematics and mother tongue teachers from March 27-30, 20ing these four days, 27 selected participants from 15 towns in B&Second Gymnasium in Maribor and Gymnasium Beigrad in Ljublattended IB and national curriculum classes in both schools.

The aim of the visit wasto offer B&H teachersnot only the opportunityto learn about modernteaching practises but

also a chance to meet one anotherand colleagues from Slovenia andshare their ideas and professionalexperience. We could see thatSlovenian colleagues teach bysimilar curriculum and almost thesame number of classes, but theirteaching material is significantlysmaller. During the visit, a couple

of us came up with the idea towork together on the harmoniza-tion of different cantonal curriculaand try to decrease the amountof teaching material which is justa burden to our students. saidAmela Hidi, Bosnian languageteacher in Gymnasium Maglaj afterparticipating in teaching and ex-tracurricular activities in Sloveniangymnasia.Ivan Loreni, the Head of CPDT,said that such types of educationalstudy visits are the best way forB&H teachers to realize that posi-tive contributions to the educationsystem can be achieved even with-out huge investments. Teaching

can be upgraded by putting ad-ditional efforts and new ideas evenin difficult working conditions.Slovenian schools went througha hard journey from having re-ally hard times to a good workingenvironment we have nowadays.A vision and hard work is what isrequired, says Loreni.The programme of teacher train-ing owes much to the conceptsand practices of the InternationalBaccalaureate. It has howeverbeen designed by the FoundationEducation in Action specifically tomeet the needs and aspirations

of secondary schoB&H. It is very uers from all arountogether at the saand share experielead to future comsaid Katica Dominematics teacher fFoundation Educahopes that its teaprogramme couldmented in other pareas of the worldmodel of efforts inoften hostile curri

Last preparations: Roman, Ivan and Sara

Robots in actionEnjoying beauties of Israel

Ivan Matej in a navigation box

Lecture in Gymnasium Bezigrad

Lecture by Ivan Loreni in Gymnasium Maribor


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Cooperation with the Respective Departments of German at Local Univ

German Movie NightsThe idea behind organizing German Movie Nights was to combine education and fun bytogether students from different backgrounds and educational institutions. Very muchidea youll agree.

Iand my colleague Dorothee Baumann, a

Bosch foundation lector at the Universityof Demal Bijedi in Mostar came upwith this idea during one of our sessionsin which we were dwelling over the beau-

ties of German literature. As we both agreed,discussions with our students in the class-rooms was not enough for full understandingof complexity of some works. We thought thatmaking German movie nights featuring someof the most famous German novel adapta-tions would be very beneficial for our studentsand their better understanding of the literaryworks we are going to analyse in our classes.We wanted to invite students from bothMostar Universities and the usual problemof where to organize the projections was thefirst problem to solve. Luckily, the StudentCenter of the University of Granada agreedto provide us with their big multimedia roombased on the 2nd flour of the UWCiMs Velihouse in the very city centre. Making the

movie list was the second challenge, sincethere were too many great novels and toomany great film adaptations! We decidedto consult the people from the respectiveDepartments of German at both Universities

Peace Quilt Project

Art Workshop for Mostar PupilsOn Saturday March 12, the UWCiM was the venue of a very special event, Peace Quilt Day, organizedin cooperation with a UK NGO. The College was crowded with students from four Mostar elementaryschools from different parts of the city and children from the Centre for children without parentalcare Egyptian Village.

They all gathered to takepart in the world event

in which children weredrawing the pictures ofwhat peace looks like

and means for them. The projectwas one of the initiatives of theOlympics 2012 and the PeaceQuilt hopes that the pictures madeduring this event will be displayedon billboards in London during thegames. Thanks to the initiative

to help us with this. Dorothee was the one

to check the literature course at the Univer-sity Demal Bijedi and I got help from theUniversity of Mostar, where I was presentedtheir reading plan and decided to organizeprojections on Wednesdays at 7 pm. Finally,we made a list according to curricula at bothuniversities. For the benefit of the UWCiMstudents, it was decided that the Germannights would begin with the film adaptation ofFaust by Gustaf Grndgens. It was shortly be-fore their oral exam in German and it provedto be a great way of revision.At the beginning, our German movie nightsdidnt attract too many visitors, but fromWednesday to Wednesday the interestgrew. As we did not want to limit the projec-tions only to students of German literature,subtitles in local language were provided.And there are still some great movies to lookforward to, such as The Tin Drum, Perfume:the Story of a Murderer or Jacob, the Liar. So

if you enjoy a good movie and like to discussthe books, please join us every Wednesdayand enjoy rare movie nights in a city withoutcinema.Ljubica Bajo, UWCiM German teacher, B&H

taken by our Bosnian teacherLarisa Maksumi, we were able to

organize this event in the UWCiMand give a chance to Mostars chil-dren to take part in this creativeworkshop and express their no-tions of peace, while making newfriendships and connections. TheUWCiM Visual Arts students en-sured that everyone understandsthe assignment and feels comfort-able. Some of the children found

themselves shy and unsure aboutthe whole idea of the project, but it

was quickly changed with few ice-breaking games. Soon they wereall sitting at the desks, drawingand smiling at the same time. Mostof the children tended to show howmuch talent they had, becausethey realised that their drawingwas actually going to be seen bythe whole world. Also, it motivatedthem even more to write the mes-

sages on their drawings.The most interesting part of theworkshop was to see the inter-action between children. Thesechildren dont usually have theopportunity to meet one other andthis project made the communica-tion between them easy. They weredoing the things that all childrenlike: drawing, playing and laughing,

not being aware of the fact thatthey were making friends withother children they just met. Afterfinishing the big Peace Quilt as-signment, we could all relax withfood and drinks. With cookies andlaughter one more project wassuccessfully finished.

Kristina Simeunovi, UWCiMstudent, B&H

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Studens initiatives UWC MOSTAR NEWSUWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER UWCIM initiatives

Practical Training for Future Teachers

UWCiM Opened its Doors to MostarUniversity StudentsThe United World College in Mostar has always tried to give its best to promote good relations withlocal universities. A strong bond between these institutions has lead to the project which has provento be of great use for both, the UWCiM students and future graduates of the Chemistry Department ofthe University of Mostar.

Initiated by the headmis-tress of UWCiM ValentinaMindoljevi and prof. Stanisla-va Talic from the University ofMostar, the aim of this project

is to bring the University studentsand, as part of their practicum,have them attend at least 15chemistry classes in our school.In that way, the students will getfamiliarized with IB Chemistry Cur-riculum. In addition to lectures incore chemistry, this also includeslaboratory work, lectures on bothstandard and higher level material,as well as presentation of text-books and materials used by UWC

students.Thanks to this programme, stu-dents will be able to see the use ofaudio and video techniques, suchas flesh presentations as well asinteractive approach to learning.Thus far, the most prominent partof this training has been labora-tory work. In our lab, studentswere able to see some chemicalreactions performed live. Mostimportantly, they had a chance touse their knowledge and see howit is applied for practical purposes.In this way, the project teachesstudents the skills and techniqueswhich can be of vital importance

At the same time, the students from the Department of German of

the Demal Bijedi University of Mostar started practical training andworkshops mentored by UWCiM German teachers Barbara Lichtnerand Ljubica Bajo. The support material for the course was jointlyproduced and UWCiM students of German are actively involved in thetraining process.

during job search. Most of the

students can already see thedifference and realize that theProject will help them in pursuingtheir careers as scientists.After 2-3 weeks they will also have

an opportunity to practice their

English skills by giving a lecture ona topic of their choice in front ofthe UWCiM chemistry students.Nikola Kenji, UWCiM Chemistry

teacher, B&H

Science practicals in UWCiM

Collection of children's art works Creative process UWCiM students mentoring Mostar pupils: Detmet Kramer


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Projects and Exchanges UWC MOSTAR NEWSUWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER Projects and Exchanges

Global Issues Network Annual Conference inLuxembourg

Equity for AllFour UWCiM students were lucky to participate in the work of the GlobalIssues Network Annual Conference in Luxembourg. The idea of Global Is-sues Network itself is based on the book 20 Global Issues, 20 Years to

Solve Them by a prominent Luxembourgs economist and former VicePresident of the World Bank for Europe, Jean-Francois Rischard.

The main topic of thisyears Conference wasEquity for All and itsmain aim was bringingyoung people together

to discuss the ways how they canact locally and cooperate globallyin making the world a better place.When we arrived to Luxembourgafter 32 hours travelling bybuses and trains, we had one daybefore the Conference for the lastpreparations of our presentation.The conference took place in theChamber of Commerce with the of-

ficial opening presentations madeby Her Royal Highness Archduch-ess of Luxembourg and Ms. KateOtto who has been working withHIV/AIDS patients since she was14.After this, we held our presenta-tion, entitled Social Inequalitiesof the Educational System ofBosnia and Herzegovina. Manystudents and teachers attendedour presentation and due to vividand interesting discussion thatfollowed, we broke our time limitand had to stop even though ourlisteners had many more questions

UWCiMers on the 3rd Economic Forum inBelgrade

Urban Oases, GreenCitiesIn the period of March 23 to 25, three UWCiM students,accompanied by our Math teacher Jordanka Mareta,participated in the 3rd Economic Forum Urban Oases,Green Cities organized by IB school Ruer Bokovi inBelgrade.

to ask.The Conference continued withmany interesting presentations,such as those by Doctors with-out Borders, Red Cross, Interna-tional Finance Corporation, SOSKindergarten and many otherNGOs, schools and governmentagencies. During the Conferencewe introduced ourselves to thepresenters and talked about pos-sible cooperation between ourschool and Habitat for Humanityin the case of building housesfor the socially deprived peoplein B&H. One of the eveningswas organized by the Interna-tional School of Luxembourg,

where we had dinner with allthe conference participantsand later on we played manyteam-building games in randomgroups. The next day, we visitedthe European Court of Justice,one of the most importantinstitutions in the EU, which hasdecisive role in the daily life ofthe EU citizens. On the last dayof the Conference, we listenedto an inspiring speech by PedroCastilho from JCI Active CitizenFramwork Creating a BetterWorld. All participants alsopresented our future plans,which emerged during numer-ous discussions, to more than400 people. The conference wasclosed by a music video suitablefor teenagers it was rap, but

the rap by Gandhi.The largest benefit of theConference for all of us was notonly the possibility to presenteducational problems in B&H,but also new friendships withother participants as well asinteresting discussions we hadevery day.

Senija teta, UWCiM student,B&H

OSCE Peace Trip

Exploring the Beauties ofEastern HerzegovinaIn the previous term, the College collaborated with the OSCE Missin holding a quiz on tolerance and human rights. It was part of the Olympics which brought together high school students from acros

Some students fromCollege were involved inthe organisation of thequiz and as a rewardwere invited to attend a

trip to Vjetranica and Trebinje withthe winners of the quiz. This wasa perfect opportunity for some ofus to get to know more about thenatural and cultural beauties ofthe Herzegovina region, but alsoto bond with some of the localstudents.The trip started by visiting Vje-trenica, the largest cave in Bosnia iHerzegovina. The start of the tourplunged us into the dark caves ofVjetranice and a folksong floatedout from deep within. Narrow pas-

sageways opened to reveal beauti-ful caverns. Water dripped downthe walls and permanent poolsand lakes lined the path reflectingeerie shadows onto the damp rock.Stalactites that had formed overthousands of years, some creatingrecognisable shapes such as anelephant or a mouse, framed theroute in to the belly of the caves.Vjetranica is home to many differ-ent creatures very specific to theregion like the endemic HumanFish, a white salamander like crea-ture with no eyes.

Our next stop was the Orthodoxmonastery Tvrdalj, a beautifulplace with ornate dcor and thehand of a Saint. We were shownround by a monk and venturedup the hill to see the bells as wellas the spectacular view over thevalley of the Trebinjica river. Fol-lowing this, we returned to the busand journeyed in Trebinje.Once in Trebinje, we went to theMuseum of Herzegovina whichhoused many exhibitions suchas art works, reconstruction andartefacts of different eras. Our

guide took us arouexplaining both inin the local languatour had finished win the bus and jouhill to see a fairly Church perched htown. It was beautfeatured many imwithin its walls. Thincredible. We finiwith a delicious mgiven this opportu

Jessica Ann C

Our school traditionally takespart in this manifestationgathering IB studentsfrom the Balkans. Otherparticipants came from IB

schools in Banja Luka (B&H), Belgrade(Serbia), Maribor and Kranj (Slovenia)and Skopje (Macedonia). The EconomicForum officially started with a lectureabout the usage of renewable resourcesgiven by Mr Goran Petri, the presidentof the Governing Board of the SocieteGenerale Bank Serbia and the formerminister for economic development inthe Government of Serbia. His veryinteresting lecture opened a livelydiscussion among the students and wewere given an opportunity to ask Mr.Petri many questions on that topic.The forum continued with students

presentations on the subject of sus-tainable and environmentally-friendlydevelopment of cities and suburbs.During the session, we learned a lot ofhow other cities in the region deal withenvironmental issues and it was very in-teresting to hear the proposals on some

joint initiatives made by participants,e.g. recycling or alternative transpor-tation. The 2nd day was reserved for

group work. Each group was taskedwith developing possible plans andsolutions for the main environmen-tal problems in Banja Luka, Kranj,Skopje, Mostar and Belgrade. Theseproblems included public transport,pollution, overpopulation or lackof entertainment. We were givenmaterials and data for each city andfirst hand information provided bythe students of the respective cities.Everyone was keen to propose theirideas and the atmosphere was fullof zest for action! In the end, eachgroup presented their concepts withseveral common conclusions- eachcity needs more green areas, lesscars and more efforts invested by thelocal authorities in providing safe andhealthy environment for its citizens.

This was the ending discussion of theEconomic Forum.Generally speaking, the BelgradeEconomic Forum was a great op-portunity to meet other IB students,share ideas, broaden our horizonsand explore the beautiful city ofBelgrade!

Paula Rtscher, UWCiM student,Germany

Konferencijska dvorana

Economic Forum participants

Enjoying

Visit to Vjetrenica


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UWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER CAS Achievements CAS Achievements UWC MOSTAR NEWS

Donation for the Refugee Camp

The RescateRescueEver since the Refugee camp in Tasovii startedas a CAS activity we have been facing the sameproblem- what to do when the weather is bad?

Our main activity is spending time with childrenand it becomes very difficult when it gets cold,windy and rainy, and you have no roof to go under.

As the people in thecamp got used to us,they offered us anempty room to use aswe wish. It is a nice

gesture, not only providing uswith a place to protect ourselvesfrom the cold, but it also shows usthat we are welcome there. Themoney from our first flee marketsale made the painting of the roompossible, but it was still an emptyroom and in our regular meetingswe were always challenged withthe question -where to get somefurniture from?

We can call it pure coincidence orstroke of faith, but somehow thenews about Rescate, a SpanishNGO having been active in Mostarfor years, closing their office andlooking for somebody to give theirold furniture to reached us at theright moment. We called them onthe phone and they invited us tocome and pick up what we liked.The only condition was collectingthe stuff within two days. Eva deJong, the student leader of ourRefugee Camp Service and I went

there in the same afternoon. It wasexactly what we were looking for desks and shelves, and we evengot an old PC. Adis, our handy-man was there to help us carrythe furniture first to the schooland in four days to our room inthe Refugee Camp. My colleagueBarbara Lichtner, the supervisor ofthis CAS activity, Adis and I werethe first ones to admire our fullyfurnished room.In a way, this could be a turningpoint of our service in the RefugeeCamp. Now, having a proper placefor our service, we will be able

to expand our activities in thecamp and our activities may takeanother course. So far, we havebeen invited every Saturday ina different house to spend sometime chatting with people. As ofnow, we will be able to invite themto join us in the house for all of us.The donation is yet another signthat we are on the right path. Ourthanks go to the Spanish NGO Res-cate for making it possible.Ljubica Bajo, UWCiM German A 1

and B teacher, B&H

Global Awareness & Environmental Council in Common Action:

Hunger Banquet and the Earth GamOn the Friday evening of March 18, an event like none before took place at UWCiM. This Gloness, dedicated to the themes of the world power and resource inequality, was initiated by Environmental Council. We were first taken by surprise in the Musala Residence on Thursdapm, and it was a success.

Electricity was shut offfor five minutes, asCouncil members weretaping startling factson the residence walls.

Reports concluded that people gotimpatient after only a few minutes.Ask yourself what you would do ifyou didnt have electricity at all?

Hunger BanquetThe event was organized on Fridayin our Spanish Room. As peopleentered, they were randomly as-signed lower, middle or upperclass seating. The upper class,15% of the worlds entire popula-tion in our simulation, was repre-sented by six privileged peoplewho sat at a fancy table and wereserved appetizers and rich and

delicious curry dinner. The middleclass, 25% of the population, 12people, were served rice and beansat plain tables. The lower class,60% of the population, 30 people,were forced to sit on the floor andwere given a pot of rice to share.After a debrief discussion, andlower class rioting, our elegantwaiters changed the settingand gave the lower class tablesand food to eat. Meanwhile, oursupervisor and Chemistry teacher

Nikola Kenji began a World Todaypresentation on waste.During this interim, we began toassemble our costumes for thetrash fashion show. Sara(US),Kristina(BiH), Luidmila(Belarus),Yenner(Turkey), Pierre(Belgium),Ana(BiH), Maida(B&H), and myself(US) strutted outfits made entirelyout of garbage down the runwayin the Spanish room, lit up byspotlights from the theater studio.Maida and Luidmila were theprimary design team. You couldntbelieve what kind of models ourtalented design team prepared byusing the nylon, old newspapers,used plastic coffee cups, partof broken furniture. This eventwouldnt have been possible with-out several people leading behind

the scene thanks to Margaret,our kitchen guru, all of the servers,Nikola, our snazzy host of the eve-ning, in house DJ and fashion showannouncer, and all the members ofthe Environmental Council.

Earth GameSaturday morning marked thecommencement of the legendaryEarth Game, originally scriptedby the UWC Pearson Seminar onYouth Leadership, a UWC short

course in Canada. The facilita-tor team prepared their roles aspolice, jail guards, media, bankers,and climate change. Participantswere divided into five countries,and given colour coded passports,without which they could not leavetheir countries. The objectiveof the game is for participants towork together as a team to buildthe best model country they can,building infrastructure, such asbuildings, roads, water sources,agriculture, industry, hospitals,schools etc, indicated by differ-ent colors of paper. More thanthat I cannot say, in case you everplay the game, but once you haveplayed you will not forget the emo-tional reaction you have once yourbuildings are destroyed by a yearly

tsunami, or you realize that build-ing an Art Museum really wasnt asnecessary as you thought, whenyou could have been sending hu-manitarian aid to another country.Ask yourself, was it fair? Whoplays the roles of privileged andunderprivileged in real life? Doesthe way we learn about a countryrepresent the way we interact withit globally and culturally?I would like to challenge thestudents and teachers who didnt

participate in thesthink about their rcommunity here aof the primary aimAwareness was toprivileges. All of ushould be gratefulucky to have UWCLet this remind yoIf you have food clothes on your bayour head and a pare richer than 75If you have moneysome spare changthe top 8% of th eIf you woke up thimore health than more blessed thanpeople who will noweek. If you have

enced the danger agony of imprisonor the horrible pantion, you are luckimillion people alivIf you can read thiare more fortunatpeople in the worlread it at all. Youthe game once, afhave real life.Hilary Johnson,

A

couple of weeks ago,an enthusiastic groupof students who ac-cepted the challenge,

put in front of us byour teacher Ljubica Bajo, of pro-ducing a real radio show startedto work on it! The local web radioabramedia.info kindly gave us atime slot for broadcasting and theYouth Centre Abrasevi gener-ously made this possible by givingus a space to work in.Our first task was to learn sometechnical stuff necessary forproducing a radio show. Learninghow to use voice recorders andmicrophones properly was notas easy as you may think andtherefore, I would like to thankour teacher Nedad Zaklan whowas patient with us. Working withonly one boy and six girls can bedifficult sometimes.And then the hardest work came.

Interviewing our guest, askingthe right questions and makingsure you dont burst into laughterare something that you have toapproach very seriou sly. Slowly,we came to the second part the real program. After a lot ofbrainstorming about what wewanted to present, we agreed tohave a show with lots of different

interesting things to appeal tobroad audience, raging fromworld and local news to relaxingmusic, poems and short stories.

But, the most important thingwas to promote our schooland therefore we informed theaudience about the upcomingschool events. One of our firstassignments was making apromotional jingle for the UWCscholarships for B&H students.Cutting the hard sounds andparts we didnt need, and mak-ing sure that the backgroundmusic matched with the voiceswere the things that we had tobe really careful about. We spenta lot of time behind our laptopsin order to make sure that ev-erything would turn as we envis-aged. Not to forget our amazingteam! We managed to finish ourfirst thirty-minute radio showand we were proud of it! With

some journalism workshopsin the future, we will certainlyimprove our program and makeit more professional in order toattract broader audience.We hope you enjoyed our showand youll listen to us next time.This was UWCiM radio!

Lidewij Rouhof, UWCiM stu-dent, the Netherlands

New CAS

Welcome toUWCiM Radio!Today we will talk about upcoming schoolevents, news around the world. You can listento a Spanish poem, interviews and relaxingmusic.

Painting of common room in the refugee camp

UWCiM student with their mentor Nedad in Abraevi

Ear th Gam e beh ind G ym nas iu m Mostar bu ildi ng Ecol ogi cal fas hi on S how: S ara Mau re r UWCi Ms ecol ogi cal r

Hunger banquet


7/712 | Fo u n d a t i o n E d u ca t i o n i n A c t i o n | M a r c h 20 1 1 | S c h o o l ye a r 20 1 0 -20 1 1 Fo u n d a t i o n Ed u c a t io n i n A c t i o n | M a r c h 20 1 1 | S c h o o l y e a r 20

UWC MOSTAR NEWSLETTER CAS Achievements Words of Encouragement by Our Alumni UWC MOSTAR NEWS

After coming to Yale,

I explored many newacademic and extra-curricular things, butleaving what became

my second home was impossible.Besides taking language and his-tory classes about the subject, Itried to spread the word all over.And together with other peoplepassionate about the subject(Yalies are passionate abouteverything), we hit the road toexplore the Balkans that is in thiscase only Serbia and Bosnia andHerzegovina. The trip was partiallyfunded by the Yale InternationalRelations Association.The trip focused on politics andculture of these two countries,so I had a chance to brush up myknowledge and contacts from

B&H. And after all, that is how Ifound myself sitting in the UWCiMIT lab in an open discussion abouteducation with our headmistressValentina Mindoljevic. Before thatwe visited OSCE and questionedthem a bit about the educationalreforms in B&H the topic that Iused to dream about while beingat school. But once I got out, I real-ized how little people knew aboutit and how much could be achievedonce it changed. Besides the for-mer part of the trip, I had a chanceto walk the places that I had suchdifficult time to leave and meetwith people who were dear to me(I wish I had more than a day) andfelt, well, as if I had never left.University is great, but I feel thatwhile Yale shapes and challenges

me on a personal level, UWCiMbrought me up as a person.Before Mostar, I had chance toexplore Serbia and its politicsbetter than ever before. I trav-elled to the very heart of Serbia Despotovac and Jagodina andlater to Belgrade where we hadseveral sessions with the Ministryfor Kosovo and Metohija and theMinistry of Foreign Affairs. Later

My first Yale Spring Break

or Coming BackI was coming closer to Mostar on the bus from Belgrade just as many times before during mUWCiM. The only difference was that this time was 9 Yale students sitting around me, all wsee what would happen just as I almost three years ago now.

we travelled through the entire

B&H starting from Sarajevo,through Sanski Most and endingup in Banja Luka. We met withmany NGOs and many bureks andevapi. I was afraid that I would be

the hungriest member on the trip,

trying to stock up all the deliciousfood for the whole year, but itturned out that the group liked thefood and everything else same as Idid if not more. Strangely enough,

I had the same wa

satisfaction with tif it had been for mSlovakia.Besides innumeramoments, there wextraordinary evethe President of tSrpska, Milorad Dtold us that he wamorning and has tthinking about theof the Rebuplika Singly, it confirmedI returned to the uworld. It made mereality where thinlar and smooth, bupossible shapes asame time beautifas life itself.Spending my spri

Balkans, while beiYale, was sometheven imagine wheyears ago. But UWmake it happen anincredibly happy tincredible experiepeople and share was shown.

Katarina Kralum

IMPRESSUM

Editor: Meri Musa, PR World College in MostaDesign: Shift creative

United World College

Spanski trg 1,88000 Mostar, Bosnia

Tel: +387 (36) 320 601Fax: +387 (36) 319 926E-mail:[email protected]

Foundation Educatio

Skenderija 33, 71000 SBosnia and HerzegoviTel: +387 33 212 083, Fax: +387 (33) 557 996E-mail:development@u

Global Awareness Session: Riots in Arab World

Freedom for the Middle East!

D

ue to the recent riotsoccurring in the MiddleEast, our World TodayCAS decided to havean event to shed some

light on this topic, to inform thepeople who didnt know, and todiscuss it with them to see whatthey thought about all thats goingon. I volunteered to give a shortpresentation describing brieflyhow the riots started, how theyprogressed and how they wouldcontinue. For me personally, it wasinteresting to learn about a certainevent in the Arab world throughreading about it on the Internetand gathering as many sourcesas possible. Being a Lebanese,I am used to actually living theevents rather than reading aboutthem online. What interested meparticularly was the audiencesreaction to what they have justlearned about the riots and all the

violations of human rights that aregoing on, in addition to all the pic-tures and videos that were shown.Do you think the revolution willbe successful? Do you think that

democracy really is the right an-swer to these nations problems?What if the revolution only leads toanother era of extremism? Do youthink the West should intervene tosolve this problem? Those wereamong many questions that werediscussed, and as some were infavour of democracy and freedomin the Arab world, others foundit necessary that other countriessuch as the USA and the Europeancountries intervene. But in theend, I think we all agree that ifthousands people who are protest-ing in the streets, being hurt andkilled, are demanding democracyand freedom, then why not give itto them? Havent they deserved itafter all those years of being quiet

and exploited, thinking that thesystem serves them? All I know isthis: their old system was clearlynot working for anyone exceptfor the authorities, and what is

happening today is a new chapterin the history. It is the time forchanges in the Arab world. FromTunisia, to Egypt, to Libya, to

Kuwait, Bahrain, and Lebanon, itstime to stand up for the rights andfreedom of the oppressed. Now isthe time to speak up and not beafraid. I would rather die know-ing my grandchildren will have abetter life, than live knowing thatnumerous generations will sufferfrom the same injustice weve suf-fered from for too long. And failurewould not even matter anymore;

we can at least say we tried.Samia Habli, UWCiM student,

Lebanon

Western European Cultural Week

From March 14 to 20, UWCiMhosted a Western EuropeanCultural Week. The weekthat precisely 24 studentshad been eagerly waiting for

began with British day: ) Pictures ofthe Queen, quotes and speeches linethe hallways, and students enjoying

cups of English tea-with milk in theSpanish room. The day concluded withafternoon tea and cake, combinedwith a British culture workshop.Next, there was the French/Belgianday, where Anita and Pierre madean ordinary snack extraordinary byadding an accent. On Wednesday, the

College was taken over by orangewhen the Dutchies invaded. Traditionalfair games were played in the Spanishroom at lunchtime- all to do withsensory deprivation and public humili-ation. Our willing UWC students wereblindfolded, and bobbed for apples, orjumped for biscuits. On Thursday thesound of Austria and Germany echoedin the Spanish room with the playingof classical music, and in the eveningthere was a yodelling workshop.Though the highlight of the day waslistening to the different jokes put upby the Austrians and Germans alongthe corridors, each making fun of the

other. Finally, on Friday, it was timefor a siesta. Spanish day started, asper normal, at lunchtime, when UWCstudents came to the Spanish room fora siesta workshop and slept until theirlessons. In the evening, the Spanishstayed awake long enough to show ustheir colourful traditional dances andsome of their classic humour.

All of these days were excellent,entertaining and fun. However, thegreatest event was by far the CulturalWeek feast on Saturday. Though wehad been separated all week long, allWestern Europeans came together tocook, organise, set up and serve thefeast. Tables and tables groaning withgood food took over Old Mans caf, andstudents from all different countriestook their national foods to the hungryguests and showed their spirit bysinging, or dancing, or jut laughing,before serving their food. Finally, afterthe guests were served, the WesternEuropeans sat down and enjoyed food

from home. Later on, as the partycommenced, young people from aroundthe city joined us to dance on differ-ent cultural music, whether Spanishacoustic, British rock, German techno,French house, and to eat and enjoy themountains of food even UWCiM studentscould not finish!

Megan Scott, UWCiM student, UK

Samia Habli during her presentation

UWCiM's Western Europeans

Katarina with UWCiM headmistress Valentina Mindoljevi

Yale student visiting the institutions of Republika Srpska

UWCiM March Newsletter

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