We make education a force to united people, nations and cultures, for peace, and a sustainable future.

That's our job. And that is what I - as a UWC graduate - have also embraced, as my own personal job. 

To do what is within my reach, to make these cherished UWC values real, in my own life, in intention and in action. One small, imperfect bit at a time.

That's why I jumped at the chance to take part in this never-done-before social service project to help the Red Cross Udine in their refugee support work this summer.

My German co-year Kathrin Blaufuss came up with the idea. Twenty years ago, in the 90s when we were students at the United World College of the Adriatic, Italy, the Balkan war was tearing ex-Yugoslavia apart.

Part of every UWCAD student's experience is an average of two hours a WEEK of social, or community, service. Every single week. We have over twenty such programs already. Helping the elderly, disabled, homeless and other humanitarian work, teaching English to youths and adults in our wider community, first-aid, multicultural presentations to local children. And so on.

It is a compulsory part of our two-year IB education. The social service is part of a three-part programme, the CAS (Creative, Active, Social) programme. If we do not fulfil our CAS obligations, we are not allowed to graduate. As fundamental as that.

Of course, many of my fellow students did far more than two hours a week. This, on top of juggling an intense and demanding academic schedule, including two Theory of Knowledge essays and a 5000-word research paper on a topic of our choice, the Extended Essay, doing anything from two to six or more other creative and sports/physical pursuits, while partying as hard as we worked and often staying up till 3am arguing about capital punishment, socioeconomic mobility, whether Guns and Roses was better than Aerosmith (betraying my age here), God versus religion, and whether Nutella is best eaten with breadsticks or a spoon (answer = ideally both)...goes some small way towards describing the incredible, life-forging atmosphere that is so distinctively a UWC.

Twenty years ago, there was a steady stream of refugees fleeing across the borders of what is now known as Slovenia and Croatia into the safe refuge that was Italy.

I always regretted that I was too flaky, immature, and distracted by everything else going on in college to do more than a couple of refugee service sessions during my student days in UWC back then.

So, when Kathrin suggested that instead of swanning poolside in a Tuscan villa after our 20-year College reunion this July, that we spend that time doing some service instead, in direct echoes of our college refugee support work twenty years ago, I threw my hat in the ring straightaway, overjoyed at the prospect of not only getting to make good on this long-standing regret, but also to give my three young children (aged 5 to 10) the priceless opportunity to land outside their London bubble and engage with the everyday reality of someone else so very different from them.

And not just to engage as a matter of curiosity. To engage as a service. I wanted my children to start to learn how to serve a bigger cause.

It is with some personal sadness that I had to accept, for administrative reasons, that this was not possible with the Red Cross Udine project that was finalised as our chosen service project this summer. But I continue to hope that we'll find a way. This is, after all, just the beginning of a small idea that became reality, and will continue to blossom.

For continuing to blossom it already is doing.

I am thrilled, proud, and humbled, to announce on behalf of UWCAD and Red Cross Udine, that as a result of this ragtag pilot project, tirelessly worked at by our group of volunteers led by Kathrin (including Esther, Baran, Eva, Maja, Robert, Cristina, Ana and Rok), the UWCAD staff (Amanda above all), and Red Cross Udine (Nicola, Stefano and Federica), two fantastic initiatives have already started:

- A formal long-term relationship has begun between UWCAD and Red Cross Udine. There are plans already underway to make social service at Red Cross Udine part of the permanent offering of social service options open to current students of the College to take part in. 

So, from this year onwards, students can continue on the work that us alumni had started during this summer's stint. This includes more language familiarisation and integration efforts to help these refugees engage positively and productively with their Italian community of Udine. We found that these refugees wanted to be part of a bigger whole, and to find meaning to their day-to-day lives, much more than one would think. There are so many ways in which this connection between "refugee" and "community" can be developed to both sides' benefit.

We want to make sure that the students are best-equipped to be able to play this crucial "translator" role, weaving both sides back and forth. That's one of the greatest joys that a UWC education could possibly offer. We have just seeded this particular, beautiful little plant, and now let's help it grow.

- As of next year's college reunion - the doors are always thrown open to every single graduate of UWCAD, although there is particular focus on celebrating those for whom it is their 10th/20th/30th reunion year - there will be a social service project, offered each year and organised by College, after the official reunion dates, for anyone else whom like us wants to use this precious time "checking out" of our daily obligations for a while, and give back to society. I have personally found this extremely difficult to manage in "real life" back in London, for various reasons...so to know that a service project will be put together and offered for easy takeup, from the 2017 reunion onwards, fills me with absolute joy. (Maybe we can keep working on involving alums' young children in future initiatives...!)

I am writing to you to invite you to join me in helping this good work go further.

I would like to give UWCAD the biggest possible "peace chest" - the positive opposite of a "war chest", giving life, not taking life - to fund its CAS program. 

And a bunch of willing hands, some of which had never held a pen before. No matter. They could colour. And they did.

We paid for our own fuel. At each tollbooth whomever had spare change just fished it out. College was amazing in hosting us at a pittance that week. It has been without exaggeration one of the most precious and meaningful weeks in the lives of each of us who were lucky enough to be involved.

That's literally all it took. The results speak for themselves; look at this video (https://youtu.be/Wg-vISOhCZQ) that the Red Cross Udine compiled, of our sojourn at their camp. I can still feel the warmth of those smiles in my heart, as I sit here on my laptop in London, typing you these words.

So. Five euros, fifty, or five thousand - every cent will be well-spent, and gratefully received. Because it comes with your spirit of generosity attached to it.

Please do share this on with your own family and friends, for every little helps!

It only remains for me to say at this point - thank you. For staying with me till here, gifting me with your attention and openness to my little personal story...and for giving your dollars/euros and cents, pounds and pennies to this cause, as generously as it would make you happy to do so. 

This next bit is a bit of a leap into the unknown :) but I personally commit to writing back to each of you (even if you come to this email through our friends and we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet!), if you share with me your email address at elaine@livingpotential.org, in the course of the next year, working together with the staff at UWCAD, to give you an update on what College has been doing with this "peace chest" and the amazing work of students and alumni that you have helped to enable with your donations.

Thank you - or as we say in Italian, grazie mille.

Yours in gratitude,

Elaine Teo Mosimann (Yeel)

UWCAD, 1994-1996

www.livingpotential.org

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Our UWC mission and values: 

Our upcoming UWC Congress 2016 in Trieste, Italy:
www.uwccongress.org