Arusha Campus News – 23 Jan 2023

The past weekend was a busy one for Arusha Campus as we hosted 160 delegates from around the African continent for AISA’s Global Initiatives Service Summit.

The Rhino Tower restaurant was transformed on Friday night as the Summit enjoyed the Burudika Buffet. A sumptuous buffet with spectacular decorations drew considerable compliments from the visiting schools.

The AISA GISS ‘Future is Now’ summit has come and gone and I would like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to all my colleagues and the students who made the event a resounding success.

We received many compliments about the event from visiting teachers and students alike but I think the most rewarding comment was from a lady on AISA’s board who said that UWC East Africa had changed the shape of these events for good. Our event had made the institution rethink the definition of ‘sustainability’. Our vegetable-based menu, lack of tacky welcome gifts and consideration of carbon footprints for keynote speakers were all examples of features that hopefully will be copied in the future.

Our keynote speakers were inspiring and provoked lively discussions during their question times. Our AISA GISS website is still up and running. I urge you to visit it if you want to get a flavour of the keynote addresses or simply watch the minute-long daily reels! https://www.aisagiss.org/2023/

We are looking forward to welcoming two of our closest UWC ‘friends’ in Shelby and Gale Davis. They will be arriving in East Africa on Thursday before driving up from Mombasa to meet us on Arusha Campus early next week. Keep your eyes on a bulletin to invite you to a coffee morning with our illustrious visitors.

Apologies for the late newsletter this week!

Phil

Our Zayed Sustainability Prize competitors did more than just compete early last week – they only went and won it! Congratulations to Roos, Sehra, Yue Kin, Catherine and Elias for their Maji Safi project that ran away with the Global Schools Project category at the swashbuckling Zayed Awards.

Pictured above are Roos, Sehra and Yue Kin who received their award in person in Abu Dhabi. They are back on campus now and will report on their plans to spend their winnings in the next few weeks.

We have had a very busy week in the Primary School (see montage above)

The Nursery and EC1/2 classes have been learning about day and night and looking at nocturnal animals.
The P1’s have been learning about how things have changed over time and are hoping Grandparents will join them to help them learn more.
P2’s celebrated their end of unit on Sharing the Planet by showing the Primary School their art about food chains and animals, their dioramas of different habitats and their sorting of information through charts and Venn Diagrams.
The P3’s made a sofa from recycled plastic bottles and have looked at a variety of ways to take action.
The P4/5’s shared their non-fiction body books, poetry books and their science experiments.
Finally in P6 the students used all the PYP Key Concepts questions to learn about COP27 and the World Cup.They then shared this information with the M1’s in preparation for the PYP Exhibition.
Well done everyone!

Amanda, PYP Co-ordinator

Linnea is pleased to see Olivia back after an extended stay in FInland. Welcome back Olivia! Here they are enjoying Miss Leah’s art class in M2

Mr Ali demonstrates a day in the life of a Forest School to a group of AISA GISS delegates. The idea is to expose the students and teachers who visited us to new ways of teaching sustainability and making it meaningful in curriculum. Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting. 

If you wish to find out more visit https://forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/

On the first day of the summit we planned Service Day. On of our activities involved walking over to the Magereza School and engaging in mural painting to help brighten up the environment. Here Eben, Mailan, Regina and Pardis get to grips with swahili vegetables!

WIth the support of the Rotary Club and the Kilimanjaro Project (pictured above) https://www.thekilimanjaroproject.org  Mr Oli took a bus-load of students up to the Selian Hospital in Ngaramtoni and they planted a whopping 500 trees! What an achievement and well done.

Our recycling stations on campus have received a terrific makeover in the past few days thanks to student support (see image above) Now we need a team effort to make sure that we use the bins in the recycling areas carefully and responsibly so that our recycling may be really effective.

We also planted a variety of indigenous trees on campus. Miss Laura captained a group of willing volunteers to plant spalings along the edge of our snake pit. Hopefully they will grow up and line the bicycle track that meanders aroiund the campus. Thanks to our gardening team for their help in making that activity work.

Michal and Met (both D2) supervised a working party to transform our vegetable garden. Raised beds were constructed and put into the gorund. This raised bed (pictured above) was later filled with strawberry plant seedlings.

Our Plains Level 3 explorers venturedinto the dry plains north of Mt Meru to carry iut their Plains Level 3 adventure. Apart from one broken down bus spirits were high throughout and the trip was completed in the glorious lee of Mt Meru (see picture above)

How do you fancy a career as Formula 1 racing car technical engineer? One of our career symposium speakers last year was just that! Do you have a career that you can give a 20 minute talk about?

Career and Skills Symposium Volunteers Needed

We are excited to begin planning the annual Career and Skills Symposium event for the upcoming third quarter. We are looking for alumni, parents, and friends of UWC East Africa in our community (and abroad) to give of your time to speak with  M5-D1 students about your career path/job and/or skills that are important to develop to be ready for employment and life. We will have in-person AND virtual presentation sessions available (large group), networking sessions (small group), and panel sessions. These events will take place 29-30 March. 

We want to expose our students to as many careers as possible. We are also open to having college students give insight into what they are learning in a particular field.

Please keep watch on this newsletter, social media, and email communication regarding the date of the event and available volunteer signups.

New Year of Possibilities

We started off the new semester by spending time with our alumni during the first annual Karibuni Tena kwa Alumni Wiki. This was a wonderful opportunity for current students to connect with former ISM/UWC East Africa students who are spread out all over the world studying at a wide array of institutions. The week included in person and virtual panels, and topics that ranged from transitioning to life on a campus far away from home to the path from ISM/UWC East Africa to medical school. The goal is to do this every year during the long break for most of our alumni, and hopefully we will have more in person opportunities to connect in the future as well.

Our future alumni’s options are beginning to expand as we currently have ⅓ of the Class of 2023 with at least one college/university offer so far. These stellar students have amassed over $1.1 million USD in scholarships/grants for their first year alone. The list of institutions where they have received offers of admissions is varied and impressive, and we look forward to sharing their destinations later in the year when more students are able to join this celebrated cohort. There is still a lot of work to be done, even for the students who already have committed to their institution, and all are encouraged to stay engaged and connected throughout the duration of this process. For some, the next step is beginning to explore the Visa process for the country they plan to move to in order to matriculate, and this may be quite involved. The sooner the planning process begins, the better.

Also, we are excited about the visit by Mr. Shelby Davis so we can show him the faces of our students that his foundation is helping to support as they pursue their post-secondary aspirations. His generous funding not only supports students who attend Davis UWC Partner Institutions, but has encouraged other institutions around the world to learn more about UWC students and invite our students to apply to join their campus communities as well. The list of options continues to expand for our students, but also creates the need to start early (ahem, M5s and D1s) in order to ensure that they are not overwhelmed when it is time for them to apply.

Parents play a vital role in the post-secondary planning process, and a recent blog talks about how parents/caregivers can approach this important time in their child’s life.

13 December 2022 Georgia Tech blog: The Role of Parents and Caregivers in  College Admission: https://sites.gatech.edu/admission-blog/2022/12/13/the-role-of-parents-caregivers-in-college-admission/

One thing that parents are invited to do is gain access to their child’s Maia Learning account. Many of you have already requested access, but if you have not yet, please see the information below to begin the process  (for M5-D2 parents):

Link to Maia Learning Overview: https://player.vimeo.com/video/469137166

Maia Learning website: 

Link to sign up for parent access to Maia Learning (M5, D1 and D2 parents only/M4 access coming soon): https://forms.gle/quaauoAA7N2RfR9b9

Lastly, I shared with D1 parents and students the presentation that was done on 17 January by Mr. Keiron White about college entrance testing. If you have not received that presentation, please feel free to email me and I will share it with you. In addition, Mr. White frequently updates our school testing website where you can find essential information for your college/university entrance exam planning:
uwcea.org/tests

UPCOMING College and University Events

10 February: 4:00 PM Trent University (Canada) Arusha Campus visit
16 February: What Every Student Should Know About Picking a Major or Career Path webinar @ 6:00 PM CT/3:00 AM EAT) Link to register and receive recording: shorturl.at/efiTY
24 February: Deadline to register for 11 March SAT (in Moshi)
21 March: 1-4 PM EAT CIS University Exploration Day – Africa

We have just begun to schedule visits for this quarter, so stay tuned for more visits coming our way!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend of considering an array of options.

Cassandra Ford
College and Career Counselor

Cassandra Ford, College and Career Counselor