Unione Italiana – an organisation representing the Italian-speaking communities in Slovenia and Croatia – visited the College on November 20th. Unione Italiana’s President Maurizio Tremul and the association’s representative for Education, Professor Iva Bradaschia Kožul, met with the College President Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia and Secretary General Valentina Bach. They discussed the long-standing collaboration between the College, Unione Italiana and Università Popolare whereby, thanks to Italian public funds, every year UWC Adriatic scholarships are assigned to two students selected in the Italian-speaking communities of Slovenia and Croatia.
The current beneficiaries of the scholarships, fist-year Alizée (from Rovinj, Croatia) and second year Noela (from Pula, Croatia), also took part in the meeting to illustrate their UWC experience in Duino. Alizée mentioned appreciating very much how the College’s educational model encourages critical thinking and reasoning, particularly with reference to activities in the science labs and the Theory of Knowledge course. As for Noela, the highlight for her has been being exposed to UWC values and the transformative effect of living in a residential school with such a diverse student body. Unione Italiana wholeheartedly supports the UWC educational model, finding it extremely well suited to developing the skills and strategies that youngsters of today need in order to address the challenges of tomorrow.
The next Unione Italiana selections will take place early in 2019. The call for applications will come out in January and the College will organise several presentations in Italian schools in Slovenia and Croatia, so that this scholarship opportunity may reach as many students as possible before the selections are held in March 2019.
