We are proud to share an extract from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce‘s latest report “Schools Without Walls”, which explores a number of schools that extend their impact beyond the school gates by working with the local community. UWC Adriatic appears in the section on ‘Developing committed citizens through social action‘ and we sincerely thank the RSA researchers Laura Partrige and Naomi Bath for joining us in Duino and taking the time to review the different ways in which UWC Adriatic strives to have an impact on the local community of the College as it pursues its mission to “make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future”.
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“When we first arrive in the beautiful village of Duino, which sits atop cliffs overlooking the Adriatic Sea, we struggle to distinguish the school buildings from the rest of the village, dotted as they are between local cafes, shops and houses. As communications director Amanda de Felice notes, “we don’t have walls between us and the community, so it’s easier for us to be integrated”. The result of this physical integration is that students pass villagers regularly as they move from one class to the next, exchanging pleasantries at first, and getting to know the locals over time.
The college is home to around 200 students aged 16 to 19 years old from over 80 different countries, who board in residences throughout the village. It is part of a network of 17 United World Colleges, founded with a commitment to an education for peace and sustainability, and deliberating admitting students from a range of nationalities and backgrounds. Students follow the International Baccalaureate programme of study, which includes a formal service component that all students must complete as part of ‘CAS’: Creativity, Activity and Service. In total, students are expected to spend around 3 to 4 hours per week on such activities, which usually encompass an arts/cultural activity, a physical/sporting activity and a form of volunteering. Students document their engagement in CAS through a series of written reflections that they discuss and review with tutors.
As in other IB schools, at UWC Adriatic, time for these activities is integrated into the school timetable, allowing much more scope for students to engage in such activities than at a typical state school where service, for example, is not part of the curriculum. It is written into staff contracts that they must supervise at least one CAS activity, and the school covers insurance for all students to allow them to volunteer in the community even if under the age of 18. Staff also note that the fact of being a residential school affords them additional time to engage students in these activities during evenings and weekends that wouldn’t ordinarily be available at day schools. Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that every UWC Adriatic student engages in service; however, the amount of service they commit to, the leadership that they display in designing their voluntary action, and the extent to which their work is in service to the needs of the local community is atypical.
The physical integration of the school with the local community means that students are able to discover needs that exist and propose responses to those needs. For example, on discovering from locals that the primary schools in and around the village offered no extra-curricular activities, students proposed running a programme of enrichment activities to plug that gap. Students bring a lot of themselves to their service activities. We had the opportunity to observe students volunteering at a church in nearby Monfalcone with Bangladeshi children whose families had come to Italy to work in the local factories. Students had started out providing homework help to the children, particularly supporting them with the Italian language, which all students at the college study. But over time, they realised they had something more to offer: an appreciation of what it means to come from one place and live in another. As the college’s librarian, and supervisor for this activity, Jill Harkness described: «Our students realised they can help the children with that feeling that being of another culture is something to celebrate.» That afternoon, children crowded around to learn a traditional Japanese fisherman’s dance from the UWC Adriatic students, led by a Japanese student who learned the dance in primary school. When she first put the music on, the children looked uncertain, but as she explained the moves in her newly acquired – but surprisingly proficient – Italian and demonstrated with her fellow students, more and more children start to join in. Soon, they were all casting imaginary nets in time to the music, grinning and giggling.
The students’ commitment to serving the local community doesn’t stop with the formal service component of the IB. In 2000, students of the college decided to form a charitable association to ‘build a stronger bridge’ between the college and the community: Mondo Due Mille (World 2000). Current and former students make up the board of the charity, which works with over 30 local charity and community partners and mobilises hundreds of young people from the local area to volunteer alongside UWC Adriatic students. The association encourages students from other local schools to participate through presentations in school assemblies and an annual volunteering fair that around 600 young locals attend. Recently, a group of young people who are members of the association have worked with the funding and support of the municipality to create a resource for the homeless population. Students have undertaken many hours of research to populate a regional map with details of the many services available locally to support those in need.
Furthermore, students have established a series of student councils to further their voice and action on key issues. The humanitarian aid council have volunteered in refugee camps and currently support new refugees arriving in Monfalcone by translating official documents for them and assisting them in finding and applying for jobs. The politics council have been involved in demonstrations and marches locally on issues that matter to the student population. The gratitude of the Duino community for all that the students contribute locally was evident in the Pocket Money Ceremony that we had the pleasure of attending while we were there. A foundation created in the memory of a villager who had been concerned about some of the college’s students walking around in winter without coats gives ‘pocket money’ each year to the college’s neediest students. This year, it was awarded to students from Lebanon, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Sudan. Locals also support refugee students, and others who cannot easily return home during the holidays, by acting as host families. This is part of the college’s ‘Addottami’ (adopt me) programme, which also matches families with students who’d like to regularly share a Sunday lunch with them to practice their Italian and learn about the local culture. Students explain that the exchange goes both ways as families sometimes want to practice their English or learn about the various countries and cultures that students come from.
As well as having a firm focus on creating positive change in the local community, the school also aims to develop excellent global citizens; students with the values and competencies to take action on issues that affect people across the world. In 2018, students developed and ran a conference called Youth Inspiring Change for students across the region to attend. It aimed to spread the message that young people can bring about concrete, positive change in the world, and encourage local young people to join a movement for youth-led change. One workshop at the conference was about combatting some of the stereotypes that prevent people from different countries working together to bring about change. A panel of students contributed, including a Singaporean student speaking about the damaging effect of the stereotype of high-achieving Asian students, and a Nigerian student on what it means for him when people associate him with the Ebola crisis.
Another student-led initiative is an annual TEDx event. At the most recent of these, one student presented about the damaging effects of populism around the world and how young people who lead in the future must build a positive image of the way the world should look, rather than focussing on what the ‘other side’ have got wrong. Many student councils are also focussed on global issues. For example, on the evening that we arrived, the sustainability council were meeting for a presentation on the new IPPC report on global warming and to discuss actions that students can take to support its recommendations.
There is no denying that UWC Adriatic is at an advantage in being able to unleash this sort of leadership in its students: they are selected on the basis of their commitment to becoming leaders for peace and sustainability. Many of the students we spoke to reported that they were not confident in their ability to bring about change when they first arrived at the college. Thanks to the deliberately small student population, students are able to build strong relationships with their peers and with teachers. While this is not replicable in every school, there are elements of their approach that could be. Many school staff have interesting backgrounds that they bring to their work and share with students. More than one had worked in refugee camps, and several of them were trained as psychologists. There was also a consistent commitment across the staff we met, to encouraging and supporting students to run with their own initiatives, and a belief that developing students socially was as important as developing them academically.
These attitudes and values undoubtedly stemmed from the leadership style of school leader Dr Mike Price who speaks passionately about why high academic performance is not the be all and end all, and who believes in giving his staff the greatest degree of autonomy that he can to run their own initiatives and pursue their passions. He also practices what he preaches; taking on a ‘tutor group’ of students each year to whom he acts as a mentor and provides pastoral support. Over the monthly tutorial dinner that Mike and his wife Liz host at their apartment, it is clear that they formed meaningful relationships with these students and are therefore perfectly placed to encourage their nascent passions for making a positive change in the world.”
