UWC Italian Selections

Monday 2 November is the deadline to apply for the call by the Italian National Committee for the admission of Italian students to the United World Colleges in 2021-2023.

By submitting their application, Italian students in the third year of high school can apply for admission to a unique educational experience. Alongside other students from all around the world, successful candidates will spend the last two years of high school in one of the 18 United World Colleges, with the only Italian College being located in Duino (Trieste).

Giulia Rocca is from Milan, and is one of the students who arrived at Duino on 21 August. The resumption of UWCAD activities this academic year has been compounded by the pandemic-related measures. Each of the 166 students, including Italians, was tested for Covid-19, and spent the isolation\quarantine period in a hotel with assistance provided by the school. “Having the chance to enjoy this international education experience really makes me feel privileged, all the more so when I consider all the current travel restrictions. Here at the College I’m taking the IB Diploma Course, a challenging but captivating curriculum, alongside students hailing from all corners of the globe. While my friends in Milan mostly have to attend classes online, I can attend them in-person thanks to the College’s safety measures, immersed in countless other cultures; I can thus learn all the time even beyond the classroom”.

At UWC, diversity goes beyond mere nationality. Most students benefit from a full or partial scholarship, since all of them are selected on merit in their countries.

Teresa Pappalardo hails from Catania, where she attended a secondary school with an emphasis on sciences. Here are her words on the selections: “Applying to the call is something I would recommend to everyone, since even by just going through the selection process you’re already getting an incredibily enriching experience. During the regional selections, your worldview, shaped by your everyday life in your home town, starts to expand little by little, and you begin to find out more about the world you live in. When you get to the national selections, you meet peers from all over Italy, and your worldview expands further. Now that I’m attending the College thanks to a scholarship provided by Fondazione Sicilia, I’m spending all my time in a multicultural context. The College offers a truly all-encompassing curriculum, since here student ideas and opinions are constantly solicited and, most importantly, our passions lie at the core of everything we do”.

“I can’t help but agree with Teresa,” says Arlène Acquaye. “Back in Torino I lived in my own little world. I was attending a high school with an emphasis on humanities and cultural heritage, and I used to think  that I knew everything and that I had taken all the right choices for my future. Then, three days before the deadline, I found out I could apply to the United World Colleges. I didn’t even know whether I really wanted to leave my home town for two whole years, but I ended up trying anyway. During the selections I learnt a lot: I realised that I knew both the world and myself far less than I thought and that I used to take far too many things for granted. Now I’m here, along with students who arrived in Italy as unaccompanied minors or who come from troubled countries such as South Sudan or Syria. And I feel like this experience won’t stop when I graduate, but will actually last all my life”.

How true! The UWC Movement was founded in 1962, and there are now over 60.000 UWC alumni around the world. Friendships formed at a United World College last forever, and the network of friends goes even beyond each individual College, since students from any UWC College share the same ethos and values which lie at the heart of the UWC educational model – i.e. the awareness that education is a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.