Meet Denisa, a first-year who has won the Never Alone Award
says Denisa, first-year student and winner of the Never Alone 2021 award organised by Ashoka Italia, the Italian branch of the international network of innovative social entrepreneurs.
The “ChangeMakerathon” in which she was involved was a real competition among change-makers. Participants were young adults who had arrived in Italy as unaccompanied minors and the objective was to support the winners in starting to develop their own business ideas.
Denisa was well equipped for the task. After starting high school in Albania and continuing her education for two years in Bologna, in August of last year she arrived at UWC Adriatic with a scholarship offered by the project “Un futuro Possibile” (A possible future) supported by FAI – Fondation Assistance Internationale.
Of course, Denisa, like other students here, encountered some difficulties at the beginning: the IB is a challenging and completely new programme and requires students to rapidly become fluent in English. However, she faced these challenges with a commitment and determination that all he teachers have noted and appreciated.
In doing so, Denisa also settled down in our extremely diverse community (her roommates are from Iran and Germany), making wonderful new friendships and pursuing her passions, such as dancing and volunteering at an after-school program for children from the Bengali community in Monfalcone. On top of that she also managed to work on a personal project of hers, based on an idea she had during the two years she spent in Bologna in a facility for unaccompanied foreign minors.
At that time she had noticed and experienced the difficulties that young girls come up against and had wanted to contribute to finding some solutions. So she came up with her project for an itinerant help desk operating throughout Italy, whose purpose is to support young women in particular. The project name “3D” stands for the “Ds” in her first name and in the Italian words “donne” (women) and “diritti” (rights).
The Never Alone award is just a first step in this direction. In her presentation Denisa described the need to create a team of experts with specific skills: psychologists, social workers, educators and lawyers. She therefore knows that at this time what she must do is work hard, make the most of her UWC experience and get her IB Diploma. The two years at the College are intense and require great dedication from our students, but this experience helps them to really get get to know themselves and to get a good sense of the kind of future they want to build for themselves and for the world.
