The memories from 21 September 2022 will be cherished by many of us at UWC Adriatic and beyond. In Duino, preparations started early in the morning, with students and staff members excitedly going about, making sure everyone was ready on time. You could hear a lot of singing inside the student residences and rounds of applause in Mensa for students having breakfast in their lovely national costumes. Meanwhile, the crisp air on the first day of autumn – really sunny and yet cool – further enhanced the feeling that this would be a special day indeed.
We boarded the buses to Medea (near Gorizia), heading towards the Ara Pacis Mundi monument: a memorial for the fallen of all wars – no matter which side they have fought on – and an exceptional backdrop to our UWC Day celebrations . These are a yearly tradition in all 18 United World Colleges on 21 September – a day that coincides with the UN International Day of Peace. For our community, however, this was also an important anniversary: 40 years since the founding of our College. This special venue therefore further enhanced the theme chosen for this year’s UWC Day celebrations: Peace begins with us.
The ceremony featured some very heartfelt speeches, in which the institutional parts were intertwined with emotional moments, enhanced by the colourful flags, national costumes and musical interludes. Two second-year students Giovanna Cantarin (Italy) and Mihailo Vučetić (Serbia), performed brilliantly in their role as masters of ceremonies, introducing their peers who opened the celebrations with the flag ceremony: 83 students emerging in pairs from the huge memorial carrying 81 national flags from their countries, followed by the flag of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and that of our College. A great many students were wearing their country’s national costume, but on occasion this concept was interestingly inflected in the form of wearing jeans, wool beanies and boots.
This peaceful parade was followed by the addresses delivered by the authorities, the sublime notes of Maestro Mauro Maur‘s trumpet and those sung by the College’s joyful choir, interspersed with poetry readings by students (the Ukrainian poet Kaminsky, the Yemenite Al Baradouni and the Italian Ungaretti’s Rivers), followed by the speeches delivered by College students and alumni, and the those of the College’s leadership. The President of the College, Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia, mentioned the “concrete visionaries” who in 1982 took a gamble on UWC Adriatic anb thus laid down its foundations. This was followed by two generations of former students: Palestinian Mohamed Abdallah, who in those very early years came from the refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila, in Lebanon, and Fatima El Maliani, who grew up in Italy from the age of two onwards but whose family comes from Morocco and who is now completing her university studies in Pisa.
The morning ended with the words of our Rettore Khalid El-Metaal, who thanked the community of people gathered at the Ara Pacis Mundi, acknowledging the wisdom of the well-known African proverb: “it takes a village to raise a child” to emphasise how the task of preparing 200 young people from more than 80 countries for life in our complex world after their UWC experience inevitably entails a collective effort that teachers, administrative staff and the entire local community all jointly contribute to.
While the morning was a concentration of inspiring reflections, profound testimonies and eyes glazed over with emotion, the rest of the day was no less heartfelt. As is often the case at the College, the afternoon activities consisted in student-driven workshops and a student show: events marked by the customary blend of the spirit of commitment, activism and lightness typical of student initiatives, with many dealing with topical issues. The afternoon workshops included: Afro-tropical dances, debates on gender violence, the art of listening to resolve conflicts, as well as ableism and inclusiveness, the preparation of the song ‘Imagine’ for the evening show, Dutch board games and some manual activities such as henna art workshop and Egyptian egg decorating.
Students and staff participated in both the workshops and the show – a more intimate and relaxed programme compared to the morning celebrations that nonetheless offered a rich multicultural experience. As for the show, the College courtyard provided an outdoor stage for the traditional and modern dances performed in groups or individually, songs, theatre pieces and a national costume fashion show during which the students involved did not just parade in their costumes but also entertained the audience by describing their garments’ origins. The performance was attended in part by the College community and partly by that very ‘village’ referred to by the Rettore a few hours earlier, which enthusiastically applauded the student performances, all while sharing the feeling that they were all taking part in something quite special.
