As in many other UWC colleges around the world that weekend, Saturday May 21st was Graduation Day in Duino. After days of repeated downpours and even storms, a crisp, bright sunshine and the clearest of blue skies set the stage for our farewell to the 2014-16 UWC Adriatic generation.
The college President, Ambassador Gianfranco Facco Bonetti, opened the Ceremony by inviting all to join him in a minute of silence for the tragic death of UWC USA alumnus Giulio Regeni, born in the nearby village of Fiumicello, whose brutal murderers have yet to be identified. The President was also the bearer of some very welcome news regarding the presence of Italian students in UWC Colleges worldwide. These have risen from 12 in 2013, to 26 in 2014, to 39 in 2015, and finally to 45 in 2016, generating 984.000 euro of funds for scholarships in 2016. Our Rettore Mike Price expressed his deepest gratitude on behalf of the entire UWC Adriatic community to all the institutions, companies and individuals that have supported scholarships for UWC Adriatic students – particularly the regional government of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, National Committees, the Stock Weinberg-Edward Sutcliffe foundation, Fondazione Ernesto Illy, Fondazione Benefica Kathleen Forman Casali, Fondazione Cattolica Assicurazioni, Fondazione Banco di Sardegna, Università Popolare, Fondazione CRUP and Compagnia di San Paolo, and Ing. Alessandro Calligaris, who generously donated full scholarships to students of the college. He also quoted the 2016 Turning the Tide report published by the “Making Caring Common” project and its recommendations for reshaping the college admissions process in the US as evidence of the fact that the UWC message “is still relevant and its educational model is ahead of other pre-university educational systems in preparing young people to make the world a better, more caring place for us all”.
This year’s keynote speaker was writer and journalist Paolo Rumiz, who from 1986 onwards covered the events of the Balkan and Danube areas during the dissolution of Yugoslavia, as well as the ensuing conflict in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and that in Afghanistan from 2001 onwards. This experience and his own personal background as a native of Trieste, a city that in the 20th century hoisted 6 different national flags (of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the German Reich, the Yugoslav Federation, the Allied Military Government, and the Italian Republic), made his presence at this special occasion particularly welcome and appreciated. Mr. Rumiz’s speech “Exhiles and Ulysses’ lesson” poignantly described Ulysses as the symbol of all those who “cross an unknown space to survive” and suggests reading Homer again in order to learn from Nausicaa how unfortunate strangers are to be treated.
Farewells this year were not restricted to the class of 2016 but were also addressed to a number of staff members, some of whom have been in Duino for a long time and will be dearly missed:
– Paul Stachowiak, Philosophy teacher at the college since 1988;
– Julius Krajnak, Mathematics teacher from Slovakia, at the college since 1998;
– Colin Thompson, Alumni Director at the college since 2005;
– Sarah Pierroz, Art and Environmental Science teacher from Canada, at the college since 2009;
– Kerstin Traar, Austrian Ministry of Education seconded English Language teacher at the college since 2010;
– Steven Sibliz, Dutch Economics teacher, at the college since 2013.
The intensity of the event, when pride for academic accomplishments is mingled with the heartbreak of relinquishing invaluable ties with friends and mentors, was perfectly enhanced by the speeches delivered by Priyank Patil, (1st year), from India and Celia Aranda Reina (2nd year), from Spain. Priyanka touchingly described her personal transformation during her first year at the college, where she arrived with the heavy emotional luggage of guilt at leaving her mother and her community in order to dedicate her time and energies to her personal education and growth. Celia reflected on how misguided her thoughts and emotions had been when she first arrived, as they did not go beyond the typical excitement mixed with fear and nostalgia of an inexperienced fifteen year-old. Remembering her dissatisfaction with the situation in her country and in her community and knowing that similar feelings were harbored by her fellow students, she expressed the wish for herself and the entire class of 2016 to feel equally disappointed and critical about the world awaiting them all beyond Duino, so that they may all draw upon the lessons learned here and the UWC mission in order to have the greatest possible impact. “Dear co-years, our two years’ journey finishes today. But also our real mission starts today. We have to spread the word, spread the fire. Duino has given us the tools and the experience to discover our potential, and now it is time to use it to make an impact. It is time to carry on with our lives, wherever we go and whatever we do, and do our best to make the world a better place as we dreamt before coming here. I’m not going to say goodbye to you because we are together in this mission, and as long as we try our best to spread the word and the fire our paths will cross again.”
