A college that unites the world

THE AUTHOR does a Capoeira move.

Travel is considered one of life’s greatest luxuries and education one of the best investments we can make.

When you can combine both through a two-year scholarship program, you have the opportunity to make friends in a hundred or more countries and learn about the world on one campus.

When the principal of St. Scholastica’s College (Manila) high school called me a few weeks before graduation, I mentally reviewed what I had done to warrant disciplinary action.

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Imagine my relief to find she was actually offering me the chance of a lifetime, to study abroad for free if I was accepted to a program I had not even heard of.

United World Colleges (UWC) offers a P3 million grant to one of 13 schools all over the world—Italy, United States, Singapore, Norway, Costa Rica, Armenia, India and Swaziland, to name a few. The mission: To make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.

How incredible, I sometimes think, to have one degree of separation from the great Nelson Mandela, who was honorary president of the movement (Queen Noor of Jordan is acting president) before his passing and whose grandchildren were UWC alumni!

When I joined the program about 10 years ago, I found leaving my home country to be in another world entirely daunting. But meeting new people during my stay from 1997 to 1999 at Lester

B. Pearson College in Victoria, Canada, trying to match flags and national capitals, also changed my perception of the world entirely.

Now I can call my best friend Rita from Austria and invite her to visit our ka-barkada Ipinge in Namibia or Rashed in Jordan, or call Eva from Denmark and Albert from Barcelona.

It is hard to describe in words how my perspective grew to encompass the entire scope of humanity. A more beautiful world emerged as I saw each human being for who he/she truly was.

Living and working together, sharing meals at the dining hall, studying, recycling and enjoying cultural days performances.

Those immensely talented, capable young leaders galvanized my inner drive to make a difference on this planet.

And with cookies and milk at recess, I was sold! It became my cradle where I dreamt of being an artist and creating music.

I only truly appreciated how great the blessing was nearly a decade after it was over.

The 77 recipients of the grant so far can be found all over the Philippines and the world. Some figured in high-profile mergers (like the purchase by a Filipino company of an American

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firm) or working for famed educational institutions; some work quietly and not-so-inconspicuously in the background in the arts, fashion, technology, media and social entrepreneurship programs; others are in the thick of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” relief operations.

Now, as an alumna, I get to help others receive the same scholarship grant I had. It is the most fulfilling job I have ever had.

This year, five scholars will be sent to Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Visit ph.uwc.org and download the online application if you want to travel abroad, live on campus with people from all walks of life and from all over the world. Deadline for application is Feb. 15.

If you want to have a taste of global citizenship without leaving the country, check out the summer programs in April and May at Mahatma Gandhi International School.

E-mail uwc.philippines.nc

@gmail.com. Look up United World Colleges to learn more about its uniquely transformational education that can make you an agent of change that can help achieve a better future.

(Editor’s Note: Nykó Macá is the stage name of Nicole Naval Severino, currently the main contact for UWC. Philippine National Committee. She is a multilingual singer, live performer and instructor of Capoeira, known as Andorinha, at Escola Brasileira de Capoeira Philippines.)