UWC day is a day where our community gets together and celebrates our special and highly valued diverse races and cultures. It was so amazing to see members of our community, both students and teachers dressed up in outfits akin to their culture and heritage. There were Indian ‘lehengas’, Turkish ‘silifke’, Korean ‘hanbok’, Indonesian ‘kain-kebaya’, Bavarian ‘Dirndl’, etc.
This year we were trying to highlight how the diversity of every individual contributes to making an impact and an effect of our immediate as well as our wider community. That’s why the service exec put up blackboards with the prompt, “I inspire change by…”, available for anyone to come and contribute to. It was wonderful to see many people come up and write about how they think that in their own way they make the world around them a better place. There were all sorts of answers, ranging from ‘being nice’ and ‘embracing cultures’ to even ‘flossing’ and ‘fortnight’, which arguably is inspiring a change somehow and somewhere in the world.
Students are encouraged to express their feelings and thoughts
Students writing letters to help UWC Alumni who has been jailed for protesting for human rights
Apart from service-related activities, our cultural music and dance performances were very captivating and did a phenomenon job of bringing our community together as we celebrated our diversities. There was a sense of invisible community tethering us all as we cheered on dances and music of cultures different to our own.
It was events like this one where I feel truly grateful to be a part of such a welcoming, accepting and diverse community, which not only cares for itself but cares for people in need around the world.
-Aanya Malashetti, Service Exec