In VWO 4 I first heard about UWC, an opportunity to be able to go to this amazing school abroad, meeting people of 80 different countries, who are all quite idealistic and want to change the world for the better, it seemed so surreal at first, but it also was an amazing opportunity and something that would bring the challenge back in my life. I got really into it and applied that year, but I did not get a spot. During the summer I went to the Youth Leadership Summit, a short course provided by UWC and NJR. During the week we did all kinds of workshops on the topics personal leadership, communication and awareness. I learned so much and after this week I was determined to apply for UWC again, since I was not able to let this amazing opportunity go. I made it through the selection rounds and ended up in Wales.
UWC means a lot to me, it is not just what you do in the classes, but also what you do outside of them. You have to do service and activities, but I do them with pleasure. My service is Music Therapy Service; we provide music therapy to autistic children and elderly people with dementia. In the current economic climate this is one of the first things that is economized on, however it is really valuable for those people, so I am glad we are able to provide it free of charge and see them develop in ways they would not have been able to if we did not do it. It is not only just amazing it can be quite challenging as well, some weeks the children do not respond at all and are not cooperative but the moments you do get the respond