I always thought of education as a tool for change and this is exactly what I found, 10,162km away from home in a school located in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness. I did my lower and upper 6 in a school called United World College (UWC) in Norway with 200 other pupils aged 16-19, representing over 80 nationalities. 

UWC is a movement with 17 schools situated in all corners of the world, from Costa Rica to Germany to Hong Kong to Swaziland and more, with one common mission: ‘using education as a force to unite people, cultures and nations’. UWC believes in an education for all, hence over 70% of students enrol with a partial to a full needs-based scholarship. In addition, UWC offers an interdisciplinary and worldly recognised two-year academic programme known as the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. It allows for an experiential and research based learning, best preparing pupils with the skills needed for university studies. 

At UWC, learning went beyond the four walls of a classroom. Learning happened in all the small and big moments of my UWC experience. This was about debating the flaws of democracy at dinner time. It was about appreciating nature every morning as I woke to the view of the fjords outside my window. It was cleaning up my room with my four roommates from El Salvador, Poland, Russia and The Cayman Islands, listening to Russian rap music. It was that evening when we marched on the streets campaigning against human trafficking. It was the food: the empanadas, churros, stropwafels and the overcooked pasta with pesto on those lazy Sundays. It was standing outside at 2a.m in -10 degrees staring at the northern lights. 

It was that one Saturday morning when more than one hundred of us were outside for a massive snowball fight on campus. It was understanding the complexities of the Israel-Palestine conflict as told by my Israeli and Palestinian co-years. It was going on a kayak trip as I finished my last class on a sunny day. It was the second day at the school, sitting in an auditorium realising that I was surrounded by 199 other pupils from all over the world. 

Every day at UWC was a day of challenge, activities, intellectual curiosity and stories of the world. There is something effortless that happens when a group of young, driven students from different countries, ethnicities, physical abilities, interests and beliefs gather in a safe space to pursue their education. We start talking, criticising, accepting, questioning and understanding. Those are further encouraged by the activities offered at the school such as weekly discussions on world issues, cultural sharing and shows and various opportunities for community service. 

UWC nurtures the growth of the individual through the challenges that come with living far from home, living in a community, being independent and pushing oneself to accomplish one’s goals. It is a place where young idealists arrive and where mature aspiring global change-makers leave. It’s been 20 years since the first Mauritian went to UWC. We’re now 50 Mauritian UWC alumni. We all probably had slightly different experiences of UWC but we all applied because we believed in a value-based education. 

None of us could have imagined what impact UWC would have on us. None of us could have imagined how UWC would become a place where countries become faces and faces become shared memories. None of us could have imagined that a place so far from our families and friends would feel so much like home.