Category: News

Just as the economic impact of the pandemic tripled the demand on a local food pantry, the United World College-USA redeployed staff and resources to provide 400 prepared meals a week to the Las Vegas community.

“It was a miracle,” said George Lyon, executive director of The Samaritan House, which also runs a homeless shelter and thrift store. “We were really trying to figure out how we were going to support this tremendous need.”

In addition, produce grown at the United World College Agroecology Research Center on the Montezuma campus is going to local soup kitchens. A total of 125 pounds of spinach and lettuce were donated over the last two weeks with regular distributions of fresh produce planned throughout the summer.

“One of the things we’ve all learned from this extraordinary situation is that we need to focus on what matters most. Community matters, including our place in it,” said United World College-USA President Victoria Mora. “We feel responsible not only for the health and well being of our immediate community of students and employees, but also for our larger community.” 

After the 230 students from more than 90 countries departed campus in mid-March due to the pandemic, faculty and staff stepped in to plant and harvest produce on the farm. During the school year, the farm’s produce is used to prepare student meals. In the summer UWC-USA donates produce to local soup kitchens.

“I’m so glad we have been able to step up at a time when our student service projects in the larger community have stopped because of their departures. And I am so grateful to the local community and all the ways they support our efforts,” Mora said.  “I know we are a huge economic driver in the area and we are doing our best to keep people working and to plan for next school year.”

On April 6 UWC-USA began delivering 200 meals on Mondays and Fridays to the Samaritan House and plans to continue through May 31. The school received a $5,000 grant from the Santa Fe Community Foundation to help cover the cost, said UWC-USA Dean of Students Naomi Swinton. Sodexo, the food service company that operates the UWC-USA dining hall, prepares the meals, which UWC employees deliver to The Samaritan House and a few individuals. Recipients drive up curbside to pick up the packaged meals, Lyon said.

Aida Samaniego, food services director at UWC-USA, said four furloughed Sodexo employees returned to work to help with meals.

“For those of us in the service industry, social distancing goes against our very nature,” Samaniego said. “The four furloughed employees chose to forgo their unemployment benefits and social isolation because they wanted to do something that has a positive impact on the community, by cooking and packaging meals.”

During the school year, UWC-USA students volunteer weekly at the Comedor Soup Kitchen and at the Samaritan House homeless shelter as part of the experiential education program.

“Students interact with the individuals and make them feel respected. Sometimes we get behind stocking the pantry and they help,” Lyon said. “UWC has been a wonderful partner throughout the years. We are delighted that UWC recently offered to donate twin mattresses for the clients at our new shelter location.”

Meals are also delivered to a food distribution center at Borracho’s Craft Booze and Brews.  Borracho’s proprietor Sara Jo Matthews has led Las Vegabounds, a collaborative effort to deliver food to homebound locals. In addition, UWC-USA has donated masks to El Centro Family Health medical clinic, Alta Vista Regional Hospital, a daycare connected to New Mexico Highlands and the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute. UWC-USA also shared medical supplies from its wilderness program with El Centro, Swinton said. 

UWC-USA is also acting in partnership with the 100% Community effort led by the Anna Age Eight Institute and Matt Probst, medical director of El Centro. The group addresses 10 services for the community, including food, youth development, and medical resources.

“This effort brings together emergency services and representatives of other organizations to coordinate services in preparation for COVID-19 responses in our area, as well as creating stronger infrastructure to meet local needs going forward in our area,” Swinton said. “We are grateful to be part of the local community and to everyone in the area who hosts our students as Get-Aways, mentors them as community volunteers, and turns out every year for student performances and campus activities. We look forward to increased opportunities to partner going forward.”

UWC-USA is a two-year high school for students from all over the world, which provides merit scholarships for U.S. students; applications are due each year in October on the school’s website at uwc-usa.org/admissions. UWC-USA gives scholarships to 85% of its students and is working to bring students back in the fall to continue its service and partnerships.

Entrepreneur Allan Affeldt noticed one “tiny” flaw during last spring’s United World College-USA recycled clothing fashion show.

The venue was too small.

So immediately after the show closed at The Spot community center in Las Vegas, Affeldt offered the 3,200-square-foot ballroom at his nearby Plaza Hotel for the international high school’s Renaître Sustainable Fashion Show, which was set for April 11. It was canceled after students were sent home in mid-March because of the spread of COVID-19 in the United States..

 “I loved the (2019) show, and I thought it was deeply insightful as so many things are at UWC,” said Affeldt, who has spent millions restoring historic and abandoned hotels, including the Plaza Hotel and Castaneda, also in Las Vegas; La Posada in Winslow, Ariz.; and The Legal Tender Saloon in Lamy.

Affeldt’s offer stunned Jagoda Sokolowska, a UWC-USA student from Poland, who for a second year led the Montezuma school’s sustainable fashion show.

“I was so incredibly surprised,” said Jagoda, who has been accepted to Parsons Paris, a leader in art and design education. “It made me feel so humbly proud of myself after all this effort. It was definitely an incredible moment.”

For this year’s show, students planned to model redesigned fashions ranging from casual to very formal. The 10 student designers’ fashions were to be sold during a live auction at the close of the show. Donations were to go to Fashion Revolution, a global non-profit in campaigning for reform of the fashion industry with a focus on the need for greater transparency in the fashion supply chain.

Students also suggested that Jagoda sell her fashions from last year and sketches to help pay for her college. 

“I really was surprised because I was thinking about how much money I need for college,” she said.

Jagoda planned to donate 30 percent of the money from her sales to Fashion Revolution and save the rest for college.

Jagoda explained that Renaître is a fashion show that aims to express the importance and genuine beauty of sustainability, which is also part of the mission for UWC’s 18 schools around the world.

“All garments have been handmade from donated discarded clothing used as a fabric to give them a magnificent new life,” she said. “The collections of reborn attire have been entirely created by the students of UWC-USA.”

Designers also have been incorporating aspects from their own cultures into the lines.

UWC-USA art teacher Santos Contreras expected good things from this year’s show after last year’s event.

“Jagoda is really building upon that success,” Contreras said prior to the show’s cancelation. “She’s obviously very talented and has an ability to teach others to think about fashion and how to work with materials.”

Last year, students focused more on altering donated clothing, he said. This year students are taking apart and reusing the clothing.

“You can see the personality of individuals in the clothing,” Contreras said.

Student Vidar Onnerfors, Sweden, had never used a sewing machine prior to this fall, only a needle and thread to make a small pillow at age 8. Vidar’s interest in clothing and fashion prompted him to get involved with the show.

“I thought this was a useful opportunity to learn more about it and also to be able to design my own clothing,” he said. “I also found it interesting that we would only be using repurposed clothing and that sustainability was one of the center focuses. I think that in an industry which is generally highly unsustainable — at least when it comes to fast fashion brands — it is important to shift the focus away from such practices and understand how clothes can be made through recycling materials instead.”

Vidar made a fleece with a coffee cup design on the back and a pair of neon green pants.

Students started working on designs in September; only two had ever used a sewing machine prior to taking on the project.

“It’s really wonderful to see how people have developed,” Jagoda said.

As for her  own interest, Jagoda said as far back as she can remember, she has had a passion for fashion. She credits her grandmother, who passed at age 64 when Jagoda was only 6.

“She was incredibly close to me and she always looked so elegant,” the 18-year-old said. “I wanted to follow her activities and steps. She was also an incredibly strong person — a judge who advocated for women oppressed by the Communist government.”

At age 13, Jagoda’s dream of creating clothing came closer after she found her grandmother’s sewing machine on Christmas Eve. Jagoda took advantage of her two-week winter break to learn to use it.

“At the beginning I was sewing pillows and little toys, and over the summer, very simple clothing,” she said.

Three summers ago, Jagoda met a fashion designer who invited her to do a two-week internship at her shop.

“It was incredible, like a family feeling,” she said. “It was the first time I experienced more of this profession.”

Jagoda’s followup introduction to renowned Polish fashion designer Natasha Pavluchenko turned into a month-long internship. 

“It was the best fashion learning experience,” Jagoda said. “She was teaching me how to create a collection from the beginning — from sketching, developing ideas and sewing the clothing.”

Jagoda continued creating clothing with sustainability in mind.

“I was creating from new fabrics, old curtains, scraps. I wanted to convey what I wanted to express,” she said.

By Britti Paudyal

The March 12 decision to evacuate United World College-USA students from the Montezuma campus because of the spread of the  coronavirus left Jagoda Sokolowska stunned, confused and uncertain about what was next.

“I had no way of getting back home,” said Jagoda, who lives in Poland, which like many countries, had closed its borders in hopes of slowing the spread of the highly contagious virus.

“I planned on staying with my Get-Away family, but there were so many changes in plans, all within the span of an hour,” she said. 

Jagoda ‘20 traveled to Miami and stayed with her father’s best friend.

“From there, I boarded a plane sent by the Polish government to bring back Polish citizens from abroad,” she said. “I finally got home after an entire week after I left campus.”

COVID-19 since early this year had been spreading and wreaking havoc in China, surrounding countries, and Europe. When the pandemic reached the United States, Victoria Mora, president of UWC-USA, announced that the campus needed to be evacuated. First-year students had to leave campus within five days, by March 17. Two days later, it was announced that second-years had to leave by March 19. 

Students reacted in disbelief, confusion, anger, sadness and fear. Students had less than a week to stage a graduation, pack, and say goodbye. Graduation, Expressions and Blue Moon Cafe all took place on March 13.

Some students who traveled home, like Lukas Lahucky’ 21, Slovakia had to be quarantined for 14 days.

“I’m living in an apartment all by myself,” Lukas said. “My parents only bring me food.” 

Others like Sarah Akake Onyembe’ 20, Democratic Republic of Congo, chose to stay in New Mexico with a host family.

“My country closed the border so I will have to stay here,” Sarah said. “For now, I am just planning to continue with the online classes and have the IB experience for a few more months.” 

Britti Paudyal is a first-year UWC-USA student from Nepal.

United World College-USA students Sherura Teta ’21, and Chevonne Kwasisiima ’20, both Uganda, and Erica Lee ’21, Hong Kong, have received 2020 GoMakeADifference awards for their UWC mission-related projects.

Sherura and Chevonne received a $1,000 grant to provide technical education to ensure affordable formal education in Kiryandong district of Uganda. Erica received $1,000 for a mentorship program and educational workshops for underprivileged students in Pune, India.

GoMakeADifference was established in 2001 to provide grants to UWC Atlantic College students. The concept was to allow students an opportunity to make a difference and put into practice the ideals of UWC. In 2016, the award was rolled out to all UWC schools and colleges.

Sixty-two applications were filed this year; 32 projects received the $1,000 prizes. Proposed projects including raising cancer awareness in Armenia, promoting peace and reducing religious tensions by bringing together a group of young Hindus and Muslims in India, and planting 1000 fruit trees in Sudan.

 

A team of United World College students for a second year in a row won New Mexico Academic WorldQuest title and advanced to compete for the national title. The event in Washington, D.C., was canceled due to the coronavirus.

Second-year students Paul Ellsiepen of Germany, Alejandro Ortiz Lopez of Venezuela, Karoline Nedergaard of Denmark and Vidar Önnerfors of Sweden won the statewide college bowl-style quiz competition hosted by the Santa Fe Council on International Relations. The foursome received an all-expense paid trip to the U.S. capital for the April 24-25 competition. The winning team would’ve received a seven-day trip to Qatar in June.

“I was very happy, of course, but also quite relieved,” Vidar said about the team’s win. “The whole team and I had all really put in a lot of time in our studies, so advancing meant that there was greater use to be made of the information we had learned.”

“We wanted to compete again this year to score better in the national competition than we did last year, and this was the most crucial step to be able to do so,” he continued.

Vidar noted he believes the team has common goals.

“We all work hard to study the information we need to learn,” he said. “In terms of our dynamics, I think what makes our team work well is that we have certain members who are able to reason their way to many answers, while others have an incredible talent.”

In related matters, a UWC-USA team consisting of all second-years placed second in the competition at Santa Fe Community College. Members were Ekaterina Tsavalyuk, Russia; Ellis Ward, USA; Erica Lee, Hong Kong; and Lorezno Laquidara, Italy. Another team placed fifth. Members were Aristotle Marangu ’20, Daniel Hodde ’21, and John Hanson ‘21, all USA-Calif.; and Pierleone Even-Shoshan ’20, Belgium.

The World Affairs Councils of America sponsors the competition, which tests players’ knowledge of current international politics, geography, global economics, history and world cultures.

During last year’s competition, the UWC-USA team placed fourth out of 45 teams. The team garnered 88 points out of possible 100. Jasper High School from Plano, Texas, took the title with 94 points. 

 

UWC-USA is actively preparing our community with education, prevention, and planning. Learn more on our page dedicated to this work.

We stand with many in our wider community who are actively working to fight this virus and whose lives have been disrupted.

This year’s Annual Conference at the United World College-USA will include presentations that focus on the theme “Greenovation: Sustainability and Technology.”

Featuring workshops, speakers and breakout sessions, the event is open to the public and will run from Thursday, Feb. 20, through Saturday, Feb. 22.

Learn more about the conference, speakers, and how to register here.

Presenters will include:

• Chris Palm, a 1992 UWC-USA alum who for the past seven years has been photographing the Choco in Ecuador. The area covers 72,000 square miles and varies from alluvial plains to narrow valleys and steep mountainsides. His project, TreeTalk 2.0 forest conversations, is an exploration of teleportation of consciousness to and from the forest. Palm received his master’s in business administration from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
• Andrea Pappajohn is a sustainability professional based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been focused on running sustainability initiatives at San Mateo County and the City of Burlingame. Projects have covered everything from energy efficiency to transportation, renewable energy, sea-level rise adaptations, water conservation, EV charging stations and electric bike fleets. Pappajohn has a master’s in communications management from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and management sciences from Northwestern University.
• Yoshi Abayasekara is a dance educator, dancer and choreographer from Sri Lanka. She holds a bachelor’s in dance from LASALLE College Of The Arts Singapore as well as a post-graduate certification in education from the University of Nottingham. Abayasekara toured internationally and performed professionally with companies based in South East Asia before relocating to Los Angeles. She is the artistic director and producer of Sri Lanka’s Performing Arts Festival, which began as a project to help the war-affected children in her country.
• A freshman at Georgetown University, Cynthia Desmet Villar graduated from UWC-USA last May. She is from Madrid, Spain, and is studying international politics and double minoring in French, and justice and peace studies at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, Desmet Villar teaches creative writing to local inmates, belongs to the marketing team for an intersectional feminist art magazine, and continues to pursue her interest in justice and policy reform.
• Jona Kerma from Albania is another May 2019 graduate of UWC-USA. She is a freshman double majoring in economics and government, with a minor in global studies, at St. Lawrence University. Kerma is a senator in the Thelmo Student Government and a representative of St. Lawrence for the Model Organization of American States and Model United Nations. She also volunteers for a refugee organization and helps host fundraisers for the Euphrates Club.
•  Maria Espinola Moreno comes from Barcelona, Spain, and graduated from UWC-USA last May. She is a freshman at Middlebury College majoring in economics and political science and minoring in French. At Middlebury, Espinola Morena belongs to the Pre-Law Club, Debate Society, Consulting Group and Women in Finance Association. 
• Julia Ying is a volunteer public speaker trained by former Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project to present the latest facts and findings about the climate crisis. She will share a multimedia presentation with the latest updates on impacts as well as solutions, answer questions and lead a discussion about what people can do to be part of the solution. Ying retired from general medical practice in Sydney, Australia. A resident of Los Alamos, she is passionate about taking care of Mother Earth to preserve the beauty of nature so her five grandchildren can grow up in a sustainable world.
•  Nicholas Seet has been a serial-entrepreneur since his first startup concept was funded and he left his software-development position at Deloitte Consulting. Seet has worked as a chief technology officer and chief executive officer, and founded Auditude, now called IntoNow; Yahoo acquired IntoNow in 2011. In November that same year, Adobe Systems acquired Auditude. Seet received a master’s in business administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. While there, he won the UCLA Knapp and Rice University Business Plan competitions, receiving more than$1 million in funding and prizes. Nicholas received bachelor’s degrees in engineering and economics from Harvey Mudd College.
• Roy Montibon is a serial entrepreneur and leader in strategy, branding, creative direction, design and technology innovation. As a founder, corporate executive, elected representative, educator  with University of California Los Angeles, University of California Irvine and the United World College, Roy has initiated and led scores of major projects across dozens of disciplines including arts and culture, science and technology, eco-heritage tourism, art and antiquities provenance, cybersecurity, community revitalization, healthcare, disaster-proof housing and more.
• Ousseynou Doumbouya comes from Senegal and is a 2019 graduate of UWC-USA. He is an economics major and a Spanish minor at Macalester College, where he is an office assistant/tutor for the French and Francophone Studies Department. Ousseynou is also a dancer and member of the Black Liberation Affairs Committee, Afrika Club and the Queer Union. 
• Valeska Fresquet Kohan ‘19, Brazil spent most of her life in Rio de Janeiro and has been passionate about dance since youth. Valeska believes that dance is the lone universal language, having the potential to be spoken by anyone from anywhere. She specializes in Brazilian Zouk, Samba de Gafieira and Argentinian Tango. At UWC-USA, Valeska was a show leader for the Carribean Latin American Day Show, overseeing the dance ensemble through practices and several shows. A freshman at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., Valeska is studying environmental economics. She spends her spare time meditating, daydreaming about conquering the wilderness and writing letters. 
• Hugo Contreras ‘87 leads the Nature Conservancy´s Latin American Freshwater Regional Unit. Prior to this, Hugo was business development and institutional relations director for Bal-Ondeo, a joint venture of the Bal Group and Suez Environment; he positioned the company as the leading private water operator in the Mexican market. Hugo has a bachelor’s in economics from ITAM in Mexico, and a master’s in environmental and natural resource economics from University College London. 
• Miguel Nieto Cifuentes ‘00 has served as an advisor to multinational companies with issues of strategic and operational sustainability, and sustainable purchasing practices. Miguel also led the start-up of Mexican companies dedicated to B2B water treatment, sustainable energy procurement, waste heat recovery and sustainable municipal solid waste management. He majored in economics, psychology and neuroscience at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and did graduate work in environmental entrepreneurship at the Environmental University.
• Roger Fragua has dedicated his professional career to the advancement and development of American Indian communities. He is president of Cota Holdings whose mission is to support tribal community and economic development in the energy and telecommunication sectors. Roger has strong alliances with various state and federal agencies, external partners and private sector companies. He specializes in creating innovative business concepts and promoting partnerships between tribes and industry. 
• Joseph “Brophy” Toledo has served the Pueblo of Jemez for more than four decades. He has worked with numerous indigenous youth groups, served on the Native American Global Sports Committee and been involved with international indigenous projects such as Pueblo Pathways Project.  Brophy has traveled to Mexico, Canada and Africa as a First Nations representative for earth healing and environmental conferences. He has dedicated his life to harmony and balance with the earth and practicing traditional farming methods.

Summia Tora ’16, Afghanistan, has been named a Rhodes Scholar. She is the first student from her country and first female at Earlham College to receive the international postgraduate award to study at the University of Oxford in Britain.

Summia plans to pursue coursework in refugee studies, forced migration, and social entrepreneurship at Oxford. Her focus will be on internally displaced people in Afghanistan, and  refugees in Pakistan and different parts of the world.

A senior at Earlham in Richmond, Ind., Summia is double majoring in economics, and peace and global studies. 

“I was delighted with the news about Summia,” said Joanna Swanger, director and professor of the peace and global studies program at Earlham. “I had great confidence in her candidacy because of her unique combination of the characteristics of tremendous poise, humility, and courage she has shown, as well as the specific projects she has initiated that relate to peacebuilding.  I truly see her as a future leader on the world stage.”

A UWC-USA cook known for his fresh-made omelets and soups is retiring.

Victor Trujillo’s last day will be on Jan. 17. He has worked in the kitchen on the Montezuma campus for 10 years. Victor’s retirement also will mean the end of a nearly 45-year career in food service.

He won’t miss getting up at 4 a.m., but will miss his co-workers and the students, who have no qualms with standing in long lines for his omelets.

“They’re fun and they give me energy with their silliness,” the 59-year-old said.

Victor makes two types of soups daily. Some of the more popular are carrot-ginger, roasted tomato and New England clam chowder.

Victor grew up in remote Vaughan, N.M., 85 miles south of Las Vegas. It was in Vaughan – a town of 445 — that he started his restaurant career, washing dishes at his aunt’s restaurant. He aspired to become a disc jockey. A few years after high school, he found himself back at his aunt’s place working as a cook.

Victor then moved to Albuquerque, where he lived for most of the 1980s. He worked as the prep manager at Monroe’s Mexican Restaurant. While living in The Duke City, Victor met Tom Snyder. After being together for 31 years, the couple married this past New Year’s Eve.

Victor and Tom left Albuquerque and moved to Phoenix for Tom’s engineering job with U.S. West, a former telephone company. While there, Victor cooked for a retirement community.

Tom was then transferred to Denver, where the couple remained for 13 years. During that time, Victor worked for Holiday Inn Express next to Mile High Stadium, Gunther Tooties, Hot Cakes Diner and the sports bar, ESPN Zone.

At age 45, Victor returned to his native New Mexico with plans to retire. Five years later, he accepted a position with Sodexo, cooking for UWC-USA.

Victor and Tom own a 100-year-old home in Montezuma, which they plan to continue working on. They will be taking a three-week trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and traveling to Utah in their Airstream. They also would like to go to Europe next year.

 

The United World College-USA is the first high school to apply to a program used only by colleges to improve sustainability.

Established in 2005, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education includes more than 900 colleges across 48 U.S. states, one U.S. Territory, nine Canadian provinces and 20 countries.

David Neidel ’87 got UWC-USA involved with AASHE while serving as an alumni-in-residence on the Montezuma campus during the fall 2019 semester.  The non-profit works with higher education faculty, administrators, staff and students who are change agents of sustainability innovation. AASHE evaluates a campus’ framework to assess its sustainability. The organizations assigns its members with either a bronze, silver, gold or platinum for its sustainability activities.

David, who has a background in environmental science and policy, environmental conflict management and ecological restoration, theorized that UWC-USA will receive a bronze status. He noted that the grounds and operations is probably the weakest area on campus due to lack of solar power and use of gasoline-operated vehicles.

“There are really no sustainability procurement policies in place,” David said.

The school does recycle and composts much of its solid waste.

“We have some numbers, but we don’t have a percentage on the total trash,” he said. “If you don’t measure it, you can’t change it.”

The farm on the UWC-USA campus supplies 30 percent of the produce to the cafeteria. Most uneaten food is composted at the farm.

“The cafeteria is doing really well in terms of plant-based diet training,” David said.

Providing plastic takeout containers and vegan options, and making a commitment to buy from small and medium-sized farms are on the plus-side.

A native of Pennsylvania, David has a doctorate from Yale University’s joint program in forestry and environmental studies, and anthropology. He currently works with Yale’s Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, whose Asia program he has led since its inception in 2008. David spent the last 11 years working on tropical forest restoration in the Philippines and Indonesia.