On September 11, UWC-USA students, faculty, and staff will pause the regular schedule for UWC Day 2026: a campus-wide day of learning, reflection, and community-building centered on the theme “Water in a Changing World: Many Perspectives, One Future.”
UWC Day is an opportunity for the global UWC community to celebrate its diversity and advance its shared mission. At UWC-USA, this year’s theme will bring that mission into direct conversation with the realities of life in the Southwest, where water access, climate change, ecosystems, agriculture, and community well-being are closely intertwined.
“On September 11th we’ll pause our regular schedule and take space to connect through story, exploration of place, and art,” said Simon Hart. “Water in the Southwest has been in the headlines consistently. This is a major global issue related to climate change that we want to explore not only through Bartos-supported programs, but across our academic and residential life programs.”
The day will begin with students sharing stories prompted by an object, photograph, or artifact from the place they call home. The stories will explore how water has shaped family, culture, daily life, and landscape in communities around the world.
Students will then choose from experiential workshops that may include planting native high-desert seeds, testing water samples and tracing campus water systems, mapping the UWC-USA watershed, examining climate-change scenarios, creating a time capsule for future generations, and exploring the geopolitics of water in the Southwest. These activities will invite students to connect global climate challenges to the local landscape and to consider how communities can adapt.
In the afternoon, advisory groups will create art connecting water and place to UWC values, including respect for the environment, mutual responsibility and respect, compassion and service, and action and personal example. The day will conclude with a community gathering featuring local partners.