Being part of the UWC movement means that you are willing to make change happen, be a peacemaker, engage in big international issues. It means you embrace the unexpected and take every situation and event you encounter as an opportunity to learn, contribute, grow. When I first returned to Hong Kong this summer, I observed the protests unfold with detached fascination and exhilaration. Here I was living a historically defining event with political implications that could have lasting impacts on Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the rest of the world. To me, the protests and their values were tangible examples of the change that we so often talk about in discussions here at UWCs. The enormity of this concept awed me.
But this enormous change wasn’t just an abstract concept: we watched people being hurt on live television during tutor dinners, MTR stations close down for days at a time, local friends and classmates struggling with the personal impact these protests had on their friends and family. It’s much harder to be giddy about something when you witness the pain and struggle it is built upon, sobering.
The beauty of being part of a UWC community becomes evident in a time of crisis or difficulty, when one of the first things people ask each other is: how can we help? But our experience helping people had been through video campaigns demanding justice for Amaya Coppens and Giulio Regeni, fundraising for the 24 hour race, or through CAS activities. I (and I’m sure many others) had never considered the complexity of trying to engage in the incredibly multifaceted movement that was happening in our own backyard. While other UWCs held talks and Global Issues Forums about the Hong Kong situation, we deliberated the political implications of taking action in a school community that was personally affected and held diverse opinions; and faced a school administration that was unwilling to guide or inform us through this time of stress and fear, all because it couldn’t show any political bias. I felt frustrated, confused, and above all, bitterly disappointed that LPC did not seem to support the values for which it stood for, in a time when I felt like it was most necessary.
This term has made me question and reflect upon a lot of my values, partly because of the Hong Kong situation and partly because I’ve had to take steps to think of my life beyond UWC. Seeing change in action has led me to reflect a lot more upon what kind of impact my future career is going to have beyond my personal satisfaction, how I can contribute to the world in a meaningful way. The events of last term also discouraged me for a good amount of time and led me to question the idealism behind the UWC values and how applicable they are to a life outside a UWC campus, where even LPC itself failed to uphold them in a way that was constructive to the students it is responsible for.
There is a great expectation among UWCs for students to contribute to the community they join, this isn’t an unreasonable expectation: it’s the students that make the movement work, after all. Personally, I have since reevaluated my expectations for the UWC movement in LPC by looking back on upon why I wanted to be part of it in the first place and how I’ve contributed (or not) to it. However, I believe that is not just a responsibility us students have to undertake, but also that of the school that promises to foster our growth.