Challenge Day
Challenge Day
Monday, 25 February 2008
Last Sunday, our campus was thrown open to 300 Hong Kong students for our annual Challenge Day. This is an important part of the annual selection process of students who wish to enter a United World College.
With almost 500 applicants each year, the Hong Kong UWC Committee handles the third highest number of applicants for United World Colleges in the world; only Cambodia and Colombia receive higher numbers of applications. Handling the selection process, which must be based strictly on merit is quite a challenging task.
Senior staff at the College review all the applications (with at least two people reading every application), and as a result the list of 300 students to be invited to Challenge Day is devised. The students who attend Challenge Day have a fun-filled day of activities, including problem solving, social interaction, mock interviews, preparing performances, and so on - and while they are engaged in these activities, they are observed by our volunteer assessors drawn from staff, students and graduates.
From the results of these observations, a short-list of about 120 students is drawn up, and these students are interviewed by the panel appointed by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government. In round figures, 50 of these students will be invited to attend Li Po Chun United World College in Hong Kong, and an additional 12 or so will be invited to attend overseas United World Colleges in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Italy, Norway, USA and Wales.
The selection of students is a busy and exciting time for the Hong Kong UWC Committee, and a potentially life-changing experience for the students who are fortunate enough to be selected. Challenge Day is just one step in the process, albeit an important one. It will be May before the successful applicants find out which UWC to which they have been invited.
I have loaded a gallery of 42 images showing Challenge Day which I hope will give some flavour of the life and colour of this day - but unfortunately not the noise, the laughter and the applause. You can access the gallery HERE, and through the image at the top of this blog.
Click the image above to access a gallery of Challenge Day 2008 images