It is great living in a residential community where all the students and all the teachers live together onsite.  The sense of community that this builds is very strong, and the deep understandings between people from many diverse backgrounds that arise are the basis of much of the rationale for United World Colleges such as ours.  It enables us to breathe true meaning into our claim that we celebrate difference!

On the other hand, one of the possible hazards of a fully residential campus is excessive introspection.  There is a danger that our campus might become a self-contained little world where issues that are extremely minor, especially on the grand spectrum of global misery, can become significant foci of concern, discussion, debate, worry, gossip, and even at its most extreme, disillusionment.  There is nothing unusual in this – it is a common phenomenon in all schools and all small villages, and United World Colleges are a combination of both.  Helpful though a healthy process of self-review can be, introspection is a paradox for any United World College because our intended focus is to reach out to the world.

The United World Colleges International Board recognises this because it has made “outreach” one of its key mission goals for the next few years.  I was reflecting on this as I asked myself how much I had been doing personally this week to promote outreach.  I think it is important to focus on each person’s contribution rather than the organization as a whole, because otherwise it becomes too easy to say ‘well, someone else is looking after that’ or ‘it is someone else’s job’.  Therefore, although several of our teachers made significant contributions to workshops and meetings this week in such diverse locations as Guangzhou, Sydney and Beijing, and while I may have been the one to approve leave so that these contributions could be made, I do not count these as part of my own personal ‘outreach contribution’.

So, how would I count my contribution this week to outreach?  This has not been an atypical week, and although the list is not exhaustive, I would include the following events:

•On Thursday I had a surprise visit from Anna Tong, an LPCUWC graduate from the UK who was visiting Hong Kong and decided to “pop in” and see how the College is progressing.  In a typical week, several of our young graduates do this, and it is always wonderful to chat and reminisce.  Anna graduated in 1999, and struck me as a fine, articulate, confident and creative young woman that any school would be proud to call their graduate!

•Also on Thursday afternoon, we had another meeting with the architects who are designing our new auditorium.  The meeting, which included teachers and students as well as administrators, discussed various options to situate the auditorium, and substantial progress was made.  I can’t wait for the next meeting!

•On Friday evening I attended the official opening of Renaissance College, the new English Schools Foundation (ESF) school which is located just two KCR stations from us at Heng On Station.  The opening was a spectacular celebration, made all the better I felt by the contribution of LPCUWC’s lion dance team!  Next year, we will be co-operating with Renaissance College to introduce Music as a subject, sharing resources and facilities to mutual advantage.  During the opening ceremony as I was sitting in the front row – in fact, near the beginning of the Principal’s speech – I was delighted to receive a call on my mobile phone; that made me feel very “local”!

•On Friday afternoon, I welcomed Mr Eric Hui from the Sha Tin District Office of the EMB (Education and Manpower Bureau) to the College.  Mr Hui was representing the new District Officer, Mr Chi-Wah Lai.  Mr Hui was interested to learn more about LPCUWC, so I gave him an audio-visual presentation about the College and the UWC Movement in my office before he toured the campus.  Mr Hui was very generous in his praise of LPCUWC and its reputation in the Hong Kong community.

Having said all this, only a small part of my job actually deals with outreach – although like all UWC Heads, the proportion of my job devoted to outreach is increasing, and for very good reasons!  This week, most of my time has actually been spent on non-outreach matters such as my class teaching and preparation, report writing, the staff meeting, the Board meeting, a CEC (College Executive Committee) meeting, attending “Wo/man”, which was the 1st Year drama production, writing minutes of meetings, attending the final meeting to approve the IB 5-Year self review document, finalising budget questions, answering regular correspondence, and so on.

As I wrote in my blog a few weeks ago, I do love the variety in my job!