Principal
Li Po Chun United World College
Hong Kong, China
2004 - 2011
Li Po Chun United World College is a senior international high school with 256 students from about 80 different countries. All students live on campus and study the IB Diploma Program. I was appointed as the College’s third Principal in 2011. During the period of my headship, outstanding (i.e. world’s best) academic results were achieved that enabled students to enter the world’s top colleges and universities, many on full scholarships, including students from refugee and other socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The College’s integration with the wider UWC movement and links with student selection committees around the world were significantly strengthened by my attendance at global and regional meetings, and this helped to expand scholarship opportunities, especially for students from the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, Cambodia and the Philippines. I established an educational goodwill initiative with North Korea that involved six visits by groups of students to the DPRK, I inaugurated an NGO-like service learning organisation called GCAT (the Global Concerns Action Team) and guided students through a program to overturn a severe case of official discrimination against a community of lepers in south-west China. I also co-ordinated a program that resulted in the construction of three medical clinics in poor, remote, rural villages in China’s Guizhou province, including in some cases, using my students’ own labour. I also led students on service trips to support AIDS-orphans in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I developed a comprehensive set of policies for the College as very few existed when I arrived, and also revised the College’s printed publicity materials, including doing all the artwork and desktop publishing. Throughout my time at LPCUWC, I chose to stay in touch with my students and with my teachers’ daily needs by teaching full regular classes of Geography and/or Theory of Knowledge. On campus, I oversaw a major building project to construct a new auditorium and performing arts centre. I also supervised the establishment and initial operation of the Sino-Japan Youth Conference, a student-led international event that brought together about 70 young people each year from China and Japan on the campus in Hong Kong to discuss, debate and negotiate significant issues and tensions between the two nations. My wife and I invited students to dinner in mixed groups of twelve in our home on campus on twice each week so that students could experience a fairly frequent home-like experience while attending boarding school far away from their own families and homes.
Two galleries of photos showing the College during my headship can be seen HERE and HERE.
Thirty more galleries showing events can be seen in the LPCUWC event galleries.
Hundreds more photos can be seen in my weekly blogs from LPCUWC from 2006 to 2011, which can be accessed through these links: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.
Some photos from 2004
