The Short Course Graduate Network

Like all United World College programs the Short Course aims to be an introduction to a more global way of thinking and graduates are expected to apply what they have learned and experienced in their own community on their return home. The Short Course is also the start of long-term involvement within the UWC movement, and the Short Course Graduate Network - which is organised and run by Short Course Graduates - is the focus of this involvement.Network activities are organised around a system of communication that ensures that everybody, regardless of where they live, or their access to the Internet, finds out about what is happening. The past few years have been concerned with the establishment of this Network and the main focus of activity has been the annual reunion, which is held for one week every summer.
Graduates in the host country of the reunion organise accommodation and sponsorship, to ensure that in as far as is possible, finance prevents nobody from coming. The reunion goes beyond a mere holiday and in fact shares many of the activities of the Short Course itself; Lectures, Debates and National Presentations all form core activities of any reunion. Recent reunions have been held in Denmark, Slovenia and Spain, and the Netherlands and the wide number of Short Courses that have been represented at these reunions means that the movement has become one unified family. With the Network now firmly established however, the Short Course Network aims to develop itself in many other ways. A number of National Short Course Networks have been set up; these networks meet and arrange some common activities in life - such as community service - which reflects their Short Course experience.

Plans for Reunion 2005 in Austria are well under way. This reunion aims to further develop our Network activities. A team of Short Course Graduates have been put in place to organise the project and it will be the responsibility of all the Short Course Graduates to raise money for it. These WebPages have been designed and compiled by the Short Course IT team who are also responsible for keeping the page up-to-date with current Network activities. Each year the Short Course Network grows, bringing fresh faces, new ideas and new directions for our movement.

"All of this may come to nothing but I thought we should at least try to do something pro-active. Some action as well as talk, if we want to change the world for the better, show some responsibility for our world, then we should do something, act...

...I see no reason why we can't do this. If you have an idea of how to help, act, don't wait for someone else to do it."

Toby Steward, Lithuania 1996 and Project Organiser on the Project

If you wish to get involved in the Short Course Graduate Network, please contact us.