UWC Graduate Profiles
There are more than 34,000 UWC Graduates since Atlantic College first opened in 1962, including 99 from New Zealand.
Click here to transfer to the UWC International site to review some of their inspiring profiles.
Graduate Feedback
| “Pearson College was one of the elemental forces which shaped my life. It kindled a passionate interest in justice and politics within and among nations. It cultivated an abiding respect for diversity and difference." |
 Dr Abiodun Williams (Pearson College 77-79)Director of Strategic Planning, Office of the United Nations Secretary-General |
| "My Atlantic College experience gave me a totally different perspective on world affairs. In practical terms, I learnt to be more comfortable with foreign cultures, traveling and facing tough new challenges. It also directed me towards a career with an international perspective right from the early days of my professional life." |
 Jorma Ollila (Atlantic College 66-68)Chairman of the boards of Nokia and Shell Oil |
| "I thank UWC for steering me in the right direction at such a crucial moment of my life and pointing out that I can aspire to higher goals and strive for greater ideals. The lessons that I learned - to think independently, to care about the community, to look at the world from a broader perspective - have been deeper and deeper embedded in me. Li Po Chun UWC taught me that life is not supposed to be easy and comfortable. We have entered the covenant to make an effort and to make a difference. And we will." |
| Mu Yang (Li Po Chun UWC 92-94) Post Doctoral Research Associate, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. USA |
| "However intense the experience, no one was ever idealistic enough to imagine that it could there and then break through humanity's yearning for a division into tribes, nor the yearning of those tribes - from times immemorial - to wage war. It was all much more subtle than that. To my mind, it was a two-year long lesson, not just to accept and learn to appreciate that people are different, but that different people have different ways of approaching a problem and different ways of resolving it." |
 Aernout van Lynden(Atlantic College 71-73) International Journalist and War Correspondent |
| "My years at Waterford were definitely the foundations upon which my current work is based. It seemed every subject I took, be it Environmental Science, French, English, History, led to discussion about the environment and the responsibility we all have to preserve it. Learning in a cross-cultural situation certainly demonstrated the value of communication and understanding as a basis on which solutions to some of the environmental, social and economic challenges facing us might be resolved." |
| Dr Richard Roth (Waterford KaMhlaba 86-87) Environmental Scientist and International Director of the African Environmental Education Foundation |
| "Without realising it fully at the time, Atlantic College taught me that with effort and discipline, respect and teamwork, one could achieve anything." |
 Julie Payette (Atlantic College 80-82)Astronaut, Canadian Space Agency |
| "My two years at UWC-USA had a profound impact on both my career choice and on the decisions I make on a daily basis as an educator. The experience exposed me to four important educational factors: inspired teachers, a demanding curriculum, experiential education and an international environment. As Principal of a national school, I have had the opportunity to replicate some of these. We have developed a challenging curriculum that relies heavily on experimentation, enquiry and critical thinking. I have made a special effort to hire international faculty, and even UWC Graduates and their contribution has been remarkable. We have implemented experiential education, sending our students on rock climbing trips and wilderness expeditions. As a consequence, our students are able to think outside their cultural boundaries. These factors, I believe, have helped us to become one of the top schools in Colombia." |
 Maria Isabel Leon (UWC-USA 83-85)High School Principal, Bogota, Colombia |
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