Bon Voyage to Carenna on her way to United World College in Maastricht, Netherlands

Carenna was selected to represent the U.S attending the UWC Maastricht starting the end of this month. She will be completing high school in a 2-year International Baccalaureate programme. Congratulations, my Pangga, We will miss you, but have Fun in Netherlands.  Here's what I learned about UWCM from Wikipedia.

The United World College Maastricht (UWCM) is a United World College located in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The school was established in 2009 and moved to a new campus in the Maastricht neighbourhood of Amby in 2013.

The school was established in September 2009, the school originates from a merger of the International School Maastricht and the International Primary School Joppenhof. The school was the 12th member in the family of United World Colleges. In September 2013 the school moved to a new campus in the Maastricht neighbourhood of Amby. The founder of UWC movement Kurt Hahn once said if a school were a ship, then student should be seen as the crew members and not as the passengers on board.

UWC Maastricht currently has approximately 900 students between the ages of 2 and 18. They originate from more than 100 countries. The UWC Maastricht community includes 200 international boarding students selected by a worldwide network of about 160 national committees based on personal merit and potential, irrespective of their religion, cultural, political or financial background. The students graduate with the International Baccalaureate diploma, a worldwide accepted university entrance qualification. The college has often attained the highest IB average score amongst IB schools in the Netherlands, with an average of 34 points in 2012.

The school was created as a center for all the national committee students from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands to be the prime example, being around 25 percent of the whole school population. Based on the wide experience of the United World Colleges and the International School Maastricht, the UWC Maastricht will act as a Center for Expertise for Community Services (Expertise Centrum voor Maatschappelijke Stages). This center will be part of the new college campus and open not only to the UWC, but also to other national schools. The Dutch ministry of education expects the college to act as an example for other Dutch schools.

UWC Maastricht is part of the larger international UWC family. The President of the International Board, the governing board of the international movement, is Queen Noor of Jordan, while the honorary president of UWC was Nelson Mandela. The Dutch King Willem-Alexander is a former UWC Student and patron of the UWC Organization of the Netherlands. He opened the school in 2013.

The new campus at Discusworp 65 in Amby consists of two school buildings and three dormitories, arranged in a green setting on an 'island' surrounded by a moat and accessible via two bridges. The campus is part of Geusseltpark and is adjacent to a large swimming pool, a football stadium and other sports facilities. The campus is home to 120 residential students. In total there are around 730 students (23 pre-school students, 263 primary school students, 323 secondary school day students and 120 residential students and on every floor there is a house parent who are also teachers ) from around 90 countries.

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  UWCM campus in Amby

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  UWCM campus, bridge over the moat

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  UWCM campus, school building

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  UWCM campus, dormitories

Meanwhile, enjoy this photo of my first harvest of ampalaya (bitter melon)