Admission's Blog

Heather Gross, PC 20
Director of Admissions

Universities and handbook link

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 12:39

In the fall, I will be taking on the role of Universities Counsellor as well as Director of Admissions.  It’s going to be quite the learning curve, so to start this off Donna, Andrew and I were on the road. We were just at a conference of international counsellors for college admissions and then toured two liberal arts colleges in New England. It was a great trip, with lots of conversations and learning.  While I know we did not cover all the universities and colleges students might apply to, we thought a lot about the Davis Scholarship Program and the American system.  At the conference, Donna learned more about UCAS and Andrew and I managed to get to a workshop about applying to European universities, and which of those offer financial assistance to international students.
 
Later this year I’ll blog more about this side of things.
 
But back to items of interest for incoming students - we’ve linked the student handbook on our site, see http://bit.ly/pchandbook.

Fundraising

Monday, July 12, 2010 - 16:28

 

It seems a lot of the conversations I’ve had recently are about fundraising. Pearson College is proud of its full scholarship policy, but with that comes a tremendous responsibility to raise money each year.  Internationally, UWC is raising more money now than before as well.  And even at the Regional Meeting in Jordan we had workshops on fundraising. 
 
While it’s not my specialty at all, I know that fundraising is often about relationships. And I certainly spend a lot of my time in admissions working with people and staying connected with people. That part I understand. Another part has to do with the funds, and I’m no expert, but it seems that there is a lot of joy and fun in some fundraising efforts, especially for organizations like UWC. Here are few examples of recent FUNdraising efforts for UWC.  
 
Thanks to Pearson College alumna, Meghan Thom, for this story on the Great Britain National Committee blog site about riding across Britain http://bit.ly/ukbike.
Yoyo Schepers skied to the North Pole http://www.justgiving.com/yoyoschepers. And then on page 8 of United World you can see an article about swimming to raise funds http://bit.ly/uwcswim.
 
Have you participated or coordinated a similar effort recently?  I’d love to hear about it.

 

Embassies

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - 14:29

 

Well, both the Canadian and American celebrations are passed. At the office we honoured Canada Day with a long weekend and lots of people catching the fireworks. I am still on my way back from the trip, and typing this entry now in the Heathrow airport. I recognize also how travelling with a Canadian passport is a relatively easy prospect in this world. Many students right now are completing their visa applications or study permit applications so they can come to Canada to study for two years. And that can be a confusing and complicated process. Congratulations to those who have submitted their applications to embassies already. Hopefully the rest of the summer will be smooth with that task in hand.
 
Speaking of smooth, check out two recent links about a Canadian who was selected to attend Pearson recently: http://bit.ly/ONstory and http://bit.ly/ONstory2.

 

Meeting in Jordan

Saturday, June 26, 2010 - 22:51

 

As anyone who has emailed me recently knows, I am currently in Jordan, at the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region meeting.  This meeting is a gathering of national committees, contacts and alumni from the region as well as college representatives and other people working in the UWC movement. So far all the gathering has been at the King’s Academy, Madaba, a truly majestic campus.     
 
I will make sure to photos of the wonderful people when I am back in Canada. I am reminded of how much work goes into selection, how many people are working to coordinate this movement around the world, and how remarkably a-political our work is. Despite coming from different professional and geographic places, everyone is committed to finding a diverse cross section of students who benefit from our challenging and transformative educational experience and go on to create a more peaceful and sustainable world.
 
What do we do when we get together like this? We talked about UWC key messages, successful selection processes, nominating to UWC schools and colleges, capacity building and fundraising. The Spanish National Committee hosted us and presented on the proposed new UWC Espana. We considered the challenging situation of Iraqi youth, saw a Global Nomads film and discussed ways to use electronic media. We also had some fun… with a traditional Dabka group performance, Demet Tuncer singing (a Turkish UWC USA aluma) and lots of great food.
 
While I’m travelling, I certainly haven’t forgotten about our incoming students! For Canadians going to UWC schools and colleges in 2010, you are likely busy with summer plans but also seeing your doctor, thinking about course preferences and considering your travel plans. International students who will be at Pearson College are working on your visa or study permit (remember to send me an email saying you have applied no later than July 5) and also making all of the other plans associated with leaving home in August. Remember to book flights to arrive on August 30, 2010.
 
And if by any chance you are in Jordan – let me know!

 

Handbook

Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 14:58

 

I sent out forms to incoming students today and our new “handbook”.  The handbook is a great project that we start each spring, reviewing our guidelines and how we present the College. We are very lucky that one of the house parents on campus is a talented graphic designer and she puts in countless hours of work and creativity into our handbook.  Students, faculty, staff and even the director provide photos and many, many people are involved in the writing and editing.  
The electronic version I have is too big to post here. I'll work on reducing it so you can see what I'm talking about.

 

News release

Monday, June 14, 2010 - 16:14

Another story about an incoming student!  

Check this one out from Ontario http://bit.ly/newontario.  

And in case you missed the last ones out of Canada, see http://bit.ly/newnbrunswick and http://bit.ly/newnfld.  

Finally, a press release just went out from Alberta, too.   See http://bit.ly/newalberta for that too.  
As you can see, I've also discovered how to shorten the url's a give on this blog, which will really help as I connect people and stories this month.

 

 

Relaxing

Friday, June 4, 2010 - 16:44

 

It’s Friday afternoon and I've just finished a lot of paperwork. Now the sun is shining and I can proudly say that the Lip-Dub our students did last month was voted one of the 10 best.  Bravo.
Watch for fun (see Pearson at #8) – this is not an official film! 10 Best Lip Dubs

 

Peace

Monday, May 31, 2010 - 11:43

The admission papers are being prepared, and I emailed many of the first year students last week, so hopefully most of the blog questions have been answered by email.

I also received a few more articles about incoming students.  Let me know if something is published in your local paper – these are great to see from Newfoundland and New Brunswick.

Ironically at this time of year, I also just said goodbye to the graduating students on Tuesday.  I expect many of them are now catching up on sleep around the world.  I wish them the very best.

And speaking of wishes, as conflicts in the world escalate, we continue to work for Peace as a movement.  This year, the UWC national committee of Israel, has decided to initiate a summer course in Israel for the young promising leaders from the middle east, Europe and U.S.A . The project has been given the name: "Arava-Valley Of Peace".
 
The Red Sea’s Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba borders four countries, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. This is now a corner of peace where in 1994 the late King Hussein and the late Prime-minister Yizhak Rabin signed a peace treaty. The project "Arava- valley of peace" is intended to give youth from all over the world the opportunity to create a unique social network of motivated young people with leadership skills and to get to know each-other from a closer look, while studying together the Arava valley in different aspects. The program includes many social and sport activities, aside a process of learning the environmental area we will stay in.
 
The fees for the program are 300 EUR for two and a half weeks.  If you are interested,  fill in the application form below! 

 

References

Thursday, May 20, 2010 - 11:23

Well, the flurry of nominations from Canada is complete, and I trust that all the candidates have been notified by their regional committees about the results.  If you don’t think this is the case, do let me know so I can follow up!
 
Now it’s up to me to write those letters of admissions, and I am working on that this week while responding to a lot of inquiries about the process from around the world.
 
Before I finish reflecting on the Canadian applicant experience, I wanted to share something that a parent wrote me yesterday.  She suggested it would be good material for the blog, and I agree!  She said that one of the key valuable experiences in the application process was asking for and receiving references. This student’s references were very thorough and they sat down with her to give direct feedback on her strengths and weaknesses.  That can be such a powerful experience, and rarely do we either take the time to ask people for their feedback, or receive it in such an open way.  It makes me think about going and asking people I would ask for a job reference to actually give me some of the feedback they would include in a reference letter.  Then I too could benefit from this kind of support.
 
References don’t only give their time and energy in writing a reference letter, they offer the power of their reputation and the wisdom of their advice when they write letters for students. As I said a month ago about parents, take time to thank people who write references on your behalf. I’m sure you already have.  
 
I will continue writing in this blog, though the content may shift over the summer to be more useful for incoming Pearson College students.  Do let me know what you think by commenting here or sending me a note.  

Excitement

Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 15:31
Thank you for your patience. The last few weeks I have been admitting students, corresponding with many Canadians who were not successful, and negotiating offers with national committees. As you may have read on the director’s page, we needed to reduce the numbers of students coming next year, so that has included many, many individual conversations.  Still, I look forward to welcoming another diverse group this year.
 
Our system means that selection committees and national committees nominate students to the UWC schools and colleges and then we make final decisions to accept students and send letters of admission. That’s what I’m doing right now. So if you are waiting to hear from Pearson College, it’s likely because I am reviewing nominations and writing letters this month as quickly as I can!
 
Some students have started to get excited. I know people are on facebook, and I hope incoming students will feel welcome to post questions and concerns here too. Here is one example of our nominee from Bahrain. Please send me other news items you see, so we can celebrate together!