Submitted Article – If you need words to rouse your spirits out of the summer doldrums, then read on…

“I come from a country where the girls and women have very restricted opportunities to study and go to university – in fact, the opportunities are close to zero. As a girl who has been raised with better chances I’m motivated to fight against these traditional and unreasonable restrictions. I’m going to create a chance for girls to get an education.” The young woman who wrote the words above is slated to attend Pearson College UWC this fall and the multilingual, multi-scholarship winner, originally from Afghanistan, is looking forward to expressing her thoughts, culture, traditions and “being able to learn, learn, learn” together with the more than 100 other Year 46 students from around the world arriving on the Metchosin campus in late August.

Read the full Media Advisory.

Metchosin, BC – The inaugural open water Race Rocks Challenge swim on May 25 was an overwhelming, spirit-lifting success with three Pearson College UWC students completing the entire 6000-metre course!
Students Mikella Schuettler, Mara Bohm and Hayley Touchburn finished the course from Race Rocks lighthouse to the campus docks on Pedder Bay in between two and four hours early on a chilly and overcast Saturday morning.

Read the full Media Advisory.

Come on in, the (chilly) water’s fine!
On Saturday, May 25, a group of Pearson College UWC students are set to take on a largely-unprecedented long-distance, open-water swim from Race Rocks Ecological Reserve to the main dock at the College on Pedder Bay. “These seven students are training hard and are keen to meet the challenge of a six-kilometre swim in the chilly late-spring waters of the Salish Sea,” said Corey Teramura, Seafront Activities Coordinator and one of the many people on the Metchosin campus working to make this challenge a success.

Read the full Media Advisory.

Victoria, BC – Victoria’s Pearson College UWC — Canada’s only United World College – is hosting nearly 70 education leaders from around the world this week at an event that kicked off with a recent reception at the B.C. Lieutenant Governor’s official residence. Governor General Julie Payette – a graduate of UWC Atlantic in Wales and a strong supporter of the UWC Movement and the 17 UWC schools around the world – was guest of honour.

Read the full Media Advisory.

Pearson College UWC’S Annual International Performance & Student Expo

Victoria, BC – A beloved Victoria spring tradition brings a world of international performances to the stage of the McPherson Playhouse as nearly 200 Pearson College UWC students present the annual One World Performance and Expo March 15 and 16.

Read the full News Release.

 

B.C.-raised Linda Worden is 14^th Rhodes Scholar from Victoria-area College

Metchosin – Pearson College UWC graduate and Penticton-raised Linda Worden was this week named one of 11 Canadians to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for 2019.

Worden, the 14^th student from Pearson to receive a Rhodes Scholarship, attended the two-year, pre-university college in Metchosin from 2013 to 2015. She is currently a Political Economy major at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Read the full Media Advisory here.

Pearson College UWC has been a proud part of the Metchosin and Westshore communities for more than 45 years!

Founded as Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific (a name we proudly use!) the College was inspired by the legacy of the former Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize (1957) laureate who asked: “How can there be peace without people understanding each other, and how can this be if they don’t know each other?”

Read the full Media Release here.

Pearson College UWC Global Affairs Speaker Series Thursday, 18 Oct.

Metchosin – Pearson College UWC is inviting everyone to share in the inspiring story of how two educators – one from Canada and one from Malawi — dedicated to the education of young girls and women in Africa built a successful school in a village setting that is having a profound impact across that impoverished southern African nation.

Christie Johnson, a biology teacher at Pearson, and Memory Chazeza Mdyetseni, Director and, together with Christie, Co-Founder of the Atsikana Pa Ulendo (APU) Girls on the Move Secondary School, will talk about how support and determination by both Malawians and Canadians created and sustained a successful educational environment for hundreds of girls and young women.

Read the full Media Advisory here.

Pearson College UWC Global Affairs Speaker Series 27 Sept 2018

Metchosin – Victoria Community Leadership Award recipient Sharmarke Dubow is set to address the challenge of regaining one’s dignity, respect and a sense of belonging after a refugee experience from a very personal perspective at an upcoming Pearson College UWC Global Affairs Speaker Series talk.

As a refugee from Somalia who settled in Victoria, Dubow will share his own story and discuss the role of international humanitarian law, what it means to offer protection to people who are stateless, and how to humanize the refugee story. Dubow currently co-chairs immigrant and settlement at the national level for the Canadian Council for Refugees, is active with local refugee and resettlement organizations and recently decided to become a candidate for Victoria City Council.

Read the full Media Advisory here.

Pearson College UWC international students on campus for the new year

Pedder Bay – September is back-to-school month for most young people in Metchosin and Greater Victoria, but there is a whole different meaning to that simple phrase when nearly 200 students arrive from around the world and all points across Canada at Pearson College UWC’s campus on Pedder Bay.

“I think it’s fair to say that we’re not like any other independent school in Canada,” says President and Head of College Désirée McGraw. “Each and every one of the students who come to Pearson – one of 17 United World Colleges around the world – are welcomed on merit, not on ability to pay.”

Read the full Media Advisory here.

Pearson College UWC Student project “PCGROWceries” to distribute funds this summer.

Metchosin, BC – PCGROWceries, a student-led initiative, raised nearly $1,500 in profits through its online store, that will be donated this summer to charities including Ursuline Creche Home for Children in Malta, Rainbow Recycling Project in South Africa, and Sanctuary of the Marine Turtle of Michoacán in Mexico.

PCGROWceries’ modest e-commerce site allowed students to order grocery items that were conveniently delivered right to their rooms, while a small commission charged on every order was collected into the PCGROWceries Charity Fund to be distributed to charitable organizations in the organizers’ home countries. Pooling multiple orders through a web interface eliminates the time, money and energy needed for long bus trips to pick up supplies, plus adding the benefit of supporting worthy causes worldwide.

Read the full Media Advisory here.

Victoria – Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific (Pearson College UWC) is this week hosted a gathering of international, high-level decision-makers – informally known as ‘Sherpas’ — planning this summer’s G7 summit in Charlevoix, Quebec.

“This is the first time ever that a G7 meeting has been held at a pre-university school, anywhere in the world,” said President and Head of College Désirée McGraw. “This affords Pearson’s students an unparalleled series of opportunities to meaningfully interact with these influential officials and their teams.

Read the full Media Advisory in ENG or in FR.