Youth Leadership Course Development EAC is a group whose focus is to develop a leadership training day at the college for the students.  We start the year with discussions about all types of leaders and what it means to be a leader.  This can be a very difficult but interesting part of this EAC because we all have very different definitions of leaders and different role models.  As we share our opinions, we change aspects of other opinions around us, challenging others to really consider what leadership is.

After this stage, the EAC moves into the planning of the Youth Leadership day.  This year (Dec 6-7) we had students attend one workshop in order to not overload them with information and to really focus their attention.  Some of the workshops included youth entrepreneurship and public speaking.  After Youth Leadership day the group did some critiquing and planning for next year.  The first years in the group have decided to take responsibility for the planning of the EAC, as it most pertains to them. The last phase of this EAC is some general leadership training and sharing.  We realize we have an immense amount of knowledge in our group that when we share with members eventually trickles down into the RCN family.

-Scott

Structure of the Youth Leadership Day

Workshop name Hosted by Summary
Teamwork I Katherine (Katu) & Mais Included teamwork with main focus on two aspects: one in which there is more than one leader involved and the other where there is one leader. In both, through activities, participants learnt how to work together and about their strengths and weaknesses when working in groups.
Teamwork II Louise & Ieva Teamwork is essential! Individuals are becoming less and less autonomous as theworld demands greater interdependence.  The team development process is essential to the success of every team.Workshop objectives: 

  • Define a team
  • Have interdependet tasks
  • Have a commitment to work together
  • Share the responsibility of reults
  • Manage relationship across boundaries
  • Activities for developing your leadership and team working skills
What is Leadership? How to be a Leader. Samuel & Rodi Included: defining the term leadership and the ways it can be interpreted including tips on how to become a leader.
Image of a Movement Ida & Scott Participants learnt about successful movements, identified   effective techniques, and found how to get people up off the couch and active in a movement with focus on inspiring others and crafting the image of movement and use this knowledge to their advantage.
Fundraising and Speech Writing Peshwas & Tamim Participants learnt effective methods of attracting financiers to different projects and commitments. The workshop not went over essential considerations and strategies that are useful and credible, but also focused on where funding is needed and where projects can go around without funding. In essence, this workshop was good for those planning to start organizations, host events, organize conferences etc., or simply committed to a life in the bureaucratic sphere. Furthermore, participants also learnt the important steps in writing speeches. All participants drafted one speech during the workshop to practice persuasive speech.
Meeting Management Henrik & Christine Aim of the workshop: 

  • To learn how to manage meetings effectively
  • How to get the most out of a meeting as a participant
  • How to make your voice heard
  • How to communicate effectively within a meeting

Included:

  • Holding presentations on problems about meeting management and present different possible solutions to those problems.
  • Plenty of interactive activities to demonstrate the techniques learned.
Public Speaking and Communication Basem & Mirza Included: How to address public, speech giving and get the attention of huge amount of people and overcoming fear.Improving  skills of being a great orator who is able to keep effect on audience and convince them in what he says. In addition to that, being able to be a good listener as well as a good speaker, organizing ideas and using them.
Youth Political Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Amine & Madeley The main aims of this workshop was to give to the participants the bases : “How can they give solution or answers ,as youth political leaders ,to the different political problems that many countries have around the world”, where the participants analysed  the weaknesses and strengths from their governments of the selected  countries. 

One of the principal characteristics that a leader must have  is to be a social entrepreneur,therefore throught this workshop  the ideas about how a young leader can increase the resources and development of their areas was promoted.

Leading Youth Activism and Social Movement Kanchan & Mariana Participants went through a “Vision>Plan>Promote>Do>Review” approach of British Council’s Global change-maker tool kit. Each participant came up with individual or group projects on pressing issues by the end of the session.Included: 

  • Activism speed dating: Sharing your activism with the other participants
  • Working on Issue Groups
  • Plenary session: How to come up with a project?
  • Reporting and presenting projects
  • Mastering the “Elevator Pitch”
  • What next? … And: Over to you! What lies ahead for the participants?

SPECIAL FEATURE:

  • Introduction and Applying to Global Youth Summit 2012 (London); personal experience in GYS 2011 by Kanchan.

 

Amnesty International – Corporate Social Responsibility – Action fall 2011

In November 2011 we have been campaigning in Flekke, Dale, Førde and Bergen for the Corporate Social Responsibility, collecting 449 signatures under the petition to the Norwegian government.

How a company conducts their business can have big consequences for people and the environment.

Companies therefore have a responsibility which not only concerns their profit, but to also comply with existing laws and rules in the countries where they operate. For a company to maintain their social responsibility the company needs to integrate social, environmental and human rights considerations in their business strategies.

Companies have immense power and this power is binding. Amnesty demands that Norwegian companies do not violate human rights directly or indirectly, when operating domestically and abroad.

Nov 282011

Health Day was celebrated on Nov 25, 2011 where all First Years participated in events organized by the Second Years with the help of some First Years under the guidance of Reidun, Rudy, Mariano and Summer.

The day started off with a wonderful, yummy, special breakfast followed by a session on Health and Stress lead by Dr. Maret K and Hilary Hamper.

After cookie break, two sessions of workshops were held followed by two more sessions after lunch. As such, all students got a chance to participate in four different workshops of their interest. Following is a brief on the workshops:

A Good Night’s Sleep (Thomas)

• Introduction to some basic information : ‘How and why we sleep ?’
• ‘What happens when you don’t get enough sleep?’ Some tips and tricks to get to sleep efficiently.

Dog Walking (Chris)

Walking with a dog. Another good way to promote healthy lifestyle !

Introduction to Fitness (David and Summer)
Introduction to fitness is not really about what you think of ‘Fitness’. This short workshop was about well-being and the steps towards a healthier life. Participants explored the definition of fitness and what it is really about.

Introduction to Youth Empowerment and Stress Management (Chiyedza Nyahuye)
“In this mini workshop we took a peek at daily skills and techniques that can help us manage our often emotional and stressful lives by carving out small portions of our day to actively relax and allow our bodies to heal.”

Meditation (Edmund)

The focus was ‘Don’t get stressed out and crazy like your second years!’ and involved some simple meditation techniques to change the overall IB experience

Mud-wrestling/ rugby (Gareth & Gray)

5-10 minutes warming up, wrestling in the mud
15-20 minutes playing rugby
2 minutes at the end to recap what was learnt.
With adequate clothing, on muddy and wet floor, rolling on the floor, it was fun !

Pete’s Balls (Pete)

“Pete’s Balls” is the name given by a former theatre class to this exercise in concentration, teamwork, hand-to-eye coordination and fun! The activity was used in areas as diverse as: corporate team building, circus training, schools and colleges, drama workshops and so on. It was a cooperative and quick-moving experience!

Stretching for the Inflexible (Mullohoji & Jonah)

A workshop for the inflexible students looking for low intensity exercises that can make them healthier, allow them to perform better in sports and school and feel better all day long.

Time Management Workshop (Angie & peer tutors)
Participants in the time management workshop  generated and discussed useful ideas for managing time at the college. This workshop was really good for those of the participants for whom time management is an issue. Participants learnt to share “ideas that work” and picked up tips improving their UWC experience!

Yoga (Wiktoria and Viktorija)
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside. Yoga helps you to realize that.”

Zumba (Simka)
A dance workshop which included Merengue, Salsa, Belly dance, Cumbia, Reggeton, Samba, Flamenco, Soca, hip hop and many other dances. They were combined together to form simple choreographies which were later on danced for different kinds of music. Zumba has so much energy that it fills you up with positive mood. It is a great way of refreshing the body and getting rid of the stress while having fun and dancing.

More pictures to follow soon ………

Oct 222011

With PBL week over, the weather forecast for Saturday looked very promising.  A group of students wished to make use of the good weather to take a tour to the top of Dokka.  Dokka is the mountain that can be seen (not so often this autumn) by looking down the fjord from Finland house.  It resembles the mountain associated with Paramount Pictures.

We met at 7:30am, had breakfast, packed lunch and headed off on bicycles at 8:10 to reach the 9am ferry in Dale.  Once in Eikenes we started riding with Dokka clearly covered in sun and snow off in the distance.

After reaching the start of the trail we headed up following a steam while enjoying the sunshine.When we reached the source of the stream we found a large lake full of crystal clear water.It was getting colder and the wind was increasing.  After putting on another layer we kept heading up soon finding ourselves walking over the clouds……and into the snow.With the wind blowing and the temperature below zero it was a quick lunch break at the top.On the way down it was a hop over the stream,followed by a bike ride to the ferry.

Once on the ferry it was off to Dale and then the College.The day after the rain and wind came back and we were all glad that we took advantage of the weather to get to the top of Dokka.

Journalism workshop: held on 16th April 2011

Amra Zejneli (RCN ´03-´05) is a journalist for Radio Free Europe and the Kosovo national broadcaster RTK. She visited to hold a World Today on reporting from politically sensitive areas, and ran Saturday workshops on how to prepare an interview and report. Students were first trained in how to interview government officials, then they were let loose trying to get information out of  a minister for minorities – a challenging task! She also shared many anecdotes from her exciting and dangerous job, inspiring as she is a recent graduate from RCN herself.

Environmental Economics workshop: held on 30th April 2011

Sara MacLennan is a British government economist in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She held a World Today on valuing the environment, followed by Saturday workshops on cost effectiveness analysis. Students put on the caps of environmental economists in order to value the financial, social and environmental costs of energy projects, and then discuss which was the best to pursue. This was a chance to engage in the practical side of issues!

 

Apr 232011

The students of RCNUWC participated in the annual event of Ridderrennet, held at Beitostølen, from the 3rd of April to the 10th of April .

Click here to read more on ‘Ridderrennet 2011′.

Youth Leadership Week at RCN was five days of challenges, questions, stories and learning.  It all began Sunday evening when a small group of students peppered the campus with controversial and inspirational quotations about leadership.  Throughout the week these provided points of discussion and debate about the characteristics of leadership.

On Wednesday the Youth Leadership organizers challenged students to a Do Day: a chance to step outside their comfort zone and carry out a small personal challenge.  Some talkative students vowed to be silent for a day, while others swore off facebook, ipods or making fun of people.  Students also screened inspirational TED talks in the Kantina at Cookie Break, Lunch, and Dinner.

Thursday provided more intellectual challenges: a discussion cafe with treats by YAA addressing issues such as cultural differences in leadership, and responsibilities of UWC students post-graduation.

Friday featured a plenary session with founding Rector Tony Macoun sharing reflections on leadership as well as engaging anecdotes from the early days of the college. World Film club got in the spirit by screening the American Civil Rights film The Great Debaters.

 

Finally Saturday afternoon all students participated in one of three focused skill building workshops: Communication, Public Speaking, or Teambuilding.  Inspired by tea and cookies and passionate workshop leaders, participants had an interesting and edifying experience.

Red Cross Nordic Model United Nations is one of the most unique, challenging and aspiring experience for the participants. Adam Smith’s idea of invisible hand applies well here when we talk about the immense effort and dedication put into organizing and running this event.The Secretariat and Chairs did justice to this commitment and worked collaboratively in an organized and timely manner to plan the conference and make it a successful one indeed.

Kudos to the Secretariat for being a strong backbone to guide and oversee the whole organizational structure and logistic work. The Chairs for their hard work in bucking up the delegates and preparing them well to enjoy the MUN conference to the fullest. The Media team for its efficient providence of information and immaculate creativity and the Security for keeping ‘law and order’ for a peaceful conference environment.

Thanks to all the executive staff of second years, the first years had the chance to experience two days of intense diplomatic relations, formal speech and great entertainment. During this Project Based Learning week, they all thoroughly researched the countries they were representing and acted as young diplomats when discussing over current issues in the world such as the Chinese currency manipulation, child labour in Bangladesh and the humanitarian intervention in Libya.

UKM Fjaler and Gaular, held on 12th of February 2011 at RCNUWC, was a big success! There were 24 performances by 53 people!

Click  here to read more (with photos).

YOUTH IN ACTION WORKSHOPS WITH STÅLE SANDBERG

The second weekend back after Christmas found Ståle Sandberg here to show interested students how to design and apply for EC funding for Youth Exchanges, Youth Initiatives, Democracy Projects, etc. Ståle works at BUFDIR in Oslo, where applications originating in Norway are approved for the whole spectrum of European Youth in Action projects.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc74_en.htm.

As a graduate of UWCUSA, Ståle had advice at Friday evening’s World Today on what to do after UWC. Actually, it was advice on what NOT to do, which is to go into either advertising or banking, at least not until you are past 40 and have spent the intervening years trying to do something useful for humanity. On Friday night he also showed his film Zapatista, which he made with two of his classmates from Montezuma after graduation.

The Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday workshops with Ståle attracted over 35 participants at the outset (including three visitors from Atlantic College) and a hard core of 17 who stayed until the end. We learned how to take an initial good idea and build it into a project proposal, and we also learned how to tackle and defeat the complex application process. The hope is that some good project proposals will come out of the work put in during these three days, and that EC funding will then help bring them to fruition.

© 2011 Extra-Academic Programs Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha