Critical Engagement Programme

Our Introduction Weeks for all DP1 students ended at the beginning of September with 3 days of intensive workshops and presentations around three key themes: Identity, Diversity and Social Responsibility. This took place as an introduction to our new pioneering Youth Social Entrepreneurship Programme at UWC Maastricht.

   

Critical Engagement (C.E.) is an outreach programme developed originally by UWC Atlantic College alumni as a way to "give back" to their former college. It aims to "put students at the centre of a forum for open, constructive discussion and collaboration on a range of crucial global and local issues." Emerging out of this dynamic forum, it is hoped that students will develop, "lasting transferable skills (which) serve as a foundation for active roles and sustained impact in varied personal, professional and academic settings."

   

This opportunity to exercise critical thinking in a non-conventional setting did surely
enable a very pro-active approach when we started looking at ideas, creativity, innovation
and social entrepreneurship from 9 September onwards.Over the years, new team members have joined and it is now run by a diverse pool of UWC alumni who have adapted and further developed the CE contents and methodology to different settings and age groups.

Students had also the opportunity to attend action workshops on: Mindfulness, Play in Education, Non-violent Communication, Campaigning or Start-ups: values, mission & viability.

The programme was delivered by a group of experienced CE facilitators (all UWC Atlantic College and UWC Costa Rica alumni:Ari Cantwell, Mika Pasanen, Faima Ramírez Hirschauer, Adam Cantwell, Joe Llewellyn and Jhader Aguad) and staff from UWC Maastricht who are UWC alumni themselves (UWC Mahindra College: Olaya García, Ajay Hirani and Dasha LIs and UWC Adriatic: Iva Horejsi) or have worked at different UWCs for many years  (Annemarie Oomes).