Dear Pearson College Alumni
The November rains have arrived so the campus is a bit darker and quieter. Running along the Deep Woods Trail before dinner with a headlamp keeps the adrenaline flowing and the imagination alive. When two eyes are reflected back from the light, I wonder as I pick up the pace, do they belong to a deer or a bear?
The other reason it is quiet is that Extended Essays are due. I bet you are glad that is behind you. Notwithstanding the rain, we have had a terrific school year so far. We admitted students from a record 103 countries this year. This makes us Canada’s and perhaps North America’s most diverse school in terms of countries represented. I thought this relatively quiet period was a good time to write to alumni with some updates about life at the College and some invitations for you to help us out in a few areas.
New Website
A few weeks ago, we launched a new Pearson College website. This was developed by our librarian, Sherry Crowther. Like all websites, it is a work in progress. We are working to capture “Pearson stories” from our alumni. We are particularly looking for reflections from our alumni on the impact Pearson has had on what they are doing. If you would like to share a story about yourself or perhaps another alumnus, please contact Sherry (scrowther@pearsoncollege.ca) and we can get these online. We want to bring the website alive with such stories. And we welcome suggestions for improvement. You might wish to check our blog, The Link, where our students are sharing life at Pearson in words, pictures and videos. You will also find on the website some of our recent publications, such as our annual report and two research projects about our alumni – one a review of our alumni from Africa and another a review of our alumni from Atlantic Canada. We are in the process of doing research on additional booklets about our alumni in Quebec and from regions of conflict. This research is being supported by the Pearson College Canadian Foundation and is being used as we approach foundations, corporations and individuals to support student scholarships. If you receive a request for information for these studies, your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Representatives from all UWCs visit Pearson
Pearson College was host to all of the UWC College directors, board chairs and International Board members in October. The UWC has adopted a five-year plan with the following goals, to:
· ensure that UWC’s model of education maintains relevance and becomes more widely known as an example of education for a peaceful and sustainable future.
· extend UWC’s impact.
· strengthen and develop the UWC National Committee system.
· create a secure and sustainable financial and funding model.
· increase awareness, recognition and understanding of UWC.
· continue to strengthen organisational effectiveness and unity.
In addition to the UWC Board meetings, the College held a workshop on ways to improve the health and wellbeing of students at all the UWCs. This workshop was led by Dr Natalee Popadiuk, from Simon Fraser University, who completed the study of pastoral care at Pearson. Pearson alumnus, Nicole Bichard (PC Year 18) was the overall conference coordinator. It was the first time in the history of the UWCs that a workshop was held on this topic and those with such positions as dean of students or residential life coordinator at each of the UWCs attended and found this extremely helpful. This focus on the wellbeing of students has been a priority for us at Pearson and is motivated in large part from feedback I have received from alumni identifying this as an area we can improve upon at the College.
Alumni Gathering in Ottawa
Our first major alumni gathering this school year was held in Ottawa in early November. Pearson trustee and former Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Joe Clark, led a discussion about the role and place of Pearson College in Canada and the world. The panel included Jean Drouin (PC Year 15), Landon Pearson and founding trustee, Bill Teron. We had a special perspective added by Andrew Cohen who recently published a biography of Lester Pearson. We hope to have more alumni gatherings later in the winter and the spring in various parts of the world. Visit the alumni section of the website from time to time for more information.
Summer Alumni Reunions
PC Years 14&15 had an amazing twenty-year reunion this past August. The PC Years 14&15 auction was full of fun and frenzy and led to funding two full scholarships. We are now looking forward to a ten-year reunion for PC Years 25&26 as well as a thirty-year reunion for PC Years 5&6 this coming August. Again, details of these reunions can be found on our website.
Looking for a Communications Intern
We are operating Pearson College as frugally as possible during these challenging economic times. We have challenged ourselves to cut one-half million dollars from our operating budget this year. To accomplish this, we have made some reductions in our non-teaching staff. This included cutting the position of Director of Communications. But we still have the need to better communicate about Pearson College with a wide variety of constituents. With this in mind, we have created an internship position for a communications specialist. We are looking for someone who would be able to assist us with all aspects of our communications at the College, from adding content to our website to exploring the use of social media to increase the awareness of Pearson College across high schools in Canada. This would be a full time internship, ideally from January through August. We would provide room and board and a modest stipend. Interested or know of anyone you would like to recommend? We would like someone with communications, marketing or public relations experience, ideally with a university degree and also ideally a UWC graduate.
Alumni now make it possible for one out of every six students to be here
A huge thank you to what alumni are doing to keep this place alive through their financial contributions. We now have well over 200 alumni who have signed up as regular on-line donors and the total number of alumni who are participating in annual giving doubled from last year. And the amount contributed has tripled. Annual giving from alumni last year is funding ten full scholarships. And the large alumni gift to the endowment in the late 1990s of $13.5M itself supports more than twenty students per year. We still have a major challenge to maintain the full scholarship policy and all alumni are invited to be part of making this happen. All alumni should have received the letter from our current student, Connor Scheu launching this year’s annual fund campaign. Every gift makes a difference. Our alumni goal this year is to reach $500,000. As of mid November, we are about half-way there. We had some creative challenges last year like PC Year 33 students agreeing to apply Lester Pearson's idea of each developed country dedicating 7/10 of one percent of GDP to assist with the development of other nations. These alumni agreed to dedicate 7/10 of one percent of their annual income to Pearson. Quite impressive as 56% of them participated and most were first year university students. We are looking for alumni to assist with our annual alumni giving campaigns. Some are PC Year specific and others are geographic. We are always open to creative approaches. If you are interested, contact Davida at dstafford@pearsoncollege.ca or 250.391.2485.
Vision 2020
Pearson College, like the UWC International Board, is looking to the future. Over the past spring and summer, we explored with students, faculty, staff, local alumni, trustees, host families and friends of Pearson College the best way to complete this sentence:
“For Pearson College to make its finest contribution towards a peaceful and sustainable world, through the endeavors of talented individuals and a dynamic international community, Pearson College needs to pay attention to…”
As you might expect, this led to as many questions as answers. The five questions, which we attempted to answer in coming up with what Pearson would look like ten years from now are:
Selection: How do we find students of exceptional promise and potential from every background and country to come to Pearson College?
Place: What are the attributes of the campus so that it is a healthy and thriving place to learn, to live and to work?
Experience: How is the educational experience at Pearson College designed so that it is truly transforming and develops individuals who, over the course of their lives, will make a positive impact in the world?
Team: What is the profile of the adults who serve as mentors and lead, in a collaborative way, the pursuit of the UWC mission?
Impact: How do we strengthen the network of graduates and support their work so that the investment in a Pearson Scholar has maximum impact on the promotion of international understanding, peace and a sustainable future?
We have a draft “Vision 2020” document, which can be found on our intranet and we welcome any comments you might have on the direction this work is taking. See the link at the end of this email.
Would you like to be or to recommend a visiting speaker or artist?
We are delighted to have so many of our alumni come back to Pearson to share their work with our students through such forums as guest speakers for International Affairs, visiting artists and leading discussions about life after Pearson. This year we have had Evan Adams (Aboriginal Health Advisor for BC Ministry of Health - PC Year 9) speak about aboriginal affairs, Brett House (Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General - PC Year 15) speak about the UN and Climate Change and this spring will have Abiodun Williams (Vice President, US Institute of Peace - PC Year 4) speak about conflict resolution. If you are interested or wish to recommend someone, please contact Coops Wynne-Hughes at cwynnehughes@pearsoncollege.ca.
Can you help us invite students to apply to UWC / Pearson?
We would like to see a dramatic increase in the awareness among upper high school students, across Canada and the world, about Pearson College and the UWCs. We need graduates to visit high schools, particularly here in Canada and encourage students to apply. Another way that you could help with this would be to recommend names of students we should contact and encourage to apply. You can get help with both of these things through our Director of Admissions, Heather Gross (PC Year 20), hgross@pearsoncollege.ca.
If you have come this far, thanks for catching up with us at Pearson College. When I am not on the Deep Woods Trail running for my life, I am on the other side of this email if you wish to contact me.
Warmest regards,
David Hawley, Director, Pearson College, 250.391.2438, dhawley@pearsoncollege.ca
Links:
Booklet on Alumni from Africa
Booklet on Alumni from Atlantic Canada
Annual Report 2008-09
Pearson Vision 2020
Donate Online
