Getting to select UWC students from Nepal

After I came to Nepal I got in touch with my "3rd year", Dinesh. So nice to catch up on what has happened during the last 18 years (...!) and gossiping about our classmates etc. But it turns out he is the chairman of the National Committee for United World Colleges here as well. So while some people are still living close to the UWC in their endavours, the best that the rest of us can do is to try and keep in touch with a few of our friends from school. [Although, Facebook does help in that regard these days.] I therefore felt very privileged when I was asked to join the interviewing panel for this year's batch from Nepal who are competing for 6 scholarships. We did 50 interviews last Saturday. It was amazing to see the motivation, high hopes and already truly impressive accomplishments of pretty much all the kids who made it to this round. We brought the shortlist down to 15 and will have social interaction and debates etc in a couple of weeks to make the final selection. It's very exciting to be a part of it, and I am of course learning a lot about what 16 year olds in Nepal are concerned abouth these days. This experience has reminded me so well of all the great things about UWC and brought a lot of fantastic memories back. Also, meeting other UWC alumni in Kathmandu is of course great! Kristine