Class of 2024

One way to describe Gurra is through the tiny details about her life – she adores noodles and espresso, dogs are her best friend and she agrees with Stephen Hawking that artificial intelligence is an existential threat to humanity. Another way is through her passions – she has been a ballerina for 14 years, loves hiking with her father, does web design (even as a part-time job), and creates art. Still, Gurra’s multidimensional nature requires a smarter approach, since her qualities are rooted in the way she’s advanced through her life. Allow me to explain:

At only 2 years old, during her first ballet lesson, she fell in love with and realized it is way more than bodily movement. As the “first ballerina in the family”, she dedicated herself to ballet, which became her career. Throughout the years, her numerous achievements at international competitions culminated in her performance at the world premiere of Cleopatra by the Russian choreographer Vasily Medvedev. Unfortunately, a sudden incident befell Gurra at just 14 years old which eventually became an insurmountable challenge – during one of her lessons, Gurra slipped and broke her foot. Upon being rushed to the hospital, doctors informed her that a surgery will be necessary and that her ballet career is in danger. Even numerous treatments did not change this, and Gurra found herself in an emotional dead-end – lost and separated from her life’s passion.

At this point, Gurra’s deep qualities surfaced – despite tremendous disappointment and difficulties, she experimented in different fields. She needed a purpose. Once she finally found herself in IT, this new beginning allowed her to commit herself with equal desire and passion to learning full-stack web development. Only a year after, she is a prolific developer building sites professionally for clients, yet the positive change has slipped over to the rest of her life – Gurra now (at 16 years old) works as a ballet instructor for young girls and has founded her NGO. Combining her two primary passions, Gurra has a vision to create an advanced interactive platform for dance education, which demonstrates to me how she’s one of the rare people who have found a perfect means of turning their unusual story into value for others.

There are many names for the qualities that Gurra embodies through her adaptability: maturity, courage, vision, faith and unconditional perseverance. I am not a good enough writer to choose the right name; my task was simply to show you the evidence. An abundance of such evidence lies ahead with her departure to UWC RCN, which is one more milestone in her journey that hides infinite potential.

Ilija, August 2022

The candidates we meet in the first interview are usually pretty shy. I get it – it’s easy to get a little anxious when you’re being interviewed by the “National Committee” (a name that makes us sound way scarier than we really are – I promise we’re pretty chill), and no matter how many time we emphasize that the interview really is just an opportunity to get to know each other, most high school students need at least a bit of time before they start to relax. 

Emrah did not need that time. During his first interview, he started talking just about as soon as he joined the Zoom room. He started answering questions we hadn’t even asked yet, questions we didn’t intend to ask, and – at one point – questions he even asked himself. When he noticed that an interviewer had not yet asked him a question, Emrah essentially stopped the interview and invited the Committee member to join in on the conversation. He wanted to make sure that everybody got a chance to contribute. 

Talking to Emrah is a whirlwind; an adrenaline-filled drive in a racecar in which he’s the driver and you’re a passenger holding on and waiting to experience the next turn. Every moment – every new topic – is an opportunity for Emrah to continue to think. Constantly, without stopping, Emrah is rushing, racing with his own thoughts. He’ll drink some juice and think to himself: this juice is so good! How much sugar is there in it? It would be good to know the sugar contents so we can make healthy life choices. Is there a standard way to list ingredients? Maybe there should be an organization to regulate that. Should I start that organization? And so on, until he goes to bed.

Emrah approaches life running towards his goals, not allowing a single moment of unnecessary quiet. He runs to organize poetry nights in Orce Nikolov, to write an article for his self-help blog, to make a schedule for his classes at UWC, to plan out events for UNICEF, and – a few times – to remind me to finish this profile. 

He manages to find all this energy because he has a strong schedule. He wakes up at 5 in the morning to meditate, and he takes time in the evenings to be with his thoughts. To write down his ideas and goals. And that’s the key part: the goals Emrah keeps coming back to. They include organizing youth events (✓), getting into UWC (✓), and – in the future – winning the fight for a better world. 

I’d wish him luck at UWC Dilijan. But Emrah isn’t a fan of “maybes” or “ifs” because he thinks that they leave space for his goals not to be achieved. And if there’s anything I learned, it’s that Emrah has absolutely no intention of letting that happen. 

Bobo, July 2022

We physicists are concerned with studying the properties of concepts such as motion, time, space, light and sound. In the meantime, it seems to me that Lazar – in his own artistic manner – has already mastered these. He’s been ruling the sound waves from a young age, when in elementary music school he studied the piano, as well as the drums and the classical and rock’n’roll guitar. As a film director, he skillfully controls light and time, transforming them into feelings and ideas. As an actor, he materializes scenarios into spacetime, be it on the stage or on a screen.

It couldn’t be simpler for me to choose the main motif in this profile – Lazar’s life story is built upon art and creation. The very day of our conversation, Lazar presented his first musical album and showed his first documentary in Kinoteka, along with the short film Dream in which he played the leading role (events which I was sad to miss). With excitement, he also told me about his previous adventures, such as his experience in Italy as the finalist of the Giffoni Film Festival, where he shook hands with his cinema idols. With a view of his future as a rockstar, he has even predicted his upcoming challenges and worked out a way to face them.

Apart from Lazar’s achievements, particularly impressive is his altruistic spin on art. For instance, by engaging in “applied theater”, he has utilized art to incite a wider discussion about societal challenges such as corruption and prejudice. In addition, as he described during our first interview, with his documentary (named Skopje – the city of labor), he celebrates the beauty and uniqueness of the capital, enriching the discourse about the city with a fresh and positive perspective. Perhaps the most crystal-clear example about this benevolent quality of Lazar is his drive to create space for the creativity of others – his aptly-named New Spaces festival is a platform for young artists enjoyed by hundreds of visitors for two consecutive years already.

When he’s not creating new worlds, Lazar thrives in existing ones – for instance as a handball player in the youth team of the Butel handball team (they won the championship this year!). In his own words, among his circles he is “the only one among the handball players to have released a song and the only one among the musicians who plays handball” – this is the source of the unique originality of every conversation I’ve had with him. In just one short call, he taught me about the balance between aesthetics and essence that film directors must consider, shared his take on art commercialization and the exploitation of the artist, and maturely reflected on the importance of team harmony in sports (and beyond).

Although there are qualities of Lazar that I have not covered in this short text, I can comfortably rely on time to unveil them – be it on a cinema screen, musical platform or a theater stage. Simultaneously, I am certain that the college in Karuizawa shall be yet another stage for Lazar’s energy as a creative, as a sportsman and as a friend.

Ilija, August 2022

In the summer 2020, a teacher enters a travel agency in the center of Skopje. She intends to buy plane tickets for her daughter, who’s about to pursue an education abroad. While talking to the travel agent, the teacher mentions three letters – UWC – and an opportunity to apply for scholarships. The teacher returns home and quickly afterwards says goodbye to her daughter, Marija Janeva, who is starting her first year at the College in Norway. The agent, on the other hand, tells her own daughter, who is finishing middle school, about something called UWC. 

That daughter is Milijana, a high school student whose life is intertwined with the lives of the people around her. Milijana is the nucleus of a bunch of different communities, a main or supporting character in a series of stories like this one. Of course, her role differs depending on the community. In her dance group, where she is one of the youngest members, Milijana offers humor and positivity. In her friend group, Milijana offers a shoulder to cry on, which – as she jokingly admits –  is used a little too frequently. At the orientation camp, Milijana offered her undivided attention and interest in getting to know her peers. (And in a few weeks, we will have a chance to see what her new role in the community in Singapore will be!)

Milijana has a series of successes she can present as her own. She was only a first grader when her teachers realized she could do more, so in less than a month she switched over to the second grade. She’s received a variety of awards in mathematics. And, of course, a few months ago she was selected to become a part of the UWC movement. 

But, she is clear that those successes are not only hers. Shortly before the last interview, we ask all finalists to send a three-minute video titled “This is me”. Milijana’s video consisted of photos with her brother, her family, and a whole bunch of friends – honestly, we barely saw her alone. She ended the video by saying: “This is not only me. This is everyone who followed me throughout my journey and made me who I am today. So, this is us.”

Milijana is going to Singapore this summer and she knows she will miss the traditional burek. But, as we have already established, even for that she will rely on her community. Her mother, through work, met a Macedonian pilot who nowadays lives in Singapore. And – you won’t believe it – last year he opened a burek store 15 minutes away from the campus of UWC SEA 🙂

Bobo, July 2022

Emira knows what it’s like to doubt yourself. She grew up in Tuzla, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moved to Veles less than a month before she started high school. And even though she was excited she’d get to live closer to her siblings, anyone would find such a big move jarring – especially if they’re 14. At the beginning, she didn’t “appreciate herself,” and often felt like nothing she did worked. 

The journey to more self-confidence largely came out of her desire to make friends. In her new class in Kocho Racin, Emira was quickly welcomed and accepted. But wanting to further understand the “new” Veles, she jumped into basically everything that was available to her. She signed up to volunteer for the Red Cross, to participate in workshops, to join in on walks or coffee runs, all with the intention to better meet her peers. So, she quickly learned about both the people around her and the issues they face.

Emira, above all, wants to help solve some of those issues. Walking through Veles, she keeps saying hi – to other high school students, who she chats with about the Union of High Schoolers (where she’s Vice-President), to Red Cross volunteers, with whom she discusses future humanitarian actions, and even just to friends in the area, who she talks with about love, movies and music. Because she knows what’s on the mind of the people around her, Emira easily offers concrete suggestions for needed reforms. To improve education in Veles, for example, she recommends access to practical education opportunities (like labs), scholarships for further education, and an opportunity for genuine student activism.

I don’t want to give you the impression that she’s good at everything, because she isn’t. In the past few years, she’s faced a number of challenges and seen several of her initiatives fail. She also applied to UWC last year, but disappointingly wasn’t invited to the final interview. But it’s precisely because she’s seen both outcomes – she’s experienced the feeling of doubt and failure, as well as the rush of a successful plan – Emira knows that, with enough confidence, she really can succeed. 

I don’t want to give you the impression that she’s good at everything, because she isn’t. In the past few years, she’s faced a number of challenges and seen several of her initiatives fail. She also applied to UWC last year, but disappointingly wasn’t invited to the final interview. But it’s precisely because she’s seen both outcomes – she’s experienced the feeling of doubt and failure, as well as the rush of a successful plan – Emira knows that, with enough confidence, she really can succeed. 

Bobo, July 2022

The afternoon of January 3, 2022, I found myself talking about the latter political works of Noam Chomsky. This was not my plan for the first day of interviews at the (online) selection camp. Andrea, the candidate on the other side of the Zoom call, had an unusual surprise: in a day already full of tens of interviews and group discussions, she stood apart by directing the conversation towards analyzing the geopolitical order. Having read her outstanding essay on mutual aid systems, this was expected – Andrea studiously reads about sociopolitical matters and has built an unusually nuanced and realistic worldview.

Then, the afternoon of July 23, 2022, I again talked to Andrea (this time in person in Skopje) and probably thanks to the spotless July weather, the conversation turned to music. As a musician, Andrea is self-taught – she has mastered the acoustic guitar and the bass independently and plays them for 3 years already. From Should I Stay Or Should I Go as the first song she learned to perform, to her present affinity towards post-punk, Yugoslav rock, jazz and indie folk, to her aspiration to learn the drums and more music theory – Andrea’s soul is composed of musical notes. In true Andera fashion, she expands this hobby into the realm of criticism as well by analyzing albums and writing reviews.

I risk giving an incomplete picture of Andrea by not capturing the kindness and goodwill with which she treats others in her life. She gave excellent answers during the interviews, but asked us even better questions. She loves playing the bass, but emphasizes that she’s the musician she is today thanks to her father’s support and her mother’s karaoke companionship. Her grandmother traveled to Skopje to babysit Andrea as a toddler, but now Andrea takes care of her. Even in a conversation about empathy and kindness, Andrea raises her little brother as an embodiment of those qualities.

This is the crucial moment in understanding Andrea – she appreciates others and values togetherness at a personal and systemic level. Personally, she’s friendly, a good listener and respectful; even music (a practice rooted in community) is a catalyst for her relationship with her family and her connection to the emotional world of her favorite artists. At a systemic level, Andrea appreciates structural humanity and togetherness – hence her outstanding essay about mutual aid as an organizational concept and her criticisms of consumerism. These features of Andrea excite me for her incoming UWC adventure – for two years, she’ll be part of a tightly-knit community, and for her entire life onwards she’ll be part of a movement aimed at systemic change.

Ilija, August 2022

“You wake up on December 15, 2021, and quickly realize that you are invisible. The people around you can hear you talk, but nobody can see you. What would you do?”. Marija, having chosen to compose her creative essay on this prompt as part of her UWC application, took a different and an original approach. As I was reading it last November, I was amazed that instead of describing extravagant stories and hypothetical hyperboles, Marija described everyday life during the months after her invisibility. To her, there is far greater value in the infinite potential of small and everyday actions as the only way to far-reaching achievements. This is Marija’s essence – her life is all about those small (but consistent) choices.

This is the source of her success in mathematics – she tirelessly practices new questions and perfects her skills (combinatorics draws her the most). Consequently, Marija regularly competes, representing the country for years at a European and international level. The numerous titles she’s earned are also a natural consequence of her passion for mathematics – Marija enjoys solving challenging problems and applying logic and theorems. Once she explained the ubiquitous applicability of mathematical inversion in one of the interviews, I spent perhaps too much time in the next intervju asking her philosophical questions about mathematics. I do not regret this at all – I was pleased to hear the thought-out and mature answers: for example, Marija showed me why math is discovered and not invented.

I cannot run out of examples for how Marija manifests her maturity and consistency. From her lifestyle – she exercises every day and eats healthy – to her already 10-year attendance of an English language course, it is crystal-clear to me that via her stoic discpline and powerful yet controlled passion, she is living her potential. In case you thought Marija is neglecting her creative side, it is with utter amazement that I’d tell you about her skill in canvas painting with unusual materials like coffee! Indeed, a painting is worth a thousand words:

As a true mathematician and artist, Marija is capable of extracting great beauty from the simplest things. With a sheet of paper and a pencil, Marija is able to analyze geometrical relationships and prove a fundamental mathematical truth. With a bunch of coffee beans, she’s able to mix a few shades and skillfully craft a portrait. I thus hold great anticipation to witness all that Marija is able to do with the UWC experience and the brilliant community awaiting her in New Mexico.

Ilija, August 2022

Once the question of what is answered, Elena does not stop; instead continuing with the why. This allows her to reach deep and understand the complex interactions and relationships in the world, including understanding the people in her life. She understands why she is how she is – in what way has her family shaped her, how her reading habit formed due to her father, what’s the effect of Macedonia’s society is on her worldview, and even how learning languages like French has prompted her to appreciate Macedonian even more. During our conversation this summer, she emphasized that most of the personality traits of human beings can be traced back to influences in the first 7 years of their life. It is thus rather fitting that Elena aims to help other people to gain such a “self-understanding” – she wants to be a psychotherapist.

A natural consequence of this feature of Elena is that she strongly appreciates the people around her, as well as the environment. She revealed that before departing to the Netherlands, she’ll host a final goodbye party with friends and family (in a true Macedonian way – in a kafana!) and will ensure to say a proper goodbye to everyone. Similarly, she values the time spent in Macedonia, which is obvious to me from the joy with which she describes its natural wonders – she even has a plan to tour the entire country with friends. Elena believes in her commitment to remain connected to the Macedonian language even from abroad, and considers this a responsibility for everyone.

Nonetheless, I haven’t even started to describe one of Elena’s main qualities – she strongly gravitates towards analyzing various aspects of society, and thus forms unique (often strong) opinions. During our conversation, with pragmatic maturity she described the (un)importance of student councils in the real decision-making of schools, despite herself having experience with successful initiatives while she was a member. In addition, almost on the fly she critically analyzed media practices which are designed to incite an emotional reaction in viewers. Previously, she had enriched her selection interviews by carefully explaining demographic trends and describing the epistemological superiority of surveys as a key component in academic psychology research. Elena has figured out the interdependence between the one and the many – her self-knowledge and knowledge about society are symbiotically connected.

Ilija, August 2022

By the end of each January, candidates invited to the final UWC interview send us a three-minute video titled “This is me.” Ana Jovanova offered us a black and white story – like an old-timey movie, with a musical accompaniment – in which she doesn’t say a word. Most of the activities she shows on the screen, from caring for her pets to the long list of books she’s read, are, at best, individualistic. They don’t involve others. 

In February, during her final interview, Ana seemed shy. She spoke quietly, and after hearing each question, she’d often look away. It’s like she was taking a breath, a moment to think, before speaking. The answers she offered were clearly thought-through, weighed-out, ready for delivery. In her own words, it’s “as if everything had a question mark around it.” 

By July, after a few genuinely fulfilling months – in which she found out she’d be joining Li Po Chun UWC in Hong Kong – Ana left me with a different impression. She started our conversation with a freedom I hadn’t noticed before. She told me about her recent adventures, and how she’s lately been enjoying going to park and simply exploring. Chatting, spontaneously, with all kinds of people, laughing when she makes a mistake. Hiking to the top of Vodno Hill, with no plan or sense of time. Her best friend “gives her shi… teases” her that she’s met half of Skopje’s teenagers already.

Of course, Ana hasn’t completely transformed. On the contrary, she’s still very keen on carefully making plans. She knows that, because of the time difference between Hong Kong and Skopje, she’ll chat with her parents around 3pm her time, after she wraps up with classes and before they go to work. She’s researched the political situation in Hong Kong and readily explains the relationship between the Chinese government and the local authorities. And she already has an idea on how to improve the campus she hasn’t yet visited (including a plan to turn compost into fertilizer).

Somehow, Ana manages to be thoughtfully reckless. She’s already gotten peers on board to watch the FIFA World Cup at 4am – but also planned how she’d explain that to her professors. (Her love for soccer, by the way, started by following FC Barcelona a few months before they got famously wrecked 8-2 by Bayern.)

It’s tough to plan out a UWC experience ahead of time. But with this newly-found spontaneity, Ana might not need a plan anyways.

Bobo, July 2022

For a class celebration, one of Teona’s professors suggested a fun exercise: each classmate should write something nice about their peers, so everyone can see how appreciated they are. The messages Teona received were very similar and can be summarized in three words: “ray of sunshine.”

Teona radiates positivity, in a way that just doesn’t let you be gloomy. Her openness is outward-facing and easy to recognize. Even her two-year-old nephew – her sister’s son – prefers playing with her over anyone else. He calls her Tona.

Because of her lightheartedness, Teona can fit just about anywhere. The first two years of her high school career she spent in Rade Jovchevski – Korchagin, with a group of people she described as “creative and relaxed.” The following year, she transferred over to Orce Nikolov, where her friends were “disciplined – always with something to organize.” She’s close with both groups and, of course, will invite both of them to her farewell party before she leaves to India. 

As you might expect, Teona doesn’t always manage to be cheerful. She often needs space and time for herself, when she can recharge her “social battery.” In those moments, she might go for a walk by Vardar, with headphones in to disconnect, or she might take some yarn and start to knit – with the intention of using the finished product – typically a bouquet of knitted flowers – as a unique birthday gift for her friends. 

Her optimism doesn’t just help her on a personal level. Participtaing in debates about feminism at the Youth Educational Forum, Teona could easily get discouraged by the fact that, in her words, “we’re far from accomplishing the goal of gender equality.” But it’s because she can see a better option – because she believes that “my generation is the one that can lift Macedonia up to the level of other European countries – Teona can afford a dose of optimism. 

She’s currently reading a book about a person traveling through India. The descriptions of colors, shades, and diversity, evident before she’s even gotten to campus, catch her eye. She can’t wait to continue reading at UWC, and one day maybe studying literature. And before she gets there, I’m sure she’ll have a ton of knitted flowers to give out.

Bobo, July 2022