Ten years ago, 17-year-old Kenza M'Haimdat arrived in Changshu from Casablanca as one of the "founding students" of UWC Changshu China.

Recently, Paing Thu Thu Khin, a DP2 student from Yangon, Myanmar, was awarded the Rise Scholarship, becoming the first student to receive this honor from UWC Changshu China since the school's founding. This scholarship will provide comprehensive financial support for her future studies and living expenses at the university.

Every UWC graduate carries within them a unique UWC spirit, a spirit that embodies growth, transformation, and a profound exploration of oneself and the world.

Bertha Tobias is from Namibia and a graduate of Class of 2020 of UWC Changshu China. Recently, she was named a 2024 Rhodes Scholar. The Rhodes Scholarship will fund her to pursue a Master of Science degree in Sustainability, Enterprise & Environment at Oxford University next year.

After graduating from Stanford in 2017,I first taught at an innovative school in Beijing, where the tuition was 150,000 yuan per year. A year after, I moved to Zhangjiakou, Hebei, to help found a new high school whose tuitionwas a mere8,000 yuan per year. During my third job, as the acting director of the Center on Rural Education at 21stCenturyEducation Research Institute, I worked to serve small-sized rural schools where the cost to operate an entire school typically does not exceed 60,000 yuan a year.

At UWC Changshu China, students are inspired to become dreamers who do. Students take initiatives to engage in the local community and make an impact through learning by doing.

It was on the April 22nd of 1970 that the concept of an Earth Day was first put forward: a day of solidarity and symbolism to spread a message that the Earth needs to be cared for and protected, preserved for the people of that time and for future generations, such as us. Now 2020 marks the 50th year for which we’ve been commemorating this day. Today, in terms of awareness and concern we are certainly doing much better than we were 50 years ago and the situation is no longer how it was in the April of 1970 and that begs the question: 50 years later, is the Earth Day still relevant?

For UWC students, we believe, united with a heart of love, we can be stronger.

Working together and seeing the same smile on the faces of different colors, we are proud to be UWCers.

"The fragrance of the rose lingers on the hand that casts it."