“

The impact on our school by the Davis UWC Scholars Program has been quite palpable during my time here. While it is fair to say that each and every Davis UWC Scholar I’ve met here is a unique individual, it is also a true statement that, as a group, they have extremely well-refined language skills, which allow them to engage in an extraordinary level of dialogue about our world, our many cultures, and our art. They are invariably among our most musically talented students, academically strong, intellectually curious, and culturally savvy.

”
— Karl Paulnack

Director, Music Division,
The Boston Conservatory

Making Change, Person to Person

Colby Team Connects with a Crowd of Learners in India

Daniel Gomez

Last January more than two dozen students from Colby College, including three Davis UWC Scholars, traveled to a school named for Mahatma Gandhi in northeastern India to teach 250 young people music, dance, poetry, English, and current world issues. The results were — in the Colby students’ own words — “incredible ... amazing ... intense ... having an impact capable of lasting in our absence.”

This story began when Colby music professor Steven Nuss saw a PBS special about the Gandhi Ashram, which provides free schooling to low-income children in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal State. All students at the school participate in an orchestra whose quality, and renown, inspired the PBS special.

“Our mission was to provide the kids with an environment where they could freely express themselves through sports, music, crafts, and several other activities,” reported Daniel Gomez (Colombia, Mahindra UWC, Colby ‘09), who taught percussion, guitar, and Latin dancing.

“I formed some very strong bonds with the students there,” said Vivek Frieates (India, Mahindra UWC, Colby ‘08), who taught English and poetry. “I hope to go back early next year.” The third Scholar on the trip was Sameera Anwar (India, Mahindra UWC, Colby ‘10).

“After UWC we tend to want to make global change — but often we forget that big changes come from smaller changes at a local level,” Daniel Gomez reflected afterward. “We might have not even created a change on the local community as a whole, but I dare to say that individuals were affected by us as much as they affected us.”