UWC Selection Process

At the time of the Selection, they took around 20 of us (they did it in different times, Friday morning/afternoon/Saturday morning, I was in the 2nd group) to a room where we completed our "General Culture" tests. Nothing I had studied was there. Anyway I think it didn't go so bad, there were some things I knew. Then a psychological test which was just choosing answers a, b, c or d.

After that, we brought the chairs to the corners of the room and played some games to get to know each other, while they called some of us for the Personal Interview and the Social Project Presentation. I spent the whole evening there. I thought I had done everything quite well, and so went back to my aunt's house.

On Saturday we had to go again to that hotel, and they said the names of the 20 of us that went on to the next stage. In the evening, we had some dinner together and played more games, but now with almost an ex-student for each applicant (all the games were taught by them, as they were the organizers). Alright, I can still remember that the last game was about "selling" each college (in pairs) as a touristic destination. Carol, the Spanish friend who's also coming to LPC, got a fantastic idea and we "sold" the Adriatic College.

On Sunday, we had to go again in the morning to have another personal interview, and so I did. It didn't go bad, and on the afternoon we got into the car and drove back to Sevilla, waiting for the call that would confirm either if I was chosen or not.

It finally came, and they told me that there hadn't been luck. I wasn't chosen for the scholarship.

That was worse than a punch in the stomach. We were sure that I would go to Canada (with "we", I mean my parents and I), but then I had to stay and go study in Olivares, a nearby town.

However, I tried to be strong and accept it, and that's what I did.

But my parents are not like that. They would not stop if they wanted something. So they wrote a letter to the Committee, and asked if there was any way that I could go to the colleges. In normal circumstances, well, I could pay, but I don't have the money. But there were 11 chosen, and I was number 12. So they said that if we could find financing by a week I could still go.

They searched, working really hard. Giving phone calls, sending e-mails, they finally got it. And then I got the call. I was going to Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong. Still today, I find it unbelievable.

United World Colleges

Five years ago, when I was 11, my father found them on the Internet. He saw what these colleges were: a place to meet people from really different cultures, and to make friends around the world. He saw the importance this colleges gave to good education, emphasizing not only on studying but on making us collaborate, understand, and live along with others. Resuming, it was a place where you could start a life apart from your parents and become an independent person who cares about the world, who wants to improve other's lives and who wants to study. And my father liked it.

He showed it to my mother, then to me, and I said "Yeah, I like it", and that's all. I hadn't given it all the importance it has, but it was my objective to become a UWCer.

As the time to apply for the scholarship approached, my excitement grew. I saw the college in Canada and totally fell in love with it, with the activities they did, with the kind of life those students had.

And the time to send the application form came. I worked hard on it, thinking of which answers would be the best. I wrote a very sensitive but strong essay about the life of one friend of mine, Mol Pao, who lives in Cambodia. His is a story I will have to tell.

So I completed all the pages on the form, read them four or five times and then showed it to my parents. We looked at them together again and corrected some things. After a week correcting little details, we sent the form to some psychologist friends we have so they could tell us their impression. We still changed a few things, and finally sent it.

Months passed without news.

I had just arrived from school and was having lunch when my cell phone rang. I wondered who it was and was tempted to ignore it, but I answered. It was the Spanish Selection Committee!

And they told me that I could go on to the next stage on the selection. From 560 applications, 50 people went to Madrid on the same weekend. I lost some classes preparing myself, searching about current events, studying history and literature and memorizing by heart the Social Project I had to present and I had already sent by e-mail.