"Coming to Montezuma in 1982 and starting a new United World College was an amazing experience.  Literally, there were few paths to walk on and no second years to emulate.  We made up our own rules and traditions and some have survived, like the howling at the moon.  After graduation, I returned to Germany to study and be closer to my family.  Both my grandmother and dad had passed away while I was in Montezuma and those losses marked me more deeply than I had realised. 

"When I applied for UWC, I had put two career choices forward: doctor or journalist.  Well, I became neither but have now been working at the World Bank for ten years as a project manager. There's a photo on my desk that shows a guy in a small Malagasy village sitting on a bench made from a construction sign for a road.  When asked, the man said "They promised us a road and even put up a sign.  But the work never started and so we used the signboard to make a bench."  This doesn't say much about development efforts but a lot about the resourcefulness of villagers! 

"Together with a friend and UWC graduate, Maryanne Sharp (WK 84-86), we started the Madagascan National Committee, which by now has sent eight students to UWCs. In January 2007, I decided to move to Kabul where I'm working as the World Bank project manager of the National Solidarity Program.  This is by far the most exciting job I've ever had and the most challenging one.  Living in Afghanistan at this point in time, makes me examine the basic principles on which I've built my life so far.  And, it makes me realise how important is the privilege of freedom and personal space that most of us take for granted."