College awarded $100,000 from Davis United World College Scholars Program

Connecticut College has been awarded a $100,000 grant from philanthropist Shelby M.C. Davis that will provide scholarships to top-tier international students who have graduated from United World College (UWC) schools around the globe. The grant will support 10 College students in the Davis UWC Scholars Program in 2014-15 academic year.

United World College schools – 14 institutions on five continents – offer a challenging and transformative education to high school students from 140 nations around the world. The goal is to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. Graduates go on to attend colleges globally.

“UWC students have a high school experience that epitomizes a global community,” said Bridget Moore, coordinator of international admission at Connecticut College. “They have a very broad and highly personal international perspective, and they come to our campus prepared to share it. This generous grant will help us sustain a very important program.”

Davis UWC Scholars also have experience bridging cultural differences, tackling rigorous academic work and discussing complex societal issues.

“The key tenets of a Connecticut College education are global citizenship, academic excellence and education of the whole person. The Davis UWC Scholars program shares that vision,” Moore said.

A member of the program, Benedikt Gottwald ’15, is from Germany and attended the UWC in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. With scholarship support to attend the College, Gottwald says he’s had opportunities to develop relationships with mentors both on and off campus, and worked on unique projects that will be crucial to his success after graduation.

“The scholarship has enabled me to discover a new culture and environment that’s been so important in building the person I am today,” he said.

Past Davis UWC Scholars at Connecticut College include Aim Sinpeng ’05 of Thailand, an expert on global political change who is teaching at the University of Sydney; Ricardo Kabila ’13 of Angola, pursuing a graduate degree in petroleum geophysics; Thembumenzi Lukhele '08 of Swaziland, a vice president at Citi Financial Services; and Lakshmi Kannan ’10 of India, a business analyst who is pursuing her MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.



February 12, 2015