Theme: One Step Forward

12 / 03 / 2016
TEDx is coming to UWC Red Cross Nordic! On March 12th, 2016, a collective of speakers will come together to give inspiring and informative presentations on a wide range of topics. These talks will range from education to politics to medicine and more.

TEDxUWCRCN will take place at UWC Red Cross Nordic (UWCRCN), one of the fifteen UWC schools all over the world. UWCRCN is located in Flekke, Sogn og Fjordane on the west coast of Norway. Although a small community in size, Flekke is one of the most diverse cities in Norway. Not only is the United World College established in this village, but also Haugland, a Red Cross Rehabilitation Centre, which brings individuals from all over Norway and the rest of the world. TEDxUWCRCN is also planning to open its doors to the Fjaler municipality and Dale Videregåangde, a high school in a nearby town. Our school, UWC Red Cross Nordic is a dynamic community with current students representing close to 100 nationalities. Each of these students have prevailed through a rigorous application process and are all exceptionally motivated and driven to improving and advancing the world through politics, art, science, economics, technology and more.

The event will take place in the auditorium of UWC Red Cross Nordic. With a spacious stage and an arsenal of technological equipments, the auditorium has the ability to optimize the success of the event. The venue has the capacity of 240 people, and is well decorated with flags from over 100 different countries to capture the diversity of the location.

Our chosen theme, “One step forward”, enables a wide array of topics to be brought up by our speakers. This theme was selected in order to cater for the broad and diverse interests of our students, guaranteeing that speakers from a variety of fields will be able to share their expertise with an abundance of avid and intrigued listeners.

United World College Red Cross Nordic
United World College Red Cross Nordic
Flekke, Sogn og Fjordane, 6968
Norway

Abdul Shokur

Abdul Shokur is a first year student at United World College Red Cross Nordic. Coming from Palestinian descent, Abdul was born and raised in Damascus, Syria, as a Palestinian refugee. While in Syria, Abdul received awards on a regional and national level for his academic achievements, and was also involved in multiple youth development projects with the United Nations. Since joining UWCRCN as a member of the 2017 class, Abdul has represented the school in many forums such as MUN and the Noble Peace Prize Ceremony. Abdul is fascinated by the intersections of Politics, Economics and Philosophical concepts. As a Syrian refugee himself, Abdul is very passionate about the refugees’ crisis in Europe and its political and historical origins in the Middle East. He volunteers weekly at a local refugee camp.

Camilla Næristorp

Camilla Næristorp is the founder and CEO of Pluvinel. The idea of Pluvinel came to her when she wanted to start horse riding again, since it was an ordeal to find someone or even get an overview she decided to create the digital network that makes equine teachers more accessible. Pluvinel is the first platform in the equestrian world to welcome all disciplines and all countries in one network. Næristorp believes that Pluvinel will enable more equestrians to engage in this unique, diverse and meaningful sport, and more importantly find the right instructor/trainer to develop their skills and be happy with their horse.

Carlos Escobar

Carlos Escobar is a 20-year old from El Salvador who now studies at NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Before NYU Abu Dhabi, he attended UWC Red Cross Nordic, which he describes as one of the best experiences in his life so far. Passionate about Economics and El Salvador, Carlos hopes to go back home and advocate for sending people abroad.

Cecilia Dinardi

Cecilia Dinardi came to Norway from Chile when she was 12 years old with her mother and two siblings as asylum seekers. Having experiences from childhood involving violence and sexual abuse, during her stay at the refugee-camp she was again sexually abused. At the age of 16 Cecilia became pregnant, and since then she has developed a great commitment to the situation and enforcement of the rights of children under the care of children protection services. This is also the reason that she, together with several young people, got strongly involved in establishing what today is the National Child care Association. Today she is a lawyer and partner at The Lawfirm Elden DA. Cecilia has always been deeply involved in giving inspiration and hope to young people in vulnerable situations and ensuring them that things will get better and we all can make changes in our own and other peoples lives.

Chris Hamper

A long time ago, Chris arrived in Flekke, moved into the Physics lab and has been there ever since. Before that he taught at UWC Atlantic College in Wales but often had to cut lessons short due to the excellent surfing conditions. Chris likes to rock climb whenever possible which isn’t very often in the rainy west coast of Norway. Driven indoors by the bad weather he spends the long winter evenings writing physics books and updating his website, he also does this on the long summer days. Chris is passionate about many things including, believe it or not, w4, the college educational management system, which he has been busy developing over the past 20 years. Chris doesn’t believe that anytime is spare time but in the times between doing other things he gets dragged about by his dog, Ben.

Dylan DeMarco

Erik Abild

Erik Abild is the Head of Office for Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). NRC is an international humanitarian organisation with 9000 humanitarian workers, assisting more than 4 million displaced people every year. NRC is present in all of the major conflict zones and is a leading organisation in the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. Before joining NRC, Abild was the representative for the Norwegian Aid Committee in Gaza, leading the organisations work following the 2009-war. Abild has also worked on Somalia and Myanmar. Abild holds a Master’s degree in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford. He has written and presented on topics of humanitarian access, civil-military coordination, innovation and the current crisis in the Mediterranean.

Kate Murphy

Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Kate moved to Oslo in 2012, where she is now CEO at Play Magnus ­ the company responsible for building digital products, partnerships and content for the World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen. Kate is an entrepreneur by heart. At the age of 23, she co-founded Canada’s largest national dance convention, iDance, featuring the stars from the TV show So You Think You Can Dance. When she wasn’t busy touring across the country, she completed her MBA. Following her studies, Kate moved to Norway where she spent her time consulting in the Norwegian business community, before taking the helm at Play Magnus. Her days are now focused on taking chess to the world to make it a smarter place — and practicing yoga.

Lage Nøst

Jazz musician turned politician, currently national co-spokesperson for the Young Greens of Norway, the Youth Wing of the Norwegian Green Party. Prone to fusing politics with poetry, action with art and concerned with the ideologies barring change - and how to change them.

M Hamza Jalil Albasit

Hamza is a second year student at UWCRCN. Hamza comes from Karachi, Pakistan. Being from an overly populated and polluted city, Hamza is very interested in topics such as Demography and Urban development. Hamza keeps an eye on politics and the things happening around the globe. One of his interests include Politics and International Law. However, the things which Hamza is the most passionate about is Theater Arts. He is the leader of the Theater Club at our college and has contributed to the college's theater and arts department by writing, directing and acting in various theater performances. He likes working on theater projects which are thought-provoking and regarding social norms and issues.

Marianne Svendsen Kofoed

Marianne is a M.A. student in Political Science at University of Oslo. She has a B.A. in International Relations from UiO, with an exchange semester in Pondicherry, India. In the spring of 2015, she worked as an intern at the Foreign Ministry in the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Marianne has been a part of Young Ambassadors since the beginning in 2009: first as a participant, and then as a board member. She has additional experiences with youth empowerment from volunteering in AIESEC as Vice President for the Incoming Global Community Development Program. She also founded Young European Peers (YEP), a project that gathered 35 young people from seven countries in a conference in Berlin about the EU, tolerance and public speaking. YEP was supported by the European Commission and the American Embassy in Berlin.

Paul Clarke

Paul Clarke is Director and Founder of the award winning Pop-Up-Foundation. He holds a Professorship of Education at St. Mary’s University, London, and visiting Professorships at Southampton and Vancouver Island Universities. He is a founder member of the MIWA international eco-collective at Chateau de Millemont, Paris. Paul holds a Ph.D in Education and Systemic Change, MA in Linguistics and is a qualified school and permaculture teacher. Author of seven books, he has published widely and has an online presence as the editor of three websites.

Richard Akomea

Richard Akomea is a 1st year student at UWCRCN from Amuana praso in Ghana but lives in Accra. He is the second of three siblings to a Pastor and a teacher. Richard played the drums for 11 years and has interests in hip hop music, football, and chemistry. He attended Accra Academy where he was the class prefect for three years and the financial secretary for an extra academic group called the scripture union. Richard grew up in the town baatsona spintex in Ghana but spent most of that time roaming the streets of nungua buade with friends. He will be talking about his experience with gangs in West Africa.

Theo Gadd

Theo is a second year student at UWCRCN from the UK. He likes swimming, attempting to run and reading a good book just before falling asleep at the end of the day. He is transgender and has worked closely with the school to make it more accommodating for all gender identities. He is passionately involved in the schools Gender and Sexuality group as well as being involved with LGBTQ+ advocacy in the UK and online. His talk will be about the use of words and the impact that they can have on trans peoples lives. He strongly believes that to make a trans persons life better we can simply change the way that we talk about gender to be more open and accepting of all gender identities. He also hates marshmallows.