Welcome to our first newsletter of 2020. Since the year has begun we have seen on February 3, the school turned 57 years old. This is a major celebration of your countless memories of the times you spent on the hills of Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA.

It's always a treat when alumni return to campus and reconnect with the Waterford community. You are always welcome, but here are a handful of specific events that we hope you will be able to join this year:

• UWC Day,  Saturday 4th April
• Kamhlaba Arts & Music Festival (previously Kamhlaba Day), Saturday 11th July
• UWC Africa Week,  10th - 18th July
• Eswatini Annual Careers Fair,  Wednesday 29th July
• The Dick and Enid Eyeington Soccer Tournament will be held again this year. We are hoping to have as many alumni teams as possible, so start pulling your squad together and getting ready for the tournament. Dates and details to follow.
• PSA Golf Day will return as the PSA's flagship event. Details will be provided closer to the event date.

Please join us as we congratulate our Form 5 and IB classes of 2019 who continued the school’s record of strong academic results. We wish our newest alumni the best as they shift focus to university or professional development. Please support them as they get into this next exciting phase of their lives.

• Form 5 results
• IB  results.

In the latter part of 2019, the school started an initiative called Asinakekelane — a SiSwati word meaning “let’s care about each other”. Asinakekelane is driven by students, parents, alumni, staff and Governing Council members who are working to build a more caring culture on campus where everyone feels safe. Through Asinakekelane, the school is working to address issues such as gender-based violence and discrimination through awareness, education and activities. Alumni who would like to be involved are welcome to contact Selena Rathwell.

The Waterford Stokvel is celebrating the success of its first beneficiary, Joy Mahlalela (Eswatini, WK 13-19), who recently received her IB Diploma. WK Stokvel is an organization made up of UWC alumni and friends of Waterford who work together to raise funds to educate Eswatini students at Waterford. Joy is extremely grateful for the opportunity she received and she is looking forward to university life. Have a look at her video below.

We are excited to re-introduce the school’s Advancement department team and announce new roles within the department. The changes are designed to strengthen the department and position it to effectively and efficiently execute its mandate on alumni relations, Communications and fundraising. Our team members and their roles are:

• Elizabeth Mhangami is WK’s Advancement Director.
• Banele Nkambule is now Donor Relations Manager.
• Nosimilo Khumalo is still Alumni Engagement Officer but with an increased scope since she is now handling all alumni relations.
• Nonkululeko Msweli who was Database Assistant is now the Monitoring & Evaluation Officer.
• Mancoba Mabuza is the Communications & Public Relations Officer.

Form 5 Class of ‘87/ IB2 class of ‘89

For details on this reunion, please contact Pernille Hansen. 

IB2 class of ‘09

For details on this reunion, please contact Máikor Azuaje.

IB2 Class of '10 

For details on this reunion please contact Lizete Dos Santos or Ralph Ferguson.

Form 5 class of ‘94/ IB2 Class of ‘93, ‘94, ‘95

Dates: April 24 - 26

Final details will be released in March. Please indicate if you plan to attend. Send an email to Nosimilo. by 24th March.

If you are interested in joining the organizing team, please contact Nosimilo. or Duncan. Please note that the realization of this reunion will be dependent on the number of RSVPs received.
 

Thank you to the alumni who attended the annual cocktail party that celebrated local alumni and thanked the teachers / referees who helped get alumni into university. This year, it also provided a chance for the parents of IB2 students to connect with alumni and parents of recent graduates to get a sense of the university application process. We hope to see you at similar events in the future. Read more

Applications for the 2020 edition of Together for Development—a UWC Short Course in eSwatini—are now open. Any National Committees (NCs) wishing to nominate students (no further application required) should use this nomination form. Any other prospective applicants must complete an application form which can be accessed here.

Further information can be found on the website, Facebook page and Instagram account for the course.

While the College was closed for the holidays in December and January, our search for the new Principal continued. We are excited to share that we have a very strong pool of candidates. In total, we received almost 80 applications, with applicants coming from almost every continent and with a very wide range of experiences and backgrounds—and many with explicit enthusiasm for Waterford's history, values, and community.

We have narrowed the applicant pool to roughly a dozen who will move on to the next round. Many have had substantial experience as senior leaders within international schools and all have lived and worked in Africa. As a group, they are very familiar with the IB and IGCSE programmes and their collective range of knowledge and dedication to student well-being and educational excellence is impressive.  Of this "long list" of candidates, roughly 45% are female, 55% are African by birth, and 55% are people of colour.

In terms of next steps, we will be interviewing the candidates remotely (by phone and/or video conference) with the goal of identifying two to three finalists who will be invited to visit campus. When the finalists visit WK, they will meet with various stakeholder panels (teachers and staff, parents, students, management, Governing Council) as well as have time for informal discussions, exploring the campus, and learning more about the Waterford community. Currently, the plan is for the finalists to visit campus on April 2nd and 3rd, allowing them to experience UWC Day on 4th April.

Thank you very much to those of you who forwarded the Position Announcement around the globe. It clearly helped us reach tremendously talented leaders who are excited by Waterford's mission and potential for the future.