The ceremony of Graduation of the UWC Dilijan, which hosts students from over 80 countries, took place. The motto of this year's ceremony was “We Rise Together” - in just two years this generation overcame hardships of pandemic, shared the pain of their peers from the Armenia and Artsakh in wartime, and felt the consequences and the bitterness of the war for Armenia.

Photo: UWC Dilijan

Caelan Mutuma, Kenya, UWC Dilijan 2022 graduate, compared the two years at the college with climbing to the summit of a mountain.

Everything seemed easy and smooth at the beginning, but then hardships like the pandemic, lockdown, dear ones suffering from the virus, Artsakh war, struck, he recalled, with the students striving to support each other, to back each other, to overcome those challenges. Kaylan said, the common efforts to overcome those hardships have drawn them closer, making Dilijan a home dear to their hearts.

''We have now reached the peak. We have walked this way up together and we will keep doing so in future. Knowledge and lessons learnt here will help our generation to achieve more!,'' underlined Caelan, sharing his peers' and his own vision.

Photo: UWC Dilijan

The hardships have made the students at the college even stronger; 84 of 100 students graduating this year have already been admitted to the leading universities of the world and will be celebrating the next year far from Dilijan, which has already become a home to them.

''Today is the seveth generation leaving the nest for a bigger world. You are leaving Dilijan, where you have made friends for many years, and where your second home is, always open to welcome you back,'' Veronika Zonabend, the UWC Dilijan Founding Partner and Chair of the Board of Governors, said addressing the graduates.

Parents of the alumni arrived from different countries to Dilijan to attend the commencement ceremony.

Among them was Hoah-Binh Adjemian, parent of UWC Dilijan 2022 graduate, European Commission officer, who shared some advice with the graduating students:

Hoah-Binh Atchemian and Ruben Vardanyan

Photo: UWC Dilijan

“The turn is yours to become the keeper of the world, to engage with your own, to build back the world, a better world, greener and fairer. I want to give you one advice: embrace uncertainty with the joy and the solidarity that you cultivated here in this small corner of Armenia.”

Photo: UWC Dilijan

UWC Dilijan is the first international college in post-Soviet territory operated by UWC educational model. The idea of founding the UWC Dilijan belongs to social entrepreneurs Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonabend, who have turned the idea into a living enterprise owing to the support of the founding donors.

There are 10-11 students from Armenia and Artsakh anually (10 % of the total number of students at the college) being admitted to the UWC Dilijan; another 10-11 are admitted to other colleges within the UCW network. Their tuitions, either fully or partially, are covered by the scholarships granted by the founders and benefactors.