UWC Dilijan College celebrates its 10th anniversary, having shaped the lives of around 1,000 graduates from across the globe.
The vision for an international school in Dilijan was conceived by impact investors and social entrepreneurs Ruben Vardanyan and his wife, Veronika Zonabend, alongside a group of like-minded individuals, including Noubar and Anna Afeyan, and Gagik Adibekyan. Thanks to their joint efforts, United World College Dilijan officially opened on 11 October 2014.
Despite Ruben Vardanyan being held hostage in Baku, the school continues its mission of using education as a force for a better world. Mediamax spoke to several graduates from UWC Dilijan’s opening year to learn how their lives unfolded after Dilijan and how the college impacted their paths.
One of them is 27-year-old Jonas Kavaliauskas from Lithuania, who has founded Atlas Academy, a European education consulting company and also works in a field of venture capital.
The community as great achievement
In 2014 Jonas was excited to travel to Armenia and start his studies in UWC Dilijan as he was curious to explore the region he had never been before.
After graduating from UWC Dilijan in 2016, he managed to enter one of the top universities in the world - Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he majored in economics and computer science. Jonas attributes part of his university admission success to UWC’s strong reputation, which opens doors to top institutions for its graduates.
“There was a strong presence of UWC graduates, maybe over 40 students on campus, so I connected easily. A very specific outcome of me having gone to UWC Dilijan is the integration within the UWC community and the Armenian community wherever I go. That is lovely,” says Jonas.
He also fondly recalls the time he lived in the Armenian neighborhood in Los Angeles that reminded him of Armenia with its stores filled with Armenian products.
Phenomenal Teachers and Their Experiments
Beyond the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, Jonas attributes his high-quality education at UWC Dilijan to exceptional teachers. Two, in particular, made a significant impression on him: Douglas Arnwine, the English teacher, and Jaime Niemann, the history teacher. Those were Jonas’s favorite subjects, not by coincidence.
“Both of them were very open and nonjudgmental. They gave a lot of power to the students to experiment and design the approach to different aspects of the curriculum,” says Jonas, adding that those teachers were also amazingly good at running experiments with the students.
One memorable example involved a class discussion with Douglas Arnwine about George Orwell's “1984”. The conversation turned to whether the school's surveillance measures were beneficial or intrusive. The students knew there were cameras in the academic building for safety reasons.
“There was a feeling among students that the control by the leadership of the school was maybe too much. Douglas suggested that we test it and find our answers based on real experience. So we faked a physical assault incident in front of the camera, and within 30 seconds, there was security present keeping us safe. So we knew that we were safe, but we also knew that we were being surveilled. And it was just an interesting way to approach and enrich these classroom discussions by putting ourselves in the middle of it,” Jonas says.
During Jamie Niemann’s history classes, experiments went beyond traditional learning, immersing students in the unfolding of historical events.
Photo: Personal archive
“One of the best experiments of Jaime Niemann that I remember to this day was when, one day, suddenly, from being very informal in a class, he told us we were going to call him Mr. Niemann from that day on, as he was studying the methodology to highly improve learning outcomes based on a strict military setup,” Jonas recalls.
The students were excited to be involved in that experiment and did whatever was commanded by the teacher: sitting straight, raising hands before speaking, and other practices uncommon in UWC’s usual classes. They even developed secret signals and greetings for the students of the history class, organized special gatherings, and some students even acted like Mr. Niemann’s safeguards.
“One step led to another, and soon enough we were like a little cult. Any kind of protest was really quickly dismissed. For example, one of the students expressed his disagreement with the military setup of the classes, as he was for a school where everyone was free to express their opinions. Everybody silenced him, as all the others were willing to continue the experiment,” explains Jonas.
After about two weeks of that military discipline, the teacher revealed the real purpose of the experiment: to prepare the class for a study of authoritarianism in mid-20th-century Europe and to show how people might respond to authoritarian figures.
“We were all shocked because most of us realized how people might actually become captivated by far-right, authoritarian movements, as we personally learned how easy it is to get engulfed in that because of the shared sense of belonging and doing something that feels like it matters,” Jonas adds, noting that there was no better way to understand how such historical events evolve.
A Distinct Memory of Don Quixote
Jonas recalls several school events where Ruben Vardanyan, along with other donors, shared their life experiences and opinions with the students, as well as personal conversations he had with Vardanyan.
“It was a real pleasure talking to him. Even though he is a highly successful businessman, you never feel small around him. I think he lifted up everyone he spoke to,” Jonas says.
During a panel discussion at one of the school events, a question came up about the panelists' favorite books. Jonas distinctly remembers Vardanyan’s answer: “He said that his favorite book was Don Quixote by Cervantes. I think he could relate to Don Quixote in many ways. He struck me as someone who is very idealistic, a dreamer, but also someone who is great at executing and turning those dreams into reality,” Jonas says.
UWC’s contribution to a successful career
After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Computer Science from Yale, Jonas founded Atlas Academy, an admissions tutoring company focused on getting the brightest students in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany access to top universities in the United States and Western Europe. At the same time, he worked for a major European family office, where he helped establish a venture capital strategy and manage investments.
Jonas KavaliauskasPhoto: Personal archive
Jonas was among 151 individuals from around the world who have been selected as 2023 Schwarzman Scholars for graduate study in China.
“Schwarzman Scholars is a highly selective international scholarship program that takes students to study at China’s best university - Tsinghua University. Last summer I graduated from Tsinghua University receiving my Master’s in Global Affairs. That was a great experience,” he adds.
Today, Jonas continues his career in venture capital, contributing the growth of startups with a focus on innovative energy technologies.
In a world of rapid transformation, education systems face significant challenges in keeping up with the pace. Jonas hopes that education will become more accessible to everyone and that students will be given more freedom in their studies.
“My hope for many countries, including Lithuania and Armenia, is that the teaching profession becomes much more prestigious and better compensated. This way, the best people will choose to become teachers and feel truly satisfied and happy in their roles, rather than seeing it as a profession where they have to sacrifice their well-being for the idea,” Jonas concludes.
Read also:
“UWC Dilijan opened my world.” Marcos’s 10-year journey of pursuing dreams
From UWC Dilijan to the EBRD: Philipp Woelk’s journey of becoming the dreamer who acts
Gaiane Yenokian
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