Lighthouse
Lighthouse’s vision is for every young person to be capable of contributing to change for a more peaceful and sustainable future. Lighthouse works to realise this vision through its mission of providing UWC students with opportunities and resources to make meaningful change.
Lighthouse is an on-campus centre for meaningful changemaking at UWC Atlantic. Lighthouse builds on the UWC values by nurturing students’ creativity, idealism, and sense of stewardship while equipping them with skills and knowledge to initiate social change. We believe that creative confidence, resilience, and taking productive risks are necessary for innovation and envisioning a more peaceful and sustainable world. We also believe that a sufficient awareness and understanding of the challenges facing humanity are part of any meaningful changemaking. It is in the recognition of the role that individual agency must play for action to take place, together with a respect for the scale and complexity of the obstacles to peace and a sustainable future, that Lighthouse’s essence is located.
Students compete annually for the Lighthouse Prize Fund, which is an investment fund to support the most promising projects developed by students throughout the year. Successful projects need to tackle a significant social issue and be rooted in the system they wish to change and show entrepreneurial promise.
Successful Lighthouse Projects include:
Ailem App
The world's first language app tailored for refugees and asylum seekers. This project was created 'by refugees. for refugees.' Ailem provides knowledge and education tailored for the needs of refugees and asylum seekers as they integrate into society. The app now has over 800 users and is translated into eight different languages.
The app has won numerous awards including the YSA Youth Innovators Awards and the European Charlemagne Youth Prize.
The Happy School Project
A partnership between My Gakidh Village School and the Bhutan Youth Development Fund, the Happy School project's aim was to build kitchen facilities at the school to allow children to have a good meal while at school so the are able to focus on their learning and achieve better outcomes in their studies.
Prentis Hub
