JOURNEY TO PEARSON COLLEGE UWC
Lester .B.Pearson College of the pacific in British Columbia , Canada, is one of 17 united world colleges in 17 different countries and 4 continents. I first heard about UWC from a friend who got an admission into the UWC in South-East Asia. He is a student of the University of Rochester in New York, USA as at now. He told about his experiences and how the college helped morphed him and expand his abilities and made him a change maker. I knew I wanted to attend one after he told me all these.
I did a research on UWC's and I decided to apply almost immediately when I found out that the National Committee in Sierra Leone was accepting applications for the 2018/2019 academic year. Unfortunately, I was also preparing for my final senior school exams. I could not find time to write down all the application essays due to their demands. I kept on procrastinating until the day of the deadline. It was a Friday and I had to attend classes. However, I did not do that. Something kept pulling me back and telling me to stay home which means I had to miss classes, so I could write all the essays. And indeed, that was what I did. It was easy to convince my mother that I did not feel like going to school that day and she totally accepted. I stayed in my room and wrote down all the essays. I then went to the internet cafe to type them all into a computer. It was a lot of work and by then I had 3 hours before the deadline. I have never typed that fast my whole life. I also had help from a worker in the Cafe who helped me type most of my essays and gave advise on what I should include or omit. He was a valuable resource and I am grateful for his help. At last, we finished sending all the essays, sending the necessary documents and filling the online application. I quite remember that I sent the application between 10-15 minutes before the deadline. I was worried it would not be accepted regarding the poor and unreliable internet systems we had. I was sure I would not be accepted, so I just decided to forget about it all. I did just that.
About a month later, I received an email telling me that I had been shortlisted for the interview. I was so happy and I told my mother and brother. They did not even know when or how I applied. It was a surprise to them. I remember being the second person to arrive at the interview location. We did a lot of activities, each testing a particular aspect required of a UWCer. Such included, basic general knowledge tests, public speaking, group work and one-on-one interviews. The competition was tough as the other students were doing great. I hardly imagined being selected after the interview was over after discovering that they only needed 4 students. I went home and my mom saw the look of disappointment on my face. She, being a strong believer and a very religious woman told me to just pray and not worry.
One night,weeks later, just when I was about to go to dreamland, I received an email some stating I had been nominated for Pearson college and requested me to reply to confirm my nomination or deny it. Of course, I accepted the nomination, even though I was expecting them to nominate me for Maastricht due to financial analysis done by me and my mom.
Applying for a Visa in Ghana was expensive and of course tricky. But I was successful and I got it. I stayed with yet another great helper, Fouad in Ghana. He was a Sierra Leonean student in Ghana and through my uncle who knew Fouad's father, he volunteered to lodge me. I had lots of fun in Ghana while staying with him and a couple of other Sierra Leoneans in the same compound. Below are a few images of my stay there.
