When UWCADES was founded in 2000, it started as a small group of students whose desire to engage in discussions regarding economics and politics was bigger than their knowledge of the subjects. However, we were convinced that through those discussions and our multicultural backgrounds we could enlarge our knowledge and broaden our perspectives, in order to acquire a better understanding of the world.

Since the day we left Duino, there has been a remarkable development in the way people communicate and exchange their ideas through the internet. Besides the popularisation of emails (in our time many of our families opened an account with the sole purpose of communicating with us), the global discussions have been brought to the cyberspace, enriching themselves with the contributions of millions of people.

The idea of creating an online journal represents an attempt to play our part in these global discussions. While it has been in our vision for a long time, the realisation of the journal was delayed on several occasions. Nonetheless, we have finally overcome the constraints we had and are very proud to launch the first edition of the UWCADES Journal.

We believe that, by encouraging people to express their opinions and tell us their stories, the journal provides us with an excellent opportunity to learn from the many experiences that former UWC students have accumulated since leaving their colleges.

We are especially grateful to all those people who have contributed in one way or another to the creation of the journal and welcome our readers to contribute to this effort by sending us their submissions, questions or any comments they may have to