Armand Hammer United World College of the American West
Encyclopedia
The United World College-USA (or UWC-USA) is a United World College founded in 1982 by industrialist and philanthropist Armand Hammer
. It is a two-year, independent, coeducational boarding school with about 200 students representing 80-90 countries at any time. The vast majority of these students receive full scholarships, being selected by the 124 National Committees that represent the United World Colleges around the globe.
The school's mission is to teach international understanding by bringing together young men and women of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, in an environment in which they must work together for success. In addition to offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, the school has a strong program in the arts and a significant service program, including mountain search and rescue. Typically, students are between 16 and 19 years old.
Graduates are typically accepted at the most competitive colleges and universities around the world. In late 2007, the Wall Street Journal identified United World College - USA as one of the world's top 50 schools for its success in preparing students to enter top American universities.
, president of the United World Colleges movement. The school's founding president was Theodore D. Lockwood, who served from 1982 until 1994. Philip O. Geier III served as president from 1994 until 2005, when he passed the reins to Lisa A. H. Darling.
In 1998, the school's endowment was significantly increased through the generosity of investment manager Shelby M.C. Davis
and his wife Gale. Their gift today secures the largest block of the school's student scholarships and makes this school (and all the other UWCs) 100% free for all American students. Their initial gift of $45 million in 1998 was, at the time, the largest private donation ever made to international education.
A subsequent fellowship program, also established by the Davis family, covers the tuition of many graduates at over 80 colleges and universities in the United States and Europe, including Amherst College
, Brown University
, Carleton College
, Colby College
, Columbia University
, Cornell University
, Dartmouth College
, Georgetown University
, Harvard University
, Johns Hopkins University
, Lake Forest College
, Earlham College
, Macalester College
, Oberlin College
, Smith College
, Tufts University
, Princeton University
, and Yale University
.
International Center, houses student and faculty residences, classrooms, seminar rooms, and offices, in addition to the student center, college dining facility, and the Bartos
Institute for the Constructive Engagement of Conflict.
The Old Stone Hotel, the first hotel opened in Montezuma (as the Hot Springs Hotel) was renovated in 1981 to serve as administration building, until the restoration of the Montezuma Castle was completed. The OSH now houses the administrative offices of the Vice President, Dean of Students, Dean of Co-curricular Programs, Registrar, Business Office, Counseling Service, Wilderness Service Program and the College Archives. In ,the mathematics department and the English faculty have its offices in the building, as well as English classrooms.
Dedicated in 2000, in honor of former president Theodore Lockwood and former Development Director Lu Lockwood, the Lockwood Library now houses more than 20,000 volumes and 1,800 media files.
The Oscar Getz Memorial Hall, givenby Martha Getz, serves as the President’s House. Formerly the staff house of the Hot Springs Hotel, was renovated in 1981 to serve as the residence of the president and his family, as well as guest house. Distinguished guests such as HRH Prince Charles of Wales and Malcolm Forbes
have resided there.
The Sasakawa Center houses the faculty club at UWC-USA, as well as meeting facilities. The house, former student center before the restoration of the Castle, is an example of 19th century architecture, and carries an endowment from Hiroichi Sasakawa.
The Anixter-Poole Hall, given by the Anixter and Poole families, houses a recreation swimming pool and hot tub. The facility is powered by solar panels and its totally self sufficient from natural energies.
The Zeinal-Zade Science Building, given by Swiss-Azerbaijani businessman Kemal Zeinal-Zade, houses the department of experimental sciences, together with two physics labs, two chemistry labs, two biology labs, as well as a ceramic oven and classrooms. An early 2000 addition now houses the wilderness program class space as well as an extra multi-functional laboratory.
The Kluge Auditorium, given by cinema mogul John W. Kluge, in 1988. Houses the main auditorium, as well as the arts department, including art classrooms, music classroom, piano practice room, recording studio, and a work space for dramatic production. The a uditoriumhouses close to a hundred events a year, including college assemblies, cultural days, theatre performances, lectures and conferences.
The Geier Center for Technology and Languages, given by the Trustees in honor of President Emeritus Philip O. Geier III and former Development Director Amy Y. Geier, houses the Information Technology department, compromising three computer labs, high-end printing facilities; as well as the language department and class space.
The Pedro Medina Fields, with separate the country road from the lower campus area, was dedicated in 2008 to former groundskeeper Pedro Medina, in appreciation for his 24 years of service to UWC-USA. The playing fields host numerous college traditions and events including graduation (weather permitting), soccer and baseball.
, is located at 35°39′15"N 105°16′52"W in the town of Montezuma, New Mexico
, just northwest of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico
, about 70 miles from Santa Fe
.
The campus includes the historic Montezuma Castle
.
Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer was an American business tycoon most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran for decades, though he was known as well as for his art collection, his philanthropy, and for his close ties to the Soviet Union.Thanks to business interests around the world and his...
. It is a two-year, independent, coeducational boarding school with about 200 students representing 80-90 countries at any time. The vast majority of these students receive full scholarships, being selected by the 124 National Committees that represent the United World Colleges around the globe.
The school's mission is to teach international understanding by bringing together young men and women of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, in an environment in which they must work together for success. In addition to offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, the school has a strong program in the arts and a significant service program, including mountain search and rescue. Typically, students are between 16 and 19 years old.
Graduates are typically accepted at the most competitive colleges and universities around the world. In late 2007, the Wall Street Journal identified United World College - USA as one of the world's top 50 schools for its success in preparing students to enter top American universities.
History
The Armand Hammer Foundation purchased the property in order to establish a United World College in the United States in 1981. Major renovations of existing buildings preceded the school’s opening in the fall of 1982, an event that was attended by HRH Prince CharlesCharles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
, president of the United World Colleges movement. The school's founding president was Theodore D. Lockwood, who served from 1982 until 1994. Philip O. Geier III served as president from 1994 until 2005, when he passed the reins to Lisa A. H. Darling.
In 1998, the school's endowment was significantly increased through the generosity of investment manager Shelby M.C. Davis
Shelby Davis
Shelby Davis is the founder of investment management firm Davis Selected Advisers, which as of 2008 manages about $100 billion in several funds. He is the son of Shelby Cullom Davis, who was a successful money manager himself...
and his wife Gale. Their gift today secures the largest block of the school's student scholarships and makes this school (and all the other UWCs) 100% free for all American students. Their initial gift of $45 million in 1998 was, at the time, the largest private donation ever made to international education.
A subsequent fellowship program, also established by the Davis family, covers the tuition of many graduates at over 80 colleges and universities in the United States and Europe, including Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
, Colby College
Colby College
Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. The college has 1,500 students representing 47 states and 78 countries....
, Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
, Macalester College
Macalester College
Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...
, Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
, Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
Campus
The Montezuma Castle, now the DavisShelby Davis
Shelby Davis is the founder of investment management firm Davis Selected Advisers, which as of 2008 manages about $100 billion in several funds. He is the son of Shelby Cullom Davis, who was a successful money manager himself...
International Center, houses student and faculty residences, classrooms, seminar rooms, and offices, in addition to the student center, college dining facility, and the Bartos
Armand Phillip Bartos
Armand Phillip Bartos was an American architect and philanthropist.Though highly active as a philanthropist, Bartos became primarily known as the co-designer of Shrine of the Book that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls in western Jerusalem.Bartos's various and diverse activities, primarily not...
Institute for the Constructive Engagement of Conflict.
The Old Stone Hotel, the first hotel opened in Montezuma (as the Hot Springs Hotel) was renovated in 1981 to serve as administration building, until the restoration of the Montezuma Castle was completed. The OSH now houses the administrative offices of the Vice President, Dean of Students, Dean of Co-curricular Programs, Registrar, Business Office, Counseling Service, Wilderness Service Program and the College Archives. In ,the mathematics department and the English faculty have its offices in the building, as well as English classrooms.
Dedicated in 2000, in honor of former president Theodore Lockwood and former Development Director Lu Lockwood, the Lockwood Library now houses more than 20,000 volumes and 1,800 media files.
The Oscar Getz Memorial Hall, givenby Martha Getz, serves as the President’s House. Formerly the staff house of the Hot Springs Hotel, was renovated in 1981 to serve as the residence of the president and his family, as well as guest house. Distinguished guests such as HRH Prince Charles of Wales and Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was publisher of Forbes magazine, founded by his father B. C. Forbes and today run by his son Steve Forbes.-Life and career:...
have resided there.
The Sasakawa Center houses the faculty club at UWC-USA, as well as meeting facilities. The house, former student center before the restoration of the Castle, is an example of 19th century architecture, and carries an endowment from Hiroichi Sasakawa.
The Anixter-Poole Hall, given by the Anixter and Poole families, houses a recreation swimming pool and hot tub. The facility is powered by solar panels and its totally self sufficient from natural energies.
The Zeinal-Zade Science Building, given by Swiss-Azerbaijani businessman Kemal Zeinal-Zade, houses the department of experimental sciences, together with two physics labs, two chemistry labs, two biology labs, as well as a ceramic oven and classrooms. An early 2000 addition now houses the wilderness program class space as well as an extra multi-functional laboratory.
The Kluge Auditorium, given by cinema mogul John W. Kluge, in 1988. Houses the main auditorium, as well as the arts department, including art classrooms, music classroom, piano practice room, recording studio, and a work space for dramatic production. The a uditoriumhouses close to a hundred events a year, including college assemblies, cultural days, theatre performances, lectures and conferences.
The Geier Center for Technology and Languages, given by the Trustees in honor of President Emeritus Philip O. Geier III and former Development Director Amy Y. Geier, houses the Information Technology department, compromising three computer labs, high-end printing facilities; as well as the language department and class space.
The Pedro Medina Fields, with separate the country road from the lower campus area, was dedicated in 2008 to former groundskeeper Pedro Medina, in appreciation for his 24 years of service to UWC-USA. The playing fields host numerous college traditions and events including graduation (weather permitting), soccer and baseball.
Location
The school, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo MountainsSangre de Cristo Mountains
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States...
, is located at 35°39′15"N 105°16′52"W in the town of Montezuma, New Mexico
Montezuma, New Mexico
Montezuma is an unincorporated community in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. It is located about five miles northwest of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico....
, just northwest of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...
, about 70 miles from Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
The campus includes the historic Montezuma Castle
Montezuma Castle (Hotel)
The Montezuma Castle is a , 400 room Queen Anne-style hotel building erected just northwest of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1886...
.
Notable alumni
- Paul Grimes, Australian Deputy Secretary of Defense, Department of Finance and Deregulation
- Lousewies van der LaanLousewies van der LaanLouse Wies Sija Anne Lilly Berthe van der Laan is a former Dutch politician and the leader of the parliamentary group of the social liberal Democrats 66 in the House of Representatives for six months in 2006...
, Dutch politician - Philippe WambaPhilippe WambaPhilippe Wamba was an African American editor and writer. He went to Harvard University, then to graduate school at Columbia University, before working in a variety of writing and publishing projects, culminating in his serving as editor-in-chief of a now defunct online magazine called Africana.com...
, American journalist - Pavlos, Crown Prince of GreecePavlos, Crown Prince of GreecePavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, is the eldest son and heir apparent of Constantine II, who was King of Greece from 1964 to 1973....
- Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark
- Marcelo Calliari, Former Director of Competition, Government of Brazil