Barbara Nelson, Freelance Writer

It was just by chance that young Darryl Johnson picked up a flyer being sent around his old school, Hillel Academy High School, in Jamaica, late April last year. It read 'United World College Scholarship'.

According to Darryl, "Little did I know that I would be one of the 2006 scholarship recipients."

He did an interview with the scholarship committee and soon received the wonderful news that he, "Darryl Johnson from Spanish Town would be moving to Wales!"

He had done very well at Hillel, both academically and in sporting activities. Darryl was head boy there in 2005-2006 and the recipient of the Hillel Award for overall excellence. He was the most outstanding student in swimming at the school in 2003-2004.

A memorable journey

On September 11 last year, with a nostalgic look at his mother as she waved goodbye at the Norman Manley International airport, Darryl started a journey of 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. It would end ten hours later when he and 100 new 'firsties' from 75 countries across the globe met for the first time to begin the 'Atlantic College Dream' .

The United World College (UWC) of the Atlantic is an international school in a Castle on the Bristol Channel in Wales. It opened in 1962, and is now in its 45th year. So far, more than 7,500 young people from over 100 countries (including Jamaica) have been educated there. The College was the brainchild of Kurt Hahn and Lawrance Darvall, who saw it "as a demonstration of how conflict and hostility could be overcome if young people from different nations, races and religions could be brought together to learn from each other."

Atlantic College, as it is called, is the first of 12 UWCs around the world. Three hundred and thirty five students from countries as diverse as Albania, the Falkland Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Peru and Zimbabwe attend there.

How would this young man from Jamaica fit in? Would he feel comfortable? Would he learn from the experience?

Darryl says that, with his newfound friends, he "felt ready to face the world. I came to understand the mission of Kurt Hahn, the school's founding father. For the first time I truly had a cause. All 100 of us were united in a battle to help change the world; education was our weapon, international understanding was our peace."

Although he had gained some exposure as the first Jamaican student to represent the Caribbean and Latin America at the United Nations UNIS Forum held in New York last year, he realised he had moved to a totally different level at Atlantic College and that he was a more globally-aware person.

"Coming from a country like Jamaica, where we tend to stick only to what we know, I thought that adjusting would be a most challenging task. Our principal, Malcolm McKenzie, stirred us to challenge ourselves. I did and I am a better person for it," he said.

During the past year he was student representative for the Penarth Cancer Treatment Center in Wales; became a certified pool lifeguard at Atlantic College and was lead soloist for the Atlantic College tour to Austria in 2006.