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Centre for Systems Transformation, Leadership and Education

In 2025-26, we are building a Centre for Systems Transformation, Leadership and Education at UWC Atlantic,

to become the home of the Systems Transformation Pathway,

to drive transformative change in the education system more broadly,

and to engage and mobilize the UWC alumni and friends community to work systemically in service of just futures.

The success of the Systems Transformation Pathway is already supported by an ecosystem of critical relationships.

A number of organizations and individuals have inspired our work and support our learning community. Find out more about our existing partnerships below:

Partnerships

The Centre for Systems Transformation, Leadership and Education (C4STLE) at UWC Atlantic serves as a pioneering physical and imagination space to catalyze, convene and take deliberate action towards the UWC mission to make education a force for peace and a sustainable future.

The C4STLE aims to drive systemic interventions through the mobilisation of our diverse communities of alumni, parents, peer institutions and industry partners. Recognizing that this era requires bold leadership that transcends siloes, we aim to become a catalyzing institution where people come together to dream and build responses that accelerate a just transition and equitable futures moving us away from the status quo and firmly towards a path centering equity, justice and regeneration.

We aim to achieve this through emergence and approaches grounded in:

Collective action: Emphasizing a whole-of-society approach
Intergenerational action: Working together with alumni, parents & peers of different ages
Life-centered design: Recognizing the interconnection between all living beings
Dialogue across difference and power differentials: Seeking to bridge through co-creation and build muscles for difficult dialogues
Radically imaginative futures: Working with art, design & play as means to develop imaginative solutions that challenge the status quo

Whole system interventions

UWC Atlantic College is privileged to have a community of alumni, parents and supporters who work in over 150 countries and across industries. The C4STLE programming will help to bridge the gap between different industries and sectors in support of radical collaboration. We will take an active part by hosting key deliberations, negotiations and helping to orchestrate large-scale demonstrations of whole systems interventions both locally and internationally. This will show how an educational institution can play a pivotal part in mobilizing actors in various systems towards new pathways to shift mindsets, behaviours and innovations.

From Mission to Movement

To date, the UWC schools and colleges have focused almost exclusively on building up youth leaders. This has been extremely successful. That said, there has been no cohesive force that deliberately works and guides our alumni who are interested in working together towards taking action. As such, the C4STLE would play a role in showcasing the possibilities of collective action by building out networks, relationships and spheres of influence around themes and missions that contribute to the wider dialogue around changing systems and creating pathways towards a more peaceful and sustainable future. It may involve working with different moving parts, supporting those involved to find shared alignment and interdependence.

The Center for Systems Transformation, Leadership and Education is fundamental imagination infrastructure for the education sector and for the wider systems shifts needed in connective industries to holistically shift behaviours and practices towards equitable futures that benefit the coming generations and our planet.

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