After successfully receiving the award, John was able to cover his expenses and write the book, which is now available to order online from Amazon.

On 24th June of this year, John appeared on CBC Radio's 'North by Northwest' show, to talk about his fascinating journey, his autobiographic novel, and UWC scholarship.

Listen

You can listen to his interview in full below:

You can find out further details of these wonderful projects using the links below, but be sure to check back soon as we add more Case Studies in the coming weeks.

Once again, the GoMakeADifference Team want to take this opportunity to congratulate the incredible diversity and quality of projects from this years' entries, and the obvious commitment from the students.

• ASAP Mini-UWC Summer 2017 — Asia
• Book Book Tuk Tuk Project — Asia
• E² (Electronic Education) — Asia
• Love and Care for Ignored Children — Asia
• Dreams and Inspirations — Asia
• ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Input + Values = Powerful Output — Asia
• Resettlement Support for North Korean Defectors — Asia
• Veterans’ Stories Documentation — Asia
• The Color of Peace — Europe
• Vijana Imara (Resilient Teenagers) — Africa
• Wash4Peace — Africa
• The Journey Much Desired — Africa
• Give Back Strength — Africa
• Kenyan Youth for Peace — Africa
• Creating a Sustainable Naija — Africa
• Save Village Teens Tororo — Africa
• I Am Malawi — Africa
• Inspiration For Her — Africa
• Adriatic Aid - Reaching out to Kibera — Africa
• Girl Empowerment Swaziland — Africa
• Boldly Taking Action — Africa
• Joy In Action — Africa
• Solar Salone — Africa
• FAM (Fight Against Malaria) — Africa
• Construction of a Greenhouse at “Pytoc – Chillaray” School — North & South America
• The Triple R Project — North & South America
• Harvest For Life — North & South America
• Sustainable Itacaré — North & South America
• Aagahi English Workshop Chuporson — Middle East & North Africa

Applications were received for the first time from UWC Waterford, UWC Robert Bosch and UWC Changshu showing that GoMakeADifference is now reaching across the UWC organisation.

Talking about the awards, co-founder Colin Habgood said, “Jill and I were moved by the diversity and quality of projects and the obvious commitment from students.  It is really humbling to see the ideas students have and their desire to go and make a difference.  Whilst it is not possible for every application to be awarded a grant, we hope somehow that everyone who applied can use this process as a catalyst to deliver their projects in some way”.

Students from UWC Red Cross Nordic with their 2017 GoMakeADifference certificates.

For more information on the successful projects and to view the list of award winners, click here.

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who applied and to the UWC co-ordinators who helped promote the award and offered advice to the applicants.

We are really pleased with the number and quality of applications received this year, which has made assessing the projects very difficult. You can see a photo of us (the co-founders Colin and Jill together with Ann, the GoMakeADifference Admin Co-ordinator), working our way through the reams of paperwork from this year's fantastic applications. (Note the chocolate and water to keep our energy levels up!)

We wanted everyone to know that we take every application seriously, considering each one against the GoMakeADifference award criteria. Whilst it is a very time-consuming role, it is one which we all love, to see the range of ideas UWC students have to make a difference - we find it very humbling and rewarding.

So just to let everyone know that, as promised, we will be making announcements of the successful projects in the very near future - so watch this space!

Best wishes from all at the GoMakeADifference Team and thank you again to all who have applied for a 2017 award.