Finding Your Place in the World: Filip’s UWC RBC Journey

Filip grew up in a village of about 700 people in Slovakia, where neither of his parents had been to university and where the world beyond his district felt impossibly distant. At 16, he was reading self-help books that all said the same thing: to be successful, you need to find your passion. So he googled “how to find my passion.” That search led him to a Slovakian NGO called LEAF, which connected him with a mentor who mentioned UWC. Filip’s first reaction was dismissive: “No way, this is way out of my reach.” But the mentor persisted. “Let’s just try,” he suggested. So Filip did. When he was accepted to UWC Robert Bosch College with a full scholarship in 2015, it felt surreal. He was the first person in his family to leave Slovakia for an extended period. His parents and uncle drove him all the way to Freiburg, determined to see him safely to the door.

At the entrance gate, Filip met Gabi from Trinidad and Tobago, who welcomed him with warmth he still remembers. The surroundings felt strangely familiar, the trees, the mountains, even though he was so far from home. What made the transition beautiful were his roommates. On their second day, they found a couch abandoned on a Freiburg’s street, carried it three kilometres back to campus, and rearranged their entire room around it. That couch became a communal hub where people gathered every evening. Filip arrived with limited English and even less confidence to speak up. He came from a culture that valued humility deeply, where expressing opinions felt almost dangerous. The endless requests for student input, six-hour debates about serving meat, major campus decisions, left him choking on discomfort at first. But the freedom and responsibility that Laurence and Helen placed in students, treating them as genuine partners in shaping the community, was overwhelming at first and then transformative. It took months, but he found his voice.

After graduating in 2017, Filip spent eight months in Brazil through Global Citizen Year with a host family he still calls monthly. He moved to Berlin, then to Colorado College to study environmental science. The RBC skills showed up everywhere: he led students in joining a successful local campaign to close a coal power plant in Colorado Springs, coordinating student groups and speaking before city councils with the same collaborative approach he’d seen at RBC. After graduating in 2023, Filip chose to return to Slovakia rather than stay in the US. “I will do best where I understand the environment, the people, the culture,” he reasoned. He briefly worked at Slovakia’s Ministry of Environment before leaving after three months, realising he needs to skill-up in a more hands-on and more driven environment before making change on a national scale.

Now he works in the environmental department of a real estate company, striving to find win-win scenarios that materialize into more roof photovoltaics, sort waste better, less energy wasted, and so on. Filip’s story is one of coming home, not just geographically, but to a purpose grounded in place. UWC taught him to think globally and act with conviction, but Slovakia taught him that impact takes time, roots, and presence. He admits RBC gave him an idealism he’s had to temper: “At UWC, you can get the feeling that we’re all equal. It’s not true. I forgot I also need an apartment, food, money – that I need to figure out how to live in the real world.” But he wouldn’t trade that idealism. It’s what brought him home, what keeps him engaged in Slovakia’s challenges even when it’s hard, and what drives him to stay when leaving would be easier. His younger brother Adam is about to graduate from RBC this year, walking the same hill Filip climbed nearly a decade ago. The circle continues.