Model United Nations, commonly shortened to Model UN, works exactly how it sounds; Students or “delegates” are split into United Nations committees and represent different countries. Each committee has an issue, or challenge, that the delegates must debate and attempt to solve. What makes Model UN challenging is that students must not only prepare by researching the country they represent, but they also must speak from the perspective of the delegate in only formal, parliamentary language. This means that oftentimes, students must argue a perspective in favor of a particular policy for which they personally disagree, outside of their delegate role.
The St. John’s Prep Model UN Conference has been held every year since 2006, with participation from schools across Massachusetts and New England. This year, the conference had over 250 participants from 28 different schools.
The day began with a Keynote Address from Cam Cassar, the Senior Coordinator of Continuing Education at the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity. He described his life journey in international relations while discussing the importance of maintaining a friendly dialogue during global negotiations for peace. His words provided encouragement for the committee sessions that followed.
Following the speech, the student delegates split into their respective committees and spent the nearly next six hours discussing, debating and compromising. This particular conference had more intimate committees of 15-20 delegates, opposed to other Model UN conferences, whose committees may exceed 100 delegates. Sophomore Taylor Ferrante enjoyed this aspect of the conference, sharing, “I really loved the small size of the committees because I felt I had ample opportunity to argue my perspective.” Taylor also won the “Best Representation” award for her committee, recognizing her full immersion in her delegation’s beliefs and goals.
Additionally, sophomore Izzy Stolzman said she enjoys Model UN because “it gives you the opportunity to meet new people and also understand different global perspectives.”
At the end of January, 25 members of the Hingham High School Model UN team along with advisor, Ms. Black will stay in Boston for three nights and participate in the Harvard Model UN (HMUN) conference from January 30th to February 2nd. HMUN is the oldest, largest and most prestigious Model UN conference for high school students in the world, attended by over 3000 students from 15+ countries. In anticipation of the conference, Stolzman said, “I’m excited about Harvard for the opportunity to meet people from all over the country and world.”
The Hingham High School delegates for the HMUN conference will begin preparing very shortly.
