Tenth Graders Tackle Global Issues During Model UN Day

3/11/2022

From the serious debate and diplomacy on display, one could see the student delegates understood the assignment. The annual Tenth Grade Model United Nations (MUN) Day on March 4 at Estherwood Mansion was organized by upper school world history teachers Skeff Young, Eric Shapiro, Brendan Collins-Jordan and Alexis Higgins.

The tenth graders participated on one of five UN committees and were tasked with writing resolutions, giving speeches and holding debates on a variety of global issues from "Climate and Agriculture" and “Gender Equality,” to "Cybersecurity and Political Security."

Young explained though the performative element of the gradewide project “is strange, at first, to many with no debate or Model UN experiences, it brings out and develops skills and a deeper understanding of how compromise and words matter.”

Violet Paull ’24, who has been a member of the School’s Model UN team for the past two years, was happy to share her expertise. “It was fascinating to see my peers and friends take part in discussing such a serious topic, as well as constructing solutions and resolutions to a prevalent issue,” she said of her assigned role as Secretary-General of the Migration committee of the Mediterranean region.

Young was impressed with the students' dedication and hard work. “The two weeks of preparation took them from really no knowledge of a formal committee with procedures and a contemporary topic to a strong command of the language, process and issues associated with the committee topic.”

For Paull, the event reminded her of “the importance of collaboration for solving problems, as well as the importance of taking in beliefs and opinions of all kinds for the greater good.”