Model UN Teams Display United Front

“I’m surprised at the amount of students who are willing to take on so much extra work for a passion project, but that passion is honestly sustained by community,” said faculty advisor and middle school languages teacher Brittany Farrar, who this year is being assisted by Yoon Kim, upper school math teacher. “If students can participate in something meaningful together, they push themselves and each other to greater heights.”

Upper school MUN had a successful run at the recent Horace Mann MUN Conference, going up against some of the best high school teams in the country. Lorelei McCarthy ’23 and Oliver Kreeger ’24 won a verbal commendation (4th) in the Special Political and Decolonization committee (SPECPOL) as Egypt, and Aviv Emery ’24 and Xavier Rolston ’24 won Outstanding Delegate (2nd) in the Disarmament and International Security committee (DISEC) as Afghanistan. Violet Paull ’24 also won Outstanding Delegate (2nd) in the Economic and Financial Committee (ECOFIN).

“Our biggest strength was in verbal skill and working with delegates from other schools.”
said Paull, who is one of the upper school MUN leaders together with McCarthy and Ella Dundas ’23.

Next up for the delegates – on November 5 the School is hosting its first Model UN conference (MasMUNC) on campus.

“We have been preparing by doing in-club organizing, communicating with other schools and planning for different committees that we will be running,” said Paull.

“The team has five upper school and two middle school committees that we have worked so hard to perfect,” added Dundas.

The upper school students have also been mentoring the younger delegates before the big day. “We are introducing the middle school members to crisis-style committees, and encouraging them to come to MasMUNC to compete in either a joint crisis committee on the Trojan War or a specialized committee on the 2020 Olympics,” explained Farrar.

Middle school MUN co-leader Kenneth Kweku ’27 joined the team to learn more about other countries and the global community. “What interests me most is the fact that the activities we do are done in real UN committees, and that they are relevant to the world,” he said.

Kweku’s co-leader, Valentina Valdivia ’27, enjoys the challenge of working on crisis committees. “Getting to role-play for a character and be thrown into an exciting simulation is always entertaining,” she explained. “Especially, with how there are always dramatic plot twists and you are trying to complete your character arc. Crisis is a great way to help you think on your feet and is always very rewarding if you do well.”

Farrar said all the student delegates have been stepping up to the plate. “They are learning to be flexible, which is a great quality in today’s Model UN world. Everyone has been open to collaborating across grades and in new configurations, and experienced delegates are happily partnering with newer delegates to create a real sense of culture within the team.”