The Griffin Model United Nations team is heading to Boston to engage with students from around the country and world on major world issues.
The Harvard Model UN conference begins Thursday, Jan. 29, and continues through Sunday, Feb. 1. It is hosted by a team from Harvard University and held at two hotels in downtown Boston. It is the highlight of the MUN team’s year, expanding on their experience at regional events and giving them the chance to connect with and learn from students from all over.
“It gives you a great opportunity to meet some really cool people that alternatively you wouldn’t,” said Nathan Sayre, a Boquet Valley senior on the MUN team. “The environment is generally rather social. On the committees I’ve been on, there’s a sense of competition but it’s not oppressive, and people have been very nice.”
The HMUN conference
A Model UN conference gives students a chance to role-play as members of the United Nations, researching and debating issues facing the world, and trying to find agreement on how to solve important challenges.
At HMUN, most of the eight-person Griffin MUN team are representing the South Asian country of Nepal. They researched the country’s demographics, economy, values and other characteristics. Delegates participate in committees that will focus on different topics, where they will advocate for what they believe would be Nepal’s stance on the issue.
The HMUN slate of committees features a wide variety of potential options, with large groups up to 400 participants and groups as small as 15 delegates. Each group focuses on a specific topic.
To make things even more fun, some groups get a choice of topics. Delegate Andrew Denton, a Boquet Valley senior, is on the Economic and Financial Committee, where they were given two different topics, and the group will decide which topic to focus on as they meet up in Boston.
Delegates (which is what the students participating in the event are called) write a position paper about their country’s stance on the issue their committee will focus on, then participate in debates where they will suggest solutions to issues and work with fellow delegates to try to solve problems.
Senior Grace Kullman is the one Griffin who won’t be repping Nepal. She is participating in one of four specialized bodies, a smaller group that zeroes in on a unique place and time to explore a leadership and negotiation challenge. These can include historic events, potential future events, or specific groups dealing with current events. Grace is on the International Cricket Council roleplaying as Mirwais Ashraf, chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board. She will be working with other delegates to find ways to veer the game of cricket away from the commercialization that has overcome it and get back to the game’s traditional values.
This is the second year in a row that Grace has participated in a specialized body. Last year, she was part of a group working on the Warsaw Pact, a 1955 treaty involving the Soviet Union and eastern European nations. She hadn’t asked to be a part of that but ended up really liking it, and was thrilled to learn that this year she’d again join a specialized body.
“I was so happy, jumping up and down, so excited,” Grace said.
A longstanding tradition
Model UN is a longstanding tradition for the area. Boquet Valley is one of about six districts around the region that send teams to HMUN. Students from Boquet Valley CSD, and Elizabethtown-Lewis before the merger, have been participating for several decades. Social Studies Teacher Peter Castine, who has been the group’s advisor for the last 20 years, teaches students how to participate in Model UN through an elective class that meets every other day called International Politics.
They learn about how the real United Nations and Model UN operates, and they learn about NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, which often play a role in politics at the UN. Once they have assignments for a specific event, they do research and write position papers for the event. They also practice mock debates in the class, and Mr. Castine has them practice by teaching him about the topic they are studying.
The four seniors on the MUN team have been to HMUN in the past, and they were incredibly excited to get back this year. While taking a break during a recent prep session, team members talked about why they got involved in MUN. Some of them were shy and wanted to work on being better at public speaking, and others wanted a chance to learn about important issues around the world, or specific topics they wouldn’t have thought to look into otherwise. They all wanted to work on their public speaking skills, and they all looked forward to meeting new people and learning about other parts of the country and world, broadening their perspectives.
While they work hard, they also fit in plenty of fun on the trip too. The four are thrilled to get back to Boston Burger Company, a burger joint with a ridiculous array of indulgently delicious burgers, and they’ll visit the Boston Museum of Science. There’s some official fun, too: The last day of the conference usually includes a Fun MUN session where delegates participate in silly and fun challenges to end the event on a light note.
Griffin MUN
The Griffin MUN team participates in now four MUN events throughout the year, starting with Beekmantown MUN in the fall, and now including a new Champlain Valley MUN that began this year as a partnership between Plattsburgh High School and SUNY Plattsburgh. The group was proud to win the Best Delegation award at CVMUN.
Awards are part of the MUN landscape, but Mr. Castine said he isn’t too worried about whether his team wins them.
“I try to really stress that the more important part is to have fun, become immersed in the world, develop life skills and, like anything in life, try your hardest,” Mr. Castine said. “If a student does that, then I’m proud of them, and they should be proud of themselves”
These regional MUN events end up being great practice before this week’s Harvard event, the oldest and biggest MUN conference in the country.
After Harvard, the MUN season will wrap up with another regional conference, North Country MUN at Northeastern Clinton Central School District. Toward the end of the school year, the team puts on an informal Boquet Valley MUN that is just in-house for younger students who want to give MUN a try, sparking the next generation of the Griffin MUN team.
