Two weeks ago, a group of Severn students left for a four day weekend in Baltimore. From February 18th- 21st, these students represented the tiny but mighty nation of Singapore in JHUMUNC (John's Hopkins Model United Nations Conference). One thing was missing, however; there was not a single upperclassman. This was something quite new for a club whose annual conference attendees tend to be all or all-but-one upperclassmen. Although this was due in part to a complicated weekend for the conference, it is indicative of the club's bright future and engaged younger students.
Broadly speaking, this conference really is a model United Nations summit. Each school is the equivalent of a country. We got Singapore this year, and generally the bigger a delegation sends to a conference the more influential of a country they get (i.e. McDonogh or similar would get America/ China/ Britain, we got Singapore, and a three person group from, say, Indian Creek, may get Burundi or the Bahamas). This was quite lucky for our delegation as we have had much worse assignments before -- cough, cough, Uzbekistan. The group was able to delve into the astounding economic success of Singapore as well as some of the challenges it is facing, namely in human rights.
Then, armed with this knowledge, each Severn student did what a delegate from Singapore would do in the real-life United Nations: represent Singapore at a situation-specific committee. For example, sophomore Sophie Connors was in the Legal Committee. She worked together with people from across the country to draft international law resolutions for the topics of capital punishment and lethal autonomous weapons systems.
When I talked with about her overall experience, she told me, "I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of people from cool, unique backgrounds, and I always love being able to do so outside of Severn's community."
Jared Dove, meanwhile, was on the IOC (International Olympics Committee). This committee, in real life, works to identify cities interested in hosting the olympics about a decade out, then hears bids from across the world and ultimately votes on who will host.
He described, "I was on the Olympic Committee and we discussed the host city for the 2024 Olympics, as well as worker's rights for the people that build the facilities. Ultimately, we chose Doha, Qatar."
Both he and Sophie really enjoyed their times at JHUMUNC, both for the people they met and the topics they explored. Having gone in a previous year, I too can attest that it is a great experience for anyone even remotely interested in foreign affairs. I encourage you all to join Model UN and try to join in on this great experience next year!
Photo courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_Nations
No comments:
Post a Comment