Imogen Rawlings, Reporter
@irawlingcourant
Last month, 24 students boarded a bus for a nine-hour trip to William and Mary for a Model UN conference, joining about 3,000 other students from schools all around the world. When they returned on Sunday, they brought home with them the Michael Charles Coon Award for Best Representation and Diplomacy to New Canaan High School.
Marianne Cohen, Model UN advisor and history teacher said that “We won this award because our students are prepared, understand diplomacy, are inclusive and very friendly, and like to work together to find solutions. That was noticed because of the work that was done by our executive board and our captains.”
The Model UN club prepares about three weeks in advance for each conference, as well as local scrimmages. Ms. Cohen explains that the club is mainly student-run and the administrative aspects done by herself and Ms. Freeman, Mr. Phillips, and Ms. Hernberg include organizing the logistics of bus rides, hotels, and rest stops.
History teacher Paul Philips said that his focus as an advisor is to help the student leaders. “My role is to facilitate and make sure we go to the right conferences and we have the teams ready so kids have a chance at succeeding,” he said. “But the most important thing is giving the leaders the right amount of space and ability to actually lead.”
Club Captain Izzy Carpenter notes the importance of student leadership. “As captains, we decide which room and position fit for everyone. We give them an outline and we have Wednesday Morning Meetings from 7:00-7:30 for the kids who are going to a conference,” she said. “In the Morning Meetings, we will do presentations of Q&A skills, debating skills, how to write a position paper, go over what they need to wear and bring, and guiding them in their research.”
Members of the executive board, such as Theo Nelson also provide helpful resources to the club. “We have a whole bunch of resources to prepare people for Model UN including a research website and videos explaining different room types and what to expect at a conference,” he said. “We also have a news archive that we teach people how to use which includes over 600 different journals and magazines from all kinds of regions and sources.”
While the team is very professional and organized at the conferences, they also enjoy team bonding experiences on the bus rides. On the bus ride to William and Mary the team had a boombox, watched movies and played icebreaker games. “We watched Crazy Rich Asians and Moana and the sound didn’t work so we had subtitles instead,” Ms. Cohen said. “What was awesome was when the songs came on the whole bus was singing along.”
In conferences, the rooms range with a variety of different topics. According to club member Delaney Smith, “We are asked to find solutions for a problem and solve a specific aspect of a problem,” Delaney said. “My last country was Pakistan and I discussed Foreign Aid.” Not all the rooms are as serious however; another room included the Harry Potter theme discussing a simulation of the Minister of Magic and a referendum on the status of half-bloods and mythical creatures working together.
Many of the former participants in Model UN continue to be involved after high-school. “We see a lot of our former participants and delegates branching out and doing great things,” Ms. Cohen said. “Ann B, one of our former captains, was the secretary-general at a conference we went to.”
After conferences, according to Thomas Suthons, a club captain, “At the next Model UN meeting we do a debrief where we toss a ball around where people can reflect upon their experience in front of everyone so we can get a general idea of how everyone felt about it,” he said.
While the success of the club is due to everyone involved, Mrs. Cohen emphasizes the student leader’s major role in the clubs achievements. “Students are are the ones who will get the committee selection, put students where they will best succeed and run the Morning Meetings which teach them how to do question and answers,” she said. “We have experts who impart that knowledge and it is all student run.”
