Model United Nations In Perspective
I had the privilege of driving the Upper School's Model United Nations team to their fall conference at Appalachian State University Wednesday afternoon, November 9th. The bus ride up was quiet as many of them were researching and preparing themselves for the first session to be held later that evening.
Coming out of the opening ceremony and first session, a few of O'Neal's students were surprised at how mentally drained they already felt. This year's team is largely comprised of underclassmen and first-timers. It was no surprise to their faculty sponsor, Woody Wilder, that they felt overwhelmed. As she explained it, there is a first time feeling and one has to experience the proceedings before one feels confident enough to hold up a placard and speak. Nevertheless, there was an excited buzz in the air as their conference had officially begun. Students were awake and dressed to impress quite early the next morning. Students break into as many as 10 different councils, all based in various branches of the UN. We had representatives in the special council on Outer Space, Security Council, Brexit, Women's Council, and General Assembly. Each council is posed with three topics for which they are required to discuss and create resolutions. As we gathered around the lunch table midway through day two, I enjoyed hearing the different perspectives from various students. Talia Ferrerio and Tazreean Ahmed were particularly animated about having passed a resolution for women's education. Talia declared that all it took was "making allies." I consider that a valuable life lesson. Stefan Woolley poignantly observed that as the torch has been passed to him and others, they are seeing first-hand just how difficult it is to both do the research and be assertive verbally in council sessions. Speaking up was more challenging as these students were missing some key Model UN veterans to guide the way. I have no doubt these students will rise to the challenge and will come back for the spring conference ready to dominate. In Mrs. Wilder's words, "there are some building years. This may be one."
I completely understand that description having experienced it in the world of coaching athletics. Model UN and Track and Field are rather analogous; there are specialists in certain areas and there are skills that have to be coached. O'Neal's lone award was given to Andrew Martin for the Best Delegation for representation of the country Bulgaria. We are proud of his award and the effort of all O'Neal delegates to the Model UN conference. Go Falcons!
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