“We’ve gotten to build off a team that we have been building for the last two years, and we really got to see the rewards from that,” senior Meredith Lee, Secretary General (President) of the Hackley Model UN club, said. The “rewards” that Meredith said were shown were apparent at the most recent Hackley Model UN conference, Hackley Model UN’s sixth annual and most successful conference yet.
The conference, which was held on March 8th, featured four committees: DISEC: Red Sea, U.S. Senate, Aliens: First Contact, and China – Three Kingdoms.
Sophomore Ella Ferrari, who helped with the administrative tasks of the China – Three Kingdoms committee said, “My committee was set up for large amounts of conflict to occur as there were three kingdoms fighting for the power of China; however, the participants instead attempted to find diplomatic and collaborative solutions, changing the pre-established possible outcome of the committee. Delegates (the participants) would send notes to me, requesting for certain actions to be taken or propose certain policies to be imposed, which reflected the amount of engagement within the committee.”
The topics and goals of each committee varied; however, collaboration and key problem-solving skills were utilized and necessary among all of these committees. For example, the Aliens: First Contact committee navigated the first possible interventions with aliens. What makes Model UN unique is that even though there is a certain guideline or general idea on how the committee will end as it completely depends upon what actions the participants take.
During the conference, the committees took various formats from the traditional Model UN structure. The U.S. Senate committee is a model of a congressional format, following a parliamentary procedure that is similar to the procedure observed in the U.S. Senate.
The China – Three Kingdoms was a crisis committee, meaning that students had to respond to crisis notes or updates made by participants or the committee’s leadership in a timely manner. The main aim of the conference was to have students gain confidence and experience within Model UN. The majority of the delegates who attended were new to Model UN.
In addition to the day of enrichment, in the opening ceremony, students met Oscar Armando Lopez III, the UNA-USA Youth Observer at the United Nations, through Zoom. In his speech, he highlighted the importance of being knowledgeable about current events today, as the students are the future. He additionally emphasized the importance of participating in Model UN.
Secretary General Meredith Lee was pleased with how the conference went.
Meredith said that the preparation to run a conference of such a size requires months of planning, even before the school year starts.
“The main work happens over the summer, when we try to write background guides, which is the most difficult work of the conference, because you need to think about what people are going to find interesting, but also what is a pressing issue to talk about,” Meredith said.
The schools whose delegations were present were Darien High School, Pelham Memorial High School, Rye High School, Irvington High School, Brewster High School, Center for Global Studies, and Croton-Harmon High School, resulting in over 200 people signing up. The majority of the schools that participated were public schools, as public schools tend to have a larger number of students who participate in Model UN.
Hackley only had a couple of participants at the conference, and instead had more student volunteers who helped coordinate the food, committees, and other organizational tasks to run the event. This is mainly because the majority of the members of the club are very experienced within Model UN, and the conference was more geared towards those with less experience. In addition to the number of volunteers needed, there were a great number of students from other schools attending. Regardless, without the contributions of the other schools and Hackley students, the conference would not have been as successful as it was.
