Model UN at McGill
Model UN Mission from HHS to McGill:
Jonathan Klotz, Henry Butler, Orin Wilcox, Evie Keating, Daniel Slayton, Ryan Farr, Jack Siegel, Angad Singh
Members of the Hanover High School Model United Nations club recently returned from the 20th annual Secondary Schools United Nations Symposium (SSUNS). It was HHS’s first time at the conference at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, and the 18 delegates made a big impact.
We arrived in Montréal after a four-hour bus ride, tired but eager for the conference to begin. After dinner in the city, we attended the opening ceremonies. Complete with a bagpiper, an introduction of the Secretariat (the people who organize the conference), and a guest speaker, the ceremony was impressive.
On Friday, we had a busy day. Starting with our first committee session at 9am, we had over nine hours with our committees. With six delegates on crisis committees representing different positions and 12 delegates in general assemblies representing Cuba and Poland, our chaperones Mr. Prince, Mr. Berube, and Ms Minsberg were busy observing all of the interesting topics that we were discussing. Each committee was different, ranging from a historic crisis talking about the Berlin Conference of 1884 to the World Health Organization talking about the next generation of disease. We had breaks in between committee sessions, which ranged from 2 to 3 1/2 hours. Even though we were exhausted from so many hours of parliamentary procedure, a walk to get cake after the last session was welcomed by everyone.
The next day, Saturday, we had a lighter conference schedule. In the morning, we toured McGill University. It was interesting to walk around the bilingual campus and learn about the school, which has a large, beautiful campus in the middle of Montreal. We then returned to our hotel for an afternoon of committee session. In the early evening, everyone walked around, shopped, and ate dinner then returned to the hotel for a delegate dance and/or free time.
Sunday morning, we packed up and had our last committee session. After much serious debating and problem solving, the delegates were excited to have fun last sessions with joking around, singing, and dancing. We then headed back to Hanover, tired but happy, after a fantastic long weekend full of diplomacy.
All the delegates enjoyed the conference, and everyone was successful. Three delegates got extra recognition in their committees. Angad Singh won the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Award for Diplomatic Finesse after representing Cuba in the World Health Organization, Henry Butler won the Nellie McClung Award for Advocacy for his work as Cuba in the Special Political and Decolonization Committee, and Kelly Gaudet won the Lester B. Pearson Award for Peacemaking after working in the Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau.
HHS Model UN Club’s next conference is at MIT from February eighth to the tenth. A mixed group of new and experienced delegates from HHS look forward to representing Pakistan and other countries at the conference.