Grace Paparo and Lily Loewenguth
Staff Writers
The Jamesville-DeWitt High School’s Model United Nations recently returned from two conferences, one in Rochester and one, locally, at Manlius Pebble Hill. The team did “really well, probably the best JD has done in a while,” said club president junior Alan Gao.
For the first conference of the year, MUN went to MPH on Oct. 21. When students attend conferences they talk about real world issues in the perspective of a country. “The person who stays true to the policies of the country, (the) student who speaks persuasively, and who works well with others is the person who is going to win an award,” said club adviser and social studies teacher Donna Oppedisano. Sophomore’s Josh Hillers and Eva Schooler won “outstanding delegate,” senior Somil Aggarwal won “best delegate,” and both junior Aliyah Kilpatrick and sophomore Aniket Maini won an honorable mention.
Freshman Max Mimargolu, also won “best new delegate” despite being a new member of MUN. He said he won the award by “getting out there and speaking (in front of people).” According to other members of the club, such as sophomore Pranathi Adhikari, who is the club’s treasurer, many students win awards by being an “outspoken delegate” which means “talking a lot and having good ideas.”
On Nov. 3, MUN traveled to Hilton High School in Rochester for their annual conference Brighton High School, another school who attends the conference, is known for “dominating that conference but we came very close (to winning),” said Gao; “many of our new delegates did really well.” “We did historically well in Rochester… close to 70 percent of the students at the conference won an award,” said club adviser and social studies teacher Vitaliy Yanchuk. Each committee debated, found resolutions, tried to get other people on board and finally pass those resolutions. Sophomore Wynnie Gross says that “it was shocking how well we did considering lot of our best delegates were chairs,” meaning you can’t win an award, only reward them to other delegates.
The club teaches its members how to implement research, speak in public, have an open mind and use active thinking skills. “The Model U.N club gives kids a chance to choose a country, do research, and represent their country at a conference,” said Yanchuk. It also helps create an aspect of a school community through teamwork and independent leading roles.
You may find more information about chairs and committees at http://www.hilton-mun.org/
