Arlington Regional Model UN High School Club Rocks Conference

The ARMUN (Arlington Regional Model UN Clubs) High School Club participated in the Brown University Simulation of the United Nations Conference on the Brown University Campus in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend, from noon Friday, November 10, to 5 p.m. Sunday, November 12.

There were six members of the ARMUN Program who have spent the past two months preparing for this weekend, and had a very good and successful experience at the conference. The students were: Charlotte Kilroy, ninth grade, of Arlington; Thyra Roller, 10th grade, and Nicole Hu, 10th grade, of Winchester High School; Gabriello Adler-Abramo, 12th Grade, of Medford; Adam Goulet, 11th grade, of Waltham; and Tyler McNally, of Orange County, CA, formerly of Saugus, MA but most recently of Cuba for the past two years, who joins the club's meetings each week via skype.

The students were on a variety of committees addressing a huge range of topics— both current and historical — at this conference. The topics included everything from Thyra Roller representing Henry Dawkins, a Member of Parliament, in the Historical Committee of the British Parliament of 1761 which debated issues of slavery in the colonies, taxation to cover the war debt, and radicalism at home in England, to Charlotte Kilroy and Gabriello Adler-Abramo's African Union Committee which was discussing the very current and urgent issues of the instability in the Sahel Region of Africa, the shrinking of Lake Chad and the environmental issues, economic issues, and the variety of other related issues that are going along with that very real and present problem, and the need to rebuild and create a strong and stable infrastructure in South Sudan and Sudan in order to support stability and stop the violence in those countries. Gabriello represented Uganda and Charlotte represented Lesotho, and both of them took a position on all 3 major topics that emphasized strengthening the African Union and finding African-based solutions for the issues rather than looking to Europe or the US to provide solutions.

Nicole Hu was also on a present day General Assembly Committee — the United Nations Environmental Program, where she represented Bangladesh in the debate around creating affordable ways for undeveloped nations to engage in sustainable development and on the issue of the use of microfinance as a means to break the poverty trap in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Both Adam Goulet and Tyler McNally were in committees designated as Crisis Committees, which means the situation they were addressing constantly changed and developed in somewhat unpredictable ways based partially on what the participants did thrpughout the conference. Tyler was in a Joint Crisis Committee, which is when there are two committees set in the same situation which can interact and have effects on each other, and his was set as the Cuban Revolution in 1965 with a Cuban Cabinet committee, which is where Tyler spent his weekend, and a US Presidents Council committee. Then Adam was in the Singapore 1961 Committee, and they had the task of dealing with a very big problem of internal discontent and dissatisfaction as they attempted to set up a new government, and with separatist movements that wanted to divide the nation as they were trying to form a united government of the people, as well as with very big problems in terms of the actual situation in their country that they had to find ways to address. Adam's committee got called for an emergency session, a "midnight crisis meeting" from midnight to 3 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning so urgent was the work they were trying to do at that point in the conference.

All of the students did a great job and were active participants and played a role in the forming of the end resolutions or solutions the committee adopted. However, Gabriell0 Adler-Abramo was awarded a special honor, he received the Honorary Delegate award for the African Union Committee, which is the 3rd highest honor a delegate can receive at this conference and quite a distinction to be singled out and recognized in this manner. ARMUN is very proud of Gabriello and congratulates him on this honor, as they congratulate all 6 students for their participation and performance in this conference.

The next thing for these students is the Yale Model UN Conference January 18 - 21, 2018. Eleven students from ARMUN are attending that conference. Then in early April a group will be attending the Dartmouth Model UN Conference, and there is still time to get signed up to be a part of that team. We will also attend the UNAGB RMUN Conference at Northeastern on a Friday in mid-May and welcome anyone who would like to join us for that.

ARMUN also has a middle school club that will be participating in a number of one-day, local conferences this winter and spring. If you would like more information about either club or ARMUN in general feel free to check out our weebly site (www.arlingtonregionalmun.weebly.com) or to email our Director Kim Holt at kimkayholt@gmail.com.