Melrose Student Earns Prestigious 'Best Delegate' Award

A Melrose High student recently received the Best Delegate award at the Harvard Model United Nations conference.

Rachel Freed, the Secretary General of the Melrose Model UN Club, was one of 13 Melrose students to attend the conference at the Prudential Center on Jan. 29. Three thousand students were there; She was one of 32 that received the Best Delegate honors.

“Rachel’s achievement is a great example of her breadth of knowledge of global affairs,” Principal Jason Merrill said. “We’re extremely proud that she earned the Best Delegate award on behalf of MHS.”

In representing Honduras in the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, Freed and her committee focused on Race and Ethnicity Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Harvard Model UN conference has been providing high school students a chance serve as delegates to individual nations in talks about pressing global issues for more than 60 years, according to a press release. The Best Delegate award is given to students who meet the following criteria:

• Ability to work with and persuade other delegates through in-depth explanations and convincing arguments.
• Quality of position papers.
• Attendance at all committee sessions.
• Exhibition of a desire to compromise, while adhering to the policies and interests of the assigned individual or country.
• Ability to develop and convey pragmatic and actionable solutions, both orally and in written form.
• Exhibition of an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of the topic area(s).
• Skill and effectiveness in caucusing, resolution-writing and debate.

It is not the first time Freed has been honored. As a freshman, she earned a verbal accommodation at the MIT Model UN Conference and an Outstanding Delegate award at at Eagle Model UN Conference, hosted by Boston College. She received Outstanding Delegate honors at the Harvard Model UN her junior year.