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Old Boys' News
Students headed to United Nations
On March 9, Abhinav Gupta 2009 will lead a delegation of Selwyn House students to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. These students are the Selwyn House Model United Nations team, and they are preparing to represent the nation of Qatar at the 2017 National High School Model United Nations.
It’s the culmination of the Model United Nations (or MUN) program that has recently been gathering steam at SHS.
MUN has been one of Abhinav’s obsessions for ten years, ever since his Grade 9 year at Selwyn House. At that time, with the initiative of Senior English and Debate teacher Jonathan Bracewell, and support from Old Boy Vince Guzzo ’86, he helped assemble a MUN club. Unfortunately, the club folded after three years.
Undeterred, Abhinav continued with MUN at Marianopolis and then at McGill, where he was pursuing an honours political science / economics degree. Both those institutions have very active and renowned programs in what is becoming an increasingly popular academic extracurricular, with thousands of students participating around the world at high-school and and university levels.
Marianopolis is “extremely competitive” in MUN, says Abhinav—with more than 100 applicants usually whittled down to 60 club members. At Marianopolis, “You spend more time on MUN than you do on academic courses.”
McGill, on the other hand, has nearly 500 students involved in MUN conferences. Abhinav was on the secretariat of the McGill Model United Nations Assembly for two years, and served as a member of McGill’s delegation to competitions in Washington, DC, at Georgetown, the University of Virginia, and others.
“At Selwyn House, I wanted it to be an extracurricular that’s structured like an academic course,” says Abhinav. “It’s both curriculum and club.”
“At some schools, it’s a full-time course—some schools even structure it so that you don’t pass unless you’ve earned an award at a conference, but that’s not what we want to do here,” he says.
Two years ago Abhinav returned to Selwyn House to encourage the school to revive MUN. With Middle School géographie teacher Sylvain Decelles signing on as the faculty advisor, the programme was finally rekindled.
For MUN conferences, delegations are assigned a country to represent in various committees and bodies. They must study that country’s position on topics, requiring them to also familiarize themselves with its history, culture, issues and policies.
“It’s as grounded in reality as possible,” Abhinav points out. “The level of research is requires both breadth and depth; it requires a great amount of reading on the topics at hand.”
Abhinav describes MUN as “an extracurricular that’s structured like an academic course.” As he preps the team for conferences, he aims to teach them basic concepts in political science and international relations, and coach them in how to research, write position papers and legislation, debate, and negotiate.
Over the February 11-12 weekend at Marianopolis, Selwyn’s MUN team, comprised of Giuliano Cucciniello, Noah Gelber, Harry Hosker, Luke Kalaydjian, Sean Watson, and Ian Mahutte, attended their very first competition, where they also faced CEGEP teams. “I’m very proud of their performance,” says Abhinav. “They went above and beyond.”
On March 9, they will travel to New York City to compete in the largest high-school MUN in the world, held at the actual United Nations. There, the Selwyn MUN team will also have the rare opportunity to get a mission briefing from the Qatari Permanent Mission to the UN. Both the opening and closing ceremonies for the conference will be held in the same iconic hall that houses the UN General Assembly.
Competition can take place in a simulation of UN General Assemby bodies, or in smaller national or regional committees or cabinets. Delegates are assigned either a country or character, and have to use what portfolio powers they have to resolve topics of international import, or even crises. Where characters are portrayed, they must establish both committee and personal goals while they deal with things such as economic crises, wars, or natural disasters, with detailed proposals and legislation.
With some conferences, the resolutions that come out of the Model UN are forwarded to the real UN, to be considered as policy recommendations.
Delegates are judged on the quality of their debate and proposals, the degree of diplomatic cooperation and/or ability to manipulate other countries or country blocs, and whether or not their proposals or legislation passes in committee.
“For us, the idea is to appreciate the complexities of what people from these countries deal with. Values may vary, but the belief in the utility of diplomacy does not.”
Harley Nadler works as a stagière and coaches with Abhinav at Selwyn House. The two of them have been doing MUN since they met at Marianopolis. He says MUN teaches students about international relations, the country and committee to which they are assigned, and refining negotiation tactics.
“We’re doing it as a learning experience,” he says. “The students will be dealing with the same issues of the day that the UN will be dealing with.”
“Perspective is the main thing MUN gives you,” says Abhinav. Students may come to realize how much our preconceptions colour our views of other countries. “The idea is to appreciate the complexities of what the people from these countries deal with. To be able to actually understand what’s going on in the world.”
MUN, he says, “Gives you an understanding of the world that is unique and important.”
Worldwide, Model United Nations dates back to Harvard University in 1927, as a simulation based on the League of Nations. Five years ago, the UN reportedly estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 high school and university students were participating at conferences annually.
