Worldly experience for high school club
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
It was a weekend of debating issues affecting the world, but instead of world leaders sitting at the United Nations, it was a group of students.
Strathmore High School was able to send one team of four students to the Model United Nations Conference Feb. 27 and 28 to represent the country of South Korea.
“It was good because we got a seat on the human rights council, which is pretty good,” said Christine Magill, teacher in charge.
The group of four students – Lyndsay Helfrich, Zack Neale, Colt Phillips and Jordan Kraft – joined approximately 200 other high school students at the University of Calgary to debate issues affecting people across the globe.
They were assigned South Korea before the conference, to be able to research the country, its foreign policy and who would be their allies.
The team said it was hard to research South Korea because there isn’t a lot of information and a lot of it was censored.
The information they gathered was then brought to each different board they sat on, such as the general assembly, political, special political and disarmament committee, economic social and cultural committee and security council.
The goal of the week is to draft, mobilize support for and introduce resolutions outlining a plan of action to deal with issues, keeping in line with their country’s values and interests.
The debated topics included controlling illicit small arms, human trafficking including child labour, resources extraction in Africa and conflicts between human rights, counter terrorism and sustainable development.
“It was a blast,” said Jordan Kraft, a grade 11 student.
Colt Phillips said it was a good learning experience and there were lots of well-researched students with good views.
“It’s a good place to meet a lot of good people, meet a lot of friends and see what it’s like to be a world leader,” said Phillips.
But it wasn’t all work, as the students all took a break on Feb. 28 to watch the Canada versus United States Olympic gold medal hockey game.
A banquet and award ceremony were also held.
The Model UN conference has been held at the University of Calgary for the past 25 years.
amy@strathmoretimes.com