Trumbull Model UN Finds Success this Winter

Trumbull’s Model UN Team Finds Success this Winter

Written by Michael Zabin, THS ‘15

                Over the last few weeks, Trumbull High School’s Model United Nations club attended two conferences, Yale Model United Nations in New Haven, Connecticut from January 24th – 27th and Johns Hopkins Model United Nations in Baltimore, Maryland from February 7th – 10th, 2013.

                These conferences were a simulated United Nations, where students represented a country within a committee.  Before the actual conference, students researched their country and topic, and wrote a position paper on their topics in order to be prepared for debate.  At the conference, students worked to solve issues of the world that ranged from hunger in Nigeria, to unauthorized nuclear usage in North Korea.  In order to solve these problems, students debated, created working papers with their potential solutions, networked with other nations, and eventually wrote a resolution, which is the final solution to the issue. The conferences help students build important skills, such as public speaking and working in a group. As senior Christopher LoBosco said ”YMUN taught me how to assert myself. Because I represented Cuba, a nation without a space program, in COPUOS a committee dedicated to the uses of outer space, no one wanted to listen to me. So, I had to make them want to listen to me. My experience at YMUN taught me how to do just that. In the end, I learned that the biggest contribution you can give to your committee is not your country’s resources or votes, it is your ideas.” 

                Trumbull High School did considerably well at both conferences.  Both of these conferences are international competitions that host over 1,000 students from around the nation and the world.  Trumbull competed against the top schools in the Model UN circuit and came home with a total of six awards.  

                The following is the list of students who attended the conference at Yale University:  Seniors, Lily Bauer, Kevin Bielicki, Brandon Capece, Augustine Haam, Gulrukh Haroon, John Labella, Usha Latif, Evan LeClair, Chris LoBosco, Ryan McEniry, John McGeorge, Jeff Netting,  Ryan Norton, Marissa Piccolo, Nicole Wittstein, juniors TJ Ieronimo, Kunal Jhaveri, Chitra Nidadavolu, Rakshana Selvarajan, Jack Zhang, and sophomores Thaddeus Cullina,  Haley DeWeese, Dan Netting, Michael Zabin.

                Trumbull High School took home four awards at Yale University.  Michael Zabin ‘15 won the Best Delegate Award and Model UN “Gavel” for his work as Reporter Goldberg from the New York Times in the Press Corps.  Nicole Wittstein ‘13 won the Outstanding Delegate Award for her work as Cuba in the UN Committee on Sustainable Development and Ryan McEniry ‘13 also won the Outstanding Delegate Award for his work as Cuba in the Special Summit on Technology Committee. Finally, Evan LeClair ’13 won the Honorable Mention Award for this work as Alan Shi in the Hong Kong Reunification Advisory Board Council.

                Not only was Trumbull successful, but the students had a great experience, as club President Brandon Capece ‘13 said “my fourth and final YMUN was everything I could have wanted from it. I participated in the Patriot Conspiracy Committee, a fictional committee occurring at the crux of a futuristic Sino-American War. The Crisis staff and dais team were able to organize themselves to provide something that was both fun and able to offer delegates the ability to experience the immediate and long term consequences of decision making. It was easily the best committee that I've ever been on.” 

                In February, the team fifteen students traveled to Baltimore to compete in John Hopkins Model UN Conference (JHUMUNC).  The competition included 1,700 students from around the country and world.  Evan LeClair ‘13 won Honorable Mention for his work as Francois Joachim Esnue Lavallee (Girondin) in the historical committee on the French Revolution. Evan’s committee had more than 100 members in it and he was named as the third best delegate.  Ryan Norton ‘13 won Honorable Mention for his work as Sr. Pasqual Maragall Mira, the former president of Catalonia in the historical committee on the Catalonian Secession. 

                This was the first time at JHUMUNC for the delegate from Trumbull which included seniors Brandon Capece, Augustine Haam, Usha Latif, Evan LeClair, Keyla Meija, Jeff Netting, Ryan Norton, Nandhu Sajeev, junior TJ Ieronimo, and sophomores Gabe Calderon, Haley DeWeese, Nick Lozinak, Samuel Nguyen, Daniel Ostrander, Adam Skudlarski.

                After having great success at the two conferences, the Model United Nations club still has much more to do before the end of the year.  In April, the club will attend another conference at Dartmouth University and hopes to continue on its successful path.  In addition, the club will host its third annual Trumbull Model United Nations Invitational on Saturday, May 18th at the high school.  This conference will be run by the Trumbull Model UN club as they host students from the tri-state area in a one-day conference setting.