Thorough preparation, hard work, polished proposals and concise debate propelled members of the Traverse City West Senior High School Model United Nations team to numerous honors.
The 32 students, including four foreign exchange students, returned from the Mid American Model United Nations conference, held March 6-10 in Kalamazoo, with multiple delegation, team and individual awards. The annual conference drew hundreds of high school students from around the state, Midwest and Canada and has become an annual honor zone for the school.
For the past two years, West has been named Best Prepared School, a rare feat at the conference. Also notable this year is that senior Andrew Hainen achieved Highest Honors in the Jonathan Perry award, the highest individual award given at the conference. Jalel Nadji, also a senior, was given Second Highest Honors for this award.
"I thought there was no way we could top last year, but we came pretty close,” said Hainen, who represented Italy and plans to study engineering next year in college. "We took 23 percent of the awards.”
Social Studies and video production teacher Charles Rennie is passionate about his Model UN class as well as the issues and processes of the conference. He noted that the skills of research, persistence, public speaking, debate and compromise students master at the fast-paced conference can serve attendees for a lifetime.
"They really take it seriously and it's fun to work with such a bunch of motivated kids,” said Rennie, who noted his students are accomplished in complex UN rules and procedures.
Students from West High School represented Algeria, Angola, Cuba and Italy, countries assigned by lottery, in the general assembly as well as on eight committees plus crisis councils. They grappled with real-life issues and proposed and voted on resolutions throughout the conference, remaining in the character of their assigned country. Some of the issues addressed on various committees included international drug control, eliminating terrorism, deforestation, immigration, crime prevention, nuclear disarmament and limiting military expenditures.
Nolan O'Connor attended the conference for the first time and the junior is eager to return next year. Representing Angola, which is working to rebuild after a 40-year civil war, O'Connor noted that his assigned country's stands were mostly the opposite of the United States'.
"Basically Cuba, Algeria and Angola were anti-Western so we know what the United States' position was and we were just the opposite,” he said.
Ambitious to study international relations at George Washington University after high school, he said the Model UN conference helped broaden his world view on the many problems in the headlines.
"I actually see the world differently now because I realize how hard it is to solve them,” O'Connor noted.
Sophomore Addie Bogan greatly enjoyed the conference and representing Angola on the Social and Human Rights Committee, which held particular interest for her. Her committee addressed issues of refugees, indigenous peoples and women's advancement, passing two resolutions although Bogan noted how hard it was for members even to agree on one.
"I think I honestly learned more at this conference than I could have learned in a semester of world history class,” she concluded of the four-day event. "I spoke on all of those topics as an Angola delegate. It was really hard for everyone to not be an American, you could just tell in the debates, people would want to go toward what we're used to.”