John Jay High School Hosts Model UN

 John Jay High School hosted a Model United Nations Conference on Saturday, November 19. Two hundred and fifty students from fifteen schools including John Jay High School, the Hackley School, Horace Greeley High School, Brewster High School, and Port Chester High School attended.

The day opened with keynote speaker Paul Goodwin, an international lawyer with the United Nations Development Programme at the Social and Environmental Compliance Unit.

This is the third year that John Jay High School has hosted a Model UN Conference. “Model UN is well known at John Jay for being a club that is both rigorous in its expectations and rewarding in all of its opportunities,” said Daniel Gorden, Secretary-General of John Jay High School’s Model UN club, and a senior aspiring to a future in law. “It teaches leadership, diplomacy and negotiation skills, and has a huge influence on our members’ lives; socially, culturally, and academically.”

At Model UN, students step into the shoes of ambassadors of countries that are members of the UN, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. The students, better known as “delegates,” debate current issues on the organization’s vast agenda. They prepare draft resolutions, plot strategy, negotiate with supporters and adversaries, resolve conflicts, and navigate the UN’s rules of procedure – all in the interest of resolving problems that affect the world.

Before playing out their ambassadorial roles in Model UN, students research the particular global problem to be addressed. This year’s topics included Coordinating International Responses to Epidemics of the 21st Century, Cold War II, and the American Revolution.

Model UN delegates learn how the international community acts on its concerns about peace and security, human rights, the environment, food and hunger, economic development, and globalization. 

Picture: John Jay High School Model United Nations Conference III Secretariat and Staff