Holton-Arms Model United Nations Club (HAMUN) hosted a Model UN meet with about seven schools represented and over 170 delegates in attendance on October 22, 2016. The purpose of this conference is to prepare Middle School and new Upper School students for bigger meets that occur later in the year.
At the Opening Ceremony, HAMUN Club President Acacia Overstreet '17 and Secretary-General Bonnie Akhavan '18 welcomed participants to the conference and introduced keynote speaker, Jeanne Clark, who is the Deputy Director of the Office of Public Affairs, Planning and Coordination in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Clark discussed her work in global affairs, specifically targeting the world hunger initiative, and the importance of the United States' presence in a global context.
Acacia Overstreet '17 addresses HAMUN conference attendees.
After the keynote speaker kicked off the conference, groups of about 15 delegates debated and proposed solutions to key global issues such as women's rights and education, climate change, Zika virus, the Syrian refugee crisis, nuclear non-proliferation, and more. During the dinner break, HAMUN coordinated a bake sale to raise money for the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a non-profit devoted to education and the empowerment of girls in Kenya.
"I feel like Holton's history program was the catalyzing factor in my deep seated appreciation for Model United Nations because the topics we discuss and the way in which we go about doing so, basically force you to analyze the past in a way that was not available to me at the time in which I started. To survive in the Model UN world, you need to be able to see the big picture from a pretty small window (possibly someone else's window, since you usually represent other countries), and you have to analyze the problems of the present in the context of the past to come to any conclusive resolution. What draws me to the club is the fact that I can meet other people who enjoy debating about these complex topics as much as I do, and I actually still keep in touch with a lot of them today even though they live all across the country," shared Bonnie Akhavan '18 on her involvement in Model UN. The conference was informative and successful for all of its participants, and closed with delegate awards.