Dress Rehearsal

Dickinson hosts Model United Nations conference for high-school students

April 3, 2007

High-school students attend a Model UN meeting in Old West's McCauley Room.

Anyone around Old West March 24-25 might have noticed some well-dressed, youthful-looking ambassadors from places such as Japan, Russia, France and China debating the world's problems with considerable passion.

For these roughly two dozen high-school participants in Dickinson's fifth annual Model United Nations (UN) conference, the simulation feels like the real thing.

"Our Model UN conference is a great way for high-school students to learn debate and protocol," says Missy Lafferty '07, president of the Dickinson UN team.

The pre-college participants, coached by their high-school advisers, must intensely prepare for the two-day conference, learning the national interests and positions of the countries they will "represent" and mastering legislative procedure in order to successfully advance their resolutions during the sessions.

As in real life, much of the Model UN's work is done in committee. This year, there were two committees: one dealt with security issues, while the other handled economic matters. The committees debated resolutions on topics such as the militarization of space, cross-border issues in West Africa, sustainable disaster relief and the role of human capital in economic growth.

The members of Dickinson's own Model UN team chair the committee meetings and keep them dynamic, periodically interjecting unanticipated "news bulletins"—announcing the test launch of a nuclear missile by Iran that leaked radiation over a wide area—to force participants to react and reach consensus under pressure.

But the high schoolers aren't the only ones who benefit from the simulated conference. Members of the Dickinson team benefit enormously, too. "Running the committees and working behind the scenes helps us prepare for our own Model UN activities at the collegiate level," says Allie Mayer '09, parliamentarian of the college team and acting "secretary-general" for the high-school conference.

As the conference concludes, all of the participants seem to agree on one resolution, Mayer underscores. "Even if no solution is reached, it's important that there be a forum for debate."