The Model United Nations (Model UN) club competed in a tournament at Diablo Valley College (DVC) on November 1-2. The team was divided into groups representing different countries, then debated international and domestic issues in committees.
The groups were challenged to represent the countries’ particular interests. The teams were awarded points in the tournament according to how often they participated.
Model UN met on Wednesday at lunch prior to the conference to discuss their assigned countries. Outside of school, participants researched facts about their country and their committee issues in preparation for the tournament.
The committee meetings, each comprised of about 25 students, were held in DVC classrooms.
Senior Tristan Caro represented Germany. He is the Campo committee chair for Human Rights Council (HRC), meaning he is responsible for preparing new delegates. “I joined Model UN because I wanted to get a real feel of how the real United Nations work,” said Caro.
Before the tournament, Caro felt “confident because the team did well last year.”
“We were prepared to various degrees because in Model UN each person gets out what they put in. Spencer gave us all the advice and recourses to be on top of our game,” Christina Beck said.
“I feel that people are pretty prepared for the tournament, but the performance depends on people’s personal willpower to debate,” said Caro.
Senior Spencer Nichols is the president of the Campolindo Model UN club. Nichols has been in Model UN for 3 years. “I really wanted to do Model UN to cap off my experience. It is something I hope to do in college. Having more accolade than everybody else is beneficial for doing that,” said Nichols.
“We [the team] didn’t do as well as I originally hoped in the tournament, but I was pretty pleased with the outcome. We had a lot of new kids step up and debate some good view points,” said Nichols.
History teacher Molly Kerr recommended Model UN for Nichols because of his debate skills in AP European History. Kerr has been hosting Model UN for 9 years.”It’s great to have students learn about the United Nations,” said Kerr.
According to Nichols, the team did a lot of research to understand countries’ view points and come up with solutions for a country’s problems. “I spent much more time this year researching and writing speeches in advanced and I did better than ever before in the tournament,” said Beck. “With model UN there is always room for improvement.”
Some other teams at the debate were Miramonte, Acalanes, Dougherty Valley, and Cal High. Cal High ended up winning and Dougherty Valley took 2nd place.
“Model UN is a great way to learn how to debate and it is beneficial for debate skills,” said Nichols. “I look forward to seeing how the team performs in the future.”
