On November 2nd at Del Valle Education Center, Campo’s Model UN (United Nations) Club – run by co-presidents Lauren Kawamoto (junior) and Cassidy Mintz (junior), as well as co-vice presidents Adam Zheng (sophomore) and Richard Wei (sophomore) – competed in their first Model UN conference of the year. Students discussed and debated in three different committees. Students chose the country they wanted to represent and the issue they wanted to address: food security, nuclear disarmament, or humanitarian relief for Ukraine. 15 Campo delegates represented different countries during the competition.
They performed exceptionally well, winning various awards. As a group, Campo received the Best Overall School Award. Individually, Nico Morando, Cassidy Mintz, Lauren Kawamoto, Riya Shah, Diego Hernandez, Adam Zheng and Leah Campbell all received awards including Best Delegate, Best Position Paper, Outstanding Delegate, Honorable Mention, etc.
Sophomore Diego Hernandez was part of the Food Security committee and won an Outstanding Delegate award. Hernandez represented Panama. “We were talking about climate change and how that affects ice caps melting and causes a lot of weather phenomena – for some places drought, others storms…how that affects people, especially small islands…We also talked about countries and places that have different geological disadvantages” he said.
Heranandez thoroughly enjoyed the conference and appreciated how everyone was “throwing ideas out and listening to each other. It’s a good way to find new perspectives and even if you don’t change your mind you can maybe evolve it and make it grow.”
Sophomore Adam Zheng won Outstanding Delegate and Best Position Paper in the Ukraine Aid committee. He represented Ethiopia. Zheng’s committee discussed “how to get people out of Ukraine in the most humanitarian way…we talked about underground corridors and peaceful negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.” Along with Zheng and others, sophomore Leah Campbell also was in the Ukraine Aid committee. Campbell won Verbal Commendation. Zheng thought “her position paper was great and her speeches were good.”
Campbell said this was her first conference and “it was really fun”. She felt “the chair was really nice…he made sure that everyone knew what they were doing and made sure everyone was comfortable and that’s what made it run so smoothly.” Campbell represented Canada during the conference. She likes to review her position and topic many times. Campbells also “asks friends in Model UN to look over my stuff and we compare things…that’s really helpful.”
At the conference Campbell observed how “Campo kids stuck together and their countries were allies which was helpful because since we knew each other…we could work together” she said.
Hernandez, Zheng, and Campbell all value the unique camaraderie and exposure to a multitude of perspectives and world issues that Model UN provides. “Getting to know people there [at the conference] and see how everyone works differently…how everyone has their own thing to contribute is really cool,” Campbell said.
In March, Campo UN members will attend the Berkeley Model UN conference and plan to continue their hard work and hopefully achieve similar success.
