Four Williams Lake secondary school students recently participated in an annual global conference in the Lower Mainland.
Ella Kruus, Journey Carlson-Campbell, Isabelle Cameron and Winnie Lee from Lake City Secondary School travelled to Vancouver on March 1 to participate in the Canada International Model United Nations (CAIMUN), which would be an intense weekend of delegation.
Every year, over 1,000 participants from around the world and over 100 schools gather in Vancouver to stimulate over 20 committees that address world political issues. Students, the delegates, represent a country or position in a committee, and they debate their topics over the weekend to address and solve the issues in this simulation of the UN’s assemblies and other governmental organizations, such as the British Parliament, Asian Cooperation Dialogue, United States Senate and many more.
The Lake City Secondary delegation represented four different countries, with Kruus representing Denmark, Carlson-Campbell representing Ireland, Cameron representing Iceland and Lee representing Lithuania. Together, they served on the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) where they drafted two multilateral resolutions — one mitigating the effects of climate change on international peace and security and the other resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Kruus calls the experience “one of the best weekends ever,” and was proud to represent her father’s home country.
“I met so many intelligent and kind people from all over the world,” she said. “Model UN furthered my hope in our generation’s ability to resolve global conflicts in a peaceful, equitable way.”
They also served on an emergency crisis committee and attempted to reverse the effects of a covert, state-sponsored group of hackers that brought down the global internet.
Cameron explains that while she was originally skeptical about participating in Model UN and was unsure of what to expect, but is glad she took part.
“This experience was very enriching, as it taught me to express myself confidently and learn new things that I would have never known,” she said. “It was a fantastic experience, I will definitely take part next year.”
Lee shares similar sentiments as Kruus and Cameron, calling the conference a “truly memorable experience.”
“Seeing 1,000 participants around the world grouped together, talking about international problems and getting to be a part of it felt unreal,” she said. “I am very grateful and looking forward to the next Model UN.”
Robert Fahoum, teacher and head of the humanities department at Lake City, accompanied his students on their trip to Vancouver.
“This was a completely new experience, as it was the first Model UN conference for all of our delegates,” he said. “To prepare for the conference, Ella, Journey, Isabelle and Winnie thoroughly researched the topics as well as their respected country’s current and historic stance.”
Fahoum explained that the students would meet every Tuesday at lunch to discuss formal procedures, in preparation for the busy conference, which he called an intense weekend.
The Lake City delegates were in committee from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday night, right after making the drive down to Vancouver. An early morning followed, with a 9 a.m. start until 2 p.m. on Saturday, and then a 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. schedule on Sunday wrapped up the conference before Fahoum and his students returned to Williams Lake for school the next day.
“They were absolutely amazing and made Lake City Secondary very proud,” Fahoum said.
Fahoum also said that he and his team are grateful to their local Parent Advisory Council (PAC) for their generous donation that made the entire trip possible.
Kruus also adds that she plans on taking part in next year’s Model UN in her grade 12 year, and has put out a call for new delegates.
“New members are totally welcome, so pop by to Mr. Fahoum’s room on Tuesday at lunch to join,” she said. “Shoutout to Mr. Fahoum, Isabelle, Winnie, Journey, my mom, all the delegates of DISEC and the secretariat of CAIMUN for making this such a great experience.”
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