United Nations Club builds student skills
U OF L EVENT BASED ON VENEZUELAN CRISIS
Some Lethbridge students had a chance to take part in global politics this weekend as the University of Lethbridge held its first-ever High School Model United Nations Club.
The two-day conference, which wrapped up on Saturday, showed students how to creatively solve problems and learn to build leadership skills, develop innovative thinking, encourage teamwork, express ideas, and listen to others.
Model United Nations are groups and clubs in education institutions across the world that participate in conferences directed toward past, current, and future issues and events.
These conferences serve to resolve issues in the style of debate held by the United Nations. Many have gained international acclaim for themselves, as well as for the schools which attend them.
“It’s essentially a mock-parliament,” said Emily Gilroy, Secretary General of the event.
“We teach the students how to research leadership, public speaking, and all that great stuff that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.”
This year’s simulation was based on a Venezuelan crisis, and challenged the students to deal with an event which is currently unfolding.
The socio-political situation in Venezuela is a product of years of decision-making and government influence and the world is seeing the results in real time today.
The participants were responsible for taking on the role of one the world’s nations in the Third Committee of a General Assembly of the United Nations.
They were tasked with analyzing the claims of human rights violations in the country and deciding whether or not any action should be taken.
Gilroy said students focused on food and health in Venezuela, and then tried to find a way to deal with refugees.
“At the beginning of (each) conference, they vote on a topic, and at the end of the conference they develop a working paper, which is essentially how we can make this better and f we can get a majority to agree on one thing,” Gilroy said. “And then they move on to the second topic.”
“They’ve done a phenomenal job with their research,” Gilroy said. “It’s been amazing.
The students research the issues at hand, but they also research the countries they represent and their roles on the world stage.
“For example, Venezuela has researched her roles with every other country we have in the UN,” said Gilroy.
“They all essentially try and work together to create a better Venezuela in the end.”
As the first event of its kind for the club, only local students were selected to take part. About 20 students were involved.
“Next year, we will expand into Calgary, then Alberta,” she said. “But we wanted to start small, and get our foot in the door so we know what we’re doing, see how we can make it better and improve and go from there.”