GNS Students Take Part in Yale MUN

February 5, 2021

Academics

GNS

Senior School Model United Nations students had a special opportunity to participate in the Yale Model United Nations Conference. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, the conference was online, which opened up an opportunity to have seven GNS students participate.

At YMUN, delegates had many opportunities to take on specific roles, including GNS students.

Gabby MacPherson – John Neville, War of the Roses (Specialized Committee)
Anders Woodruff – Chinese National Space Administration, 2050 Cyber Summit (Specialized Committee)
Riya Gandhi – John Mowbray, War of the Roses (Specialized Committee)
Hannah Yin – Yang Xiaodu, Politburo of Chinese Communist Party (Specialized Committee)
Brayden Young – Kingdom of Bahrain, NATO (ECOSOC Committee)
Mackenzie Heaney – India, UNDP (ECOSOC Committee)

“I really enjoyed the spicy debate that came as the result of this committee,” explained Riya. “Along with the opportunities that the Dias gave us to stray away from being historically-accurate, allowing us to take more creative liberty in our plans and negotiations. I always learn so much from MUN, but this conference especially encouraged me to think on my feet.”

Taking part in this conference, Mackenzie said, was a great opportunity to experience something new.

“It was super cool to get to go to this conference,” she said. “YMUN was so different from other conferences that I’ve gone to, with the professionality and the funding, that it was an amazing opportunity. It was also a great learning experience.”

High school students from around the world attended the conference.

“The diversity of the people attending the conference and their backgrounds,” explained Mackenzie. “We were discussing such interesting topics that not only was it interesting to hear different country’s opinions, people at the conference were also from all over the world. It made my waking up at 5 a.m. on Saturday feel a lot better because I knew the guy from New Zealand was waking up at 2 a.m.”

Students at the conference were even recognized for their hard work with Delegate Awards. Anders won the Honourable Delegate, Hannah won Outstanding Delegate and Gabby earned Best Delegate.

Way to go to all seven students who participated!