The seventh year of the Model United Nations (MUN) club at Mount Madonna School (MMS) got underway recently with a conference at Stanford University. The following MMS high school students participated: Alyssa Feskanin, Lena Wiley, Lexi Julien, Renata Massion and Zoe Kelly, 12th; Isabella Bettencourt, 10th; and Indigo Kelly, ninth, along with honorary member Lekha Duvvoori.
“The best part about Model U.N. is the variety of committees and situations that the students are put in each year at the conferences,” said parent Kaye Feskanin, who has attended the conferences with MMS students for five years. “Some years, students are participants in a crisis committee and are transported back in time to the French Revolution or a civil war and expected to take on the role of that person. They research the time period and then react in character throughout the weekend.”
Student participants reflected on the conference.
“This Stanford MUN conference was the most exciting one yet,” said Massion, a four-year participant. “I was on a crisis committee with the delegates largely in charge of the action (including kidnapping, witchcraft accusations and even a marriage proposal) surrounding the Wars of the Roses. It was amazing having some of my closest friends there with me to talk about the craziness of our action-packed days. MUN is also a unique way to meet new people from all over the globe and hear their stories and perspectives.”
Participants also enjoyed the sometimes-unexpected action during the conference.
“The committees were active and full of excitement, filled with intellectual debate and interactive crises like the kidnapping of members of your committee (the organizers go all out: sometimes they raid your room with water guns and drag someone out of the room in a full on military coup),” Julien said. “This year, I was lucky enough to be on a crisis committee about the Civil War. I was on the Union side and throughout the committee we rewrote history as we created our own solutions to the problem of a divided America.”
The MMS MUN students usually participate in a spring conference hosted by the University of California, Davis. Although this coming spring the seniors will be away at that time (travelling to India through the Values program), Feskanin said an opportunity exists for freshmen, sophomores and juniors to participate at Davis, if there is a parent willing to coordinate and take the lead. She is offering to help an interested parent work through this process.
“Davis is a great introductory assembly,” said Feskanin. “It’s more low-key than Stanford and would be a great starting spot.”
