GW Hosts Over 900 High School Students for Model UN Conference

This past weekend, the Foggy Bottom campus played host to nearly 1,000 delegates participating in the 13th annual Washington Area Model United Nations Conference. Last Thursday marked the opening ceremonies and first committee session, where High School students from all over the world took part in a wide variety of intensive diplomatic simulations.

For the first time, the online Model U.N. resource website Best Delegate covered and promoted the conference. Best Delegate teaches students the skills they need to make a difference. Ryan Villanueva, founder of Best Delegate, gave the Keynote address at the conference’s opening ceremonies.

One of the Conference’s highlights was the unprecedented six-committee historic joint crisis simulation on mid-19th century politics, called “The Age of Imperialism.” Students took on the roles of leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, and the Ottoman Empire.

In keeping with past traditions of raising funds for a charity, this year’s conference collected donations from delegates in each committee for Instituto Mundo Libre, a development non-governmental organization that helps street children in Peru. The committee with the highest donations per capita received a donut party.

Students competed for individual awards as well as collective delegation awards. Cape Coral High School, from Florida, won the Best Large Delegation for the second consecutive year, while New Jersey’s Franklin High School won the Best Small Delegation for the third year in a row.

The conference was staffed and run entirely by current George Washington University students, chairing committees by moderating debate, as well as staffing the crisis simulations.