An All-Star delegation from the Southeastern High School Model UN program attended the 35th annual National High School Model United Nations Conference in March in New York City and bested over 100 teams to garner one of three Awards of Excellence. Six students from Girls Preparatory School, two from McCallie, and one each from Baylor and Soddy Daisy were among the local delegates who represented the country of Spain.

Opening and closing ceremonies and the general assembly meeting were held at the United Nations, and committee sessions over the four-day conference occurred off-site. “The award was a huge shock,” says GPS junior Taylor Dickinson, who will serve as SHSMUN’s Secretary General next year. “We competed against 3,000 other delegates and much larger teams.” Dickinson and GPS sophomore Shyama Appareddy were chosen to speak at the general assembly and on behalf of the UNICEF and Commission on the Status of Women committees.

The Southeastern delegation also had a chance for a one-on-one meeting with the Spanish mission at the U.N. and spent a full morning discussing their concerns about top issues considered by the international body: disarmament, humanitarian, international security, health, and status of women. Scott Warren, advisor to the GPS Model UN club, describes the delegation’s level of debate and understanding of multilateralism as “outstanding.”

Presenting the award to the delegation was 2005 GPS graduate Nancy Henry, currently a senior at Tufts University and one of the top three directors at the national conference.
NHSMUN seeks to simulate “international diplomacy with the mandate of educating high school delegates from across the globe about real-world solutions to some of the most eminent crises that threaten the political stability of an increasingly-globalized society.”