Over 20 Dartmouth students spearheaded the College's first Model United Nations Conference, drawing 140 New England area high-school students this weekend to participate in one of the largest student-organized events held this year.
The student organizers sent invitations and applications to more than 500 New England area high schools and accepted about 200 students out of 300 who applied to come to Dartmouth for the day-long event.
"The conference was wonderful and went smoothly," said Michael Belinsky '08, who is also a member of The Dartmouth staff. "The high school students and advisers that came loved it, and we can do it bigger and better next year."
The conference's creation was sparked at the end of Fall term after Belinsky and other students participated in an International Relations simulation held in Government 5 International Politics with Professor Benjamin Valentino.
The simulation led students to notice the absence on campus of the Model U.N. organization that is popular on many college campuses. In Model U.N., students represent various countries on different U.N. boards and try to solve international issues and crises similar to those presented to the international body.
Although participants at other universities' conferences are current undergraduates, the student organizers of Dartmouth's Model U.N. decided to host high school students.
The Dartmouth Model U.N. conference for college students ended in 1994 when many of the student participants graduated.
"I've always loved the debates, and my favorite part has always been when you see how passionate and involved the students are about their country," David Lamb '08 said.
According to Lamb, his participation in Model U.N. in high school influenced his decision to become involved and assist in the development of the conference for other high school students.
"They get a much more worldly view of events that they may originally only see from a U.S. view, and they also get exposed to issues they may have not thought were important," Lamb said.
Schools with more students attending paid a lower registration fee than schools with fewer participants, and the registration fees helped pay for organizing the event. Student organizers received the majority of their funding, a sum totalling $4,000, from the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and the Council of Student Organizations.
"Rocky, Dickey and COSO were really happy to help us, but they were also concerned about the issue of continuity," Conference Treasurer Janice Wong '08 said. "Initially we were apprehensive because we had to accomplish many things so we were concerned about money. We worked hard to convince them of our idea."
The guest speaker, Aboubacry Tall, Chief of Organization and Development at UNICEF, encouraged the students to become active and push for social change.
Organizers of this weekend's conference hope that Model U.N. will take place next year as well, with members of the '09 class playing greater leadership roles.
"We will now discuss the future just as any organization on campus must do to be successful and ensure a successful transition," Belinsky said.
