UN Model
For the last seven years BDS has been taking part in the Model United Nations Programme, where secondary students represent delegations belonging to various countries and debate different international issues. The following information has been provided by Mónica Bruck, Head of the Humanities Department, who coordinates this activity.
This year we participated with 14 students: Sofía Gallo Tagle, Francisco García Huidobro, Lucas Gold, Tobías Gómez Bustillo, Natalia Marino, Thomas Page and Gastón Prieto (all from S4) and Eduardo Ameghino, Antonella Gazzani, Juan Cruz Hortal, and Mariano Tortorelli, from S5.
Three of our S6 students: Juan Ignacio Contino, Pelayo González and Axel Szmulewiez volunteered to act as student officers and successfully chaired three different General Assembly Committees. This was the first time that BDS students participated as Chairs and they did a splendid job.
This Model UN in particular was organized by ESSARP and, as all the participating schools were bilingual, for the first time in Argentina the debates were carried out in English. It was a wonderful experience and the students profited immensely from it. They represented the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia and discussed topics like nuclear disarmament, terrorism, womens' rights, migrants' rights, environment and political issues (e.g. the crisis in Libya and Syria).
The Model lasted two days, Friday early in August and was held at St. George´s College, in Quilmes. The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Environment Commission and the ECOSOC, all were able to pass resolutions on each of the debated topics.
Our students worked very hard, became experts on some of the topics and at the same time had fun and met girls and boys from other schools. They were all given certificates of participation and are already looking forward to next year’s Model.
Please see photogallery in the Spanish version of this post.