Over President’s Day Weekend, Ms. O’Brien and eleven RMA students went to Durham to participate in Duke University’s Model United Nations Conference. Model UN is a college student run conference where high school students from all over America can come to make legislation for a specific country. Students attending the conference were assigned a country and given the task to act as representatives from that country to solve issues in conjunction with other representatives from different countries. Various topics of debate include vaccination and gender equality. DUMUNC has offered the attending students an opportunity to collaborate with many different people from around the country, as well as a chance to experience important skills such as compromise and teamwork.

Sign-ups for Model UN began back in September. With the leadership of Ms. O’Brien, participants from RMA were quickly placed in Categories: UNICEF (immunizations, gender equality, and children with disabilities), UNODC (human trafficking, drugs, crime), and WHO (vaccinations and health issues).  Emma Grace Sprinkle, a delegate from Kenya, relentlessly fought for third world countries’ rights for help in human trafficking. “DUMUNC was an amazing experience that showed us how international relations, diplomacy, and the UN work. I had so much fun, met so many new people, and hope to go back next year!” said Emma Grace when asked about her delegate experience Gracie Cox, a delegate from Germany, worked in partnership with various countries to help those in need of vaccination. The delegate experience offered nine of our very own RMA students practice in drafting resolutions, research, and cooperative working. Davis Brown and Colby Kirkpatrick opted to participate in Model UN’s Senate. In the Senate Colby and Davis took on the views of a current United States Senator and drafted and passed bills with other senators. Topics that were debated included energy and public education. “It was basically like House of Cards in real life.” said Davis about the Senate experience. “It got pretty competitive in between party lines, but nonetheless everyone had a ton of fun.”  While DUMUNC might seem like all work and no play, attendees certainly has some downtime. The already close RMA delegates wandered around the beautiful (and chilly) town of Durham while eating at local restaurants and making new friends. On the last night of the conference, DUMUNC provided everyone with a “delegate dance” as a perfect way to spend the last night.

All of RMA’s attendees agreed that Model UN was a rewarding experience. While this was the students’ first conference, they definitely showed that they will be a major force in conferences to come.