Students take on the UN

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

About 140 St. Thomas High School students spent all day last Friday discussing complex topics like Kosovo’s sovereignty and the reform of the United Nations (UN) Security Council – often defending points of view that they didn’t even agree with.

This was all part of the annual St. Thomas United Nations simulation, a school tradition and vivid learning experience that required the Grade 11 World History students to do everything from make the flags and put together appropriate costumes from the countries they represented to research and come up with presentations on the day’s topics that corresponded to their country’s position.

“Sometimes I was reading, going I can’t believe I actually have to do this. We had to hide the fact that we might not agree with what we were saying,” said Lauren Pugh, who was representing Russia for the day. “But, I did get to read about both sides of the story.”

According to teacher and event organizer Joanna Schreyer, with about four weeks of preparation and so many students participating, a lot of work goes into the UN simulation.

“It’s a massive endeavour,” that involves everything from scheduling the simulation, filming the event for evaluation afterwards, to providing breakfast for the students and coordinating gifts for the guest judges, Schreyer said. Two St. Thomas alumni now at McGill University even volunteered to moderate the day-long event.

“The students bring the textbook to life,” Schreyer said. “They get to see how frustrating and difficult such an international process is. They get a sense of reality.”

Concordia University political science professor Michael Lipson and Michael Torunian, a political science master’s student at Concordia were volunteer judges for the UN simulation and said they were happy with the students’ performance.

“We’ve been impressed,” said Torunian. “It’s not easy for students with little exposure to the UN to come up with responses that stay true to the country they are representing.”

The students’ performance was judged on many levels, such as the quality of research, debating style, and public speaking skills.

“It looks like they’ve done their homework,” said Lipson, adding events like this really help students put things into perspective. “I think it gets students thinking about the UN and how different countries look at different issues.”

The students seemed to agree: “It gives you and interesting perspective,” said Kyle Simpson, who was representing Serbia. “You learn it’s a lot more complicated than you might think.”

“I’m really enjoying it,” added United States ‘delegate-for-a-day’ Justin Roy. “It’s cool to see how the world is run. You get to see the kind of action that actually goes on.”