Leighton Young Garners Model UN Award
Nine members of Rivers’ Model United Nations Club participated in the 20th anniversary Model UN Conference at the University of Connecticut this past weekend. Three hundred students from 20 schools were delegates, finding solutions for world problems through simulations and substantive debate on 15 committees in sessions that began on Friday evening and continued through Sunday afternoon. Rivers’ representatives included Nora Brown ’19, Matthew Cronin ’19, Amanda Gary ’22, Matt Jones ’19, Hannah Lapides ’22, Isabel Salvin ’20, Nico Stuart ’21, Parker Weil ’19, and Leighton Young ’19, who was chosen as the best delegate on the Joint Crisis Committee.
Rivers students participated on seven of the committees, covering a wide range of topics, countries, and time periods. Leighton Young represented George Talbot on Queen Elizabeth I’s Privy Council, charged with ensuring that Elizabeth would be able to ascend, and preserve her position on, the throne as was promised by her royal sister. Also on the Joint Crisis Committee, Isabel Salvin represented George Gordon on Mary Queen of Scots’ Privy Council, protecting Mary’s position on the Scottish throne from the Protestants of Scotland and the new Protestant monarch to the South.
Hannah Lapides represented Japan on the Commission on the Status of Women, which debated two current topics - one concerning health problems that disproportionately affect women of low economic status and the second concerning gender inequities in the workforce. Matthew Cronin represented Japan and Nico Stuart represented Kuwait on the United Nations Environment Programme which debated both coral bleaching and air pollution. Matt Jones represented the United Kingdom on the United Nations Human Rights Council, which focused on the human rights violations arising from unethical detention procedures, as well as current issues of freedom of press.
Amanda Gary represented Japan for the World Health Organization which tackled genome editing and refugee healthcare, while Nora Brown represented Spain on the Counter-Terrorism Committee, dealing with the prevention of homegrown terrorist attacks and cyberterrorism. Finally Parker Weil represented the Russian Federation on the United Nations Security Council discussing international help in Somalia as well as instability in the Korean Peninsula.
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