On November the 5th, twenty-one, year 6 to 13 students traveled to Monterrey, Mexico in order to attend the annual Model UN meetings. Students traveled alongside: Mrs. Ormston, Mr. Bennetts, and Mr. Taylor.
Students spent mornings participating in enjoyable activities; and afternoons, attending an MUN conference.
On the first morning, pupils traveled to the old Monterrey steel museum: a famous museum that was originally a steel factory. Later, the group took a boat through a canal of the city, which showed the beautiful artwork produced by the Monterrey public.
After an exciting first day, students climbed a mountain for their second activity: this allowed students to see the beautiful sights of the country looking over the stunning rocks and houses below. Laura, a year 6 students, climbed the highest on the mountain out of the entire group. After climbing, our students, went on a long hike through the farms on the mountain in order to educate themselves on peoples daily lives in the country they were in.
On the third morning, the group went to ‘colla de cabillo’ or horse’s tail, a large waterfall that was over 50 feet tall. The student got soaked by the powerful sprays of the waterfall. When they were leaving to go get lunch, they met 2 stray dogs, who they named ‘Bob’ and ‘Joe’. Eventually, they left ‘Bob’ and ‘Joe’ to eat their lunch in the town.
When it came to the UN debate simulations, BISW students were split up into different committees, no more than three students from the same school were in the same committee. Therefore, they all have vastly different perspectives and experiences of those simulations.
Arne Tieman, from year 8 stated that the hardest part of the simulations was, “The start because I was not used to it yet.”. While Alex Callinicos thought that, “You have to be confident to get ahead and you cannot be afraid to speak up.”
At the end of the week, the MUN directors gave students awards. Two BISW students got awards for being the best speaker in their committee: Denis and Andre from year 10.
The 21 students learned a great deal of new knowledge about writing position papers (a written paper presenting an argument on an issue), raising their placards, proper language use and public speaking; helping to expand their knowledge of model UN along with the UN’s structure itself.
- Irina Wilderotter, Isabella Podini and Emma van Selm
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