On November 13, the HMHS Model UN traveled to the Camden County Technical School in Sicklerville for one of the first meetings of the year. Several schools including Moorestown and Bordentown gathered together to discuss topics surrounding the importance of protecting marginalized people. 

First, students were sorted into committees one week prior to the conference. This included groups for ensuring equal treatment of girls and women in justice systems, preserving languages and culture, promoting sustainable foreign investment in formerly colonized states, and more. This also included specialized groups, based off of both real events (such as the Tiananmen Square Protests) and fictional ones (Avatar the Last Airbender). Students could either take up the roles as delegates or chairs (leaders of the committee). “My experience of being a chair was much different than my experience as a delegate,” expressed Fiona Currie, a HMHS MUN officer who was chairing for the first time this conference, “From the very start of getting your assignment, you go through and read the brief, but I wasn’t reading it from a specific point of view or country’s wants/needs. I was reading the brief with an eye towards broad possibilities for solutions rather than worrying about the specifics.”

Another exciting twist for the conference was the addition of crisis committees. Created by the Camden County Technical School participants, at some point during every committee’s debates, someone would come in and declare an emergency that caused delegates to think outside of the box and deal with something on the fly. These included anything from the decline of the American dollar, to a hate crime relating to a modern genocide in China. Even though these issues were not real, they mirrored actual possibilities, and caused those involved to deal with hard issues and come up with creative solutions. 

At the end of the conference, awards were given based on committee for achievements such as best position paper (the research everyone must complete for the conference), best delegate overall, and honorable mentions. This year, HMHS can look forward to a few more conferences around the area, all leading up to HadMUN, the one our own school will be hosting.