Student successes abound at Model United Nations Conference

By Mackey Luffman, Model UN Advisor/HS History Teacher

What can we say? We're good at this.

USN’s community has some rituals timed to the seasons, so as the temperatures drop at night and leaves turn color, USN students engage in predictable habits. The Cross Country teams compete for state championships; the cast and crew of the HS musical kick into ‘high gear’ with their rehearsals; the news hounds and foreign policy ‘addicts’ among the HS student body head down to Murfreesboro and participate in the Model United Nations conference sponsored by the YMCA of Middle Tennessee’s Center For Civic Engagement. This year, 82 USN high school students kept USN’s tradition of providing leadership from the front, in the middle, and at the end of the conference components! 

Leading from the front of this year’s conference was Binyam Dunne ‘26, serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations, the senior student officer position at the conference! Binyam was also the third USN student to be elected SecGen in five years, following Greta Li ‘22 and Brendan West ‘25. Lin Zheng ‘26 served as a General Assembly Vice-President and shared responsibilities with other elected student officers to facilitate debates in the General Assembly and its committees. 

This year’s seniors continued our tradition of leadership in the General Assembly. Maeve Stevenson ‘26, Jaymin Pastakia ‘26, and Laura Fonseca ‘26 were joined by newcomer Claire Ward ‘26 to represent Canada; MUN regulars Luc Behague-Menzel ‘26, Paulo Saoud ‘26, Ebe Asfaw ‘26, and Mack Cohen-Poole ‘26 represented Sudan for their ‘victory lap’ conference! Veteran senior award-winner Z Aulino ‘26 recruited newcomers Talon Shirley ‘26, Lila Hemphill ‘26, and Sophie Oliver ‘26 to help represent Denmark, and along the way earned Z’s second straight Outstanding Resolution Award for their resolution allocating more resources for reducing incidents of torture among member nations.

The junior class also provided role models in the different components of the conference. While not running for office for next year’s conference, Ruchika Ramachandran ‘27 and Bridget Beem ‘27 joined with Mia Orefice ‘27 and Norah Harrison ‘27 to represent Equatorial Guinea and shepherd their General Assembly resolution onto the docket, where it passed with flying colors. Jack Fruin ‘27, Jack Barocas ‘27, Harry Stahl ‘27, and Isaac Eeds ‘27 represented Israel, and Fruin’s contributions to debate and diplomacy at the conference earned him an Outstanding Statesman Award.

Ruby Meador ‘28, Lulu Rose Gilberd ‘27, Alayna Thompson ‘27, and Adelaide Ritter ‘27 represented Belize and won an Outstanding Resolution Award for their resolution, which devoted more resources to mitigating the effects of climate change on coastlines and coral reefs! Fellow juniors Aaron Raney ‘27, Teague McMillan ‘27, and Ben Beckerman ‘27 represented Trinidad and Tobago, while classmates Jack Barrett ‘27, AJ Truss ‘27, Asher Freiberg ‘27, and Evan Valentine ‘27 represented Kiribati and worked their resolution onto the General Assembly docket. Rounding out the junior class delegations were Joey Fried ‘27, Jayden Charnpanichkarn ‘27, and Daniel Law ‘27, representing Japan, and Olivia Brown ‘27, Laila Fierce ‘27, and Theo Burgess ‘27, representing Estonia. 

The junior class also tested the other components of the conference. Charlie Hall ‘27 and Elisabeth Crane ‘27 were selected to join the staff of the Department of Global Communications, and for his efforts, Charlie won the Outstanding Communications delegate award! Charlie was also selected to be the Video Editor for next year’s DGC staff.

Over in the Security Council, Julia Young ‘27 represented France, while Aria Little ‘27 represented Slovenia. Julia was selected to be the Security Council Liaison for next year’s conference.

In the Secretariat, Caroline Stinner ‘27 was a UN agency commissioner and successfully guided a resolution addressing data-sharing by member-nation law enforcement agencies through the plenary session of the General Assembly.

USN sophomores were also present. Maya Boyapati ‘28, Eesha Nachnani ‘28, Mary Kate Adler ‘28, and Sparrow Lucca ‘28 represented Malawi; Charlotte Soslow ‘28, Dalton Dervan ‘28, Alice Cramer ‘28, and Devin McAteer ‘28 represented Iceland; Hannah Mackler ‘28, Madeline Shinohara ‘28, Jada Rudow ‘28, and Audrey Ilagan ‘28 represented Zambia; Houston Hirt ‘28, Abe Sharfstein ‘28, and Aidan Harris ‘28, represented Oman; Asha Guha ‘28, and Suzie Zhao ‘28 represented Niger. 

Rounding out the sophomore delegations were Greta Molvig ‘28 and Penny Borinstein ‘28, representing Slovenia; their resolution to create legal protections for climate migrants won an Outstanding Resolution Award! Greta also won an Outstanding Statesperson Award for her efforts in debate. She joins such USN legends as Tessa Chomsky ‘25, Brendan West ‘25, and Maddie Ewing ‘24 in winning both awards in the same conference. 

Ninth graders accepted the challenge also! Madison Rhodes ‘29, Surina Birdee ‘29, Kenzie Burke ‘29, and Layla Jahangir ‘29 represented Nigeria and won an Outstanding Resolution Award for their resolution to increase World Health Organization funding for malaria-fighting efforts! Other ninth-grade delegations included Haiti (Samantha Wang ‘29, Elinor Bird ‘29, Genevieve Pace ‘29, and Roshni Bandyopadhyay ‘29), Singapore (Oliver Burnette ‘29, Oren Schwartz ‘29, and Kosta Rokas ‘29), Lebanon (Elsa Absi ‘29, Clio Cherry-Pulay ‘29, and Arianna Washington ‘29), and Bahrain (Asher Huffman ‘29, Max Parker ‘29, Veer Kodali ‘29, and Anand Sherman ‘29). Arianna won an Outstanding Statesperson Award for her participation in debate in the General Assembly and its committees.

Finally, the icing on the figurative cake was Secretary-General Binyam Dunne ‘26 winning the Joe Rogers Outstanding Servant Leader Award as the “best” student officer for this year's conference! If you are surprised by Binyam winning this award, then you and I need to talk.