Diplomacy wins for USN at Model UN

By Mackey Luffman, HS History Teacher, Model UN and Youth in Government Advisor

This fall has been beautiful! The circle of life at University School of Nashville has been marked by the turning leaves and crisp morning temperatures greeting USN’s Cross Country teams as they compete for state championships. The cast and crew of the HS musical kick into ‘high gear’ with their rehearsals; the nation breathes a collective sigh of relief after peaceful midterm elections, and most importantly, the news hounds and foreign policy "nerd" 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, 81 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 Julia Young ‘27 serving as Security Council Liaison, managing the business of the UN Security Council component, and Eesha Nachnani ‘28, serving as General Assembly (GA) Liaison, facilitating the business of the General Assembly dais staff–basically the people making sure Things Get Done. Both were selected by conference staff for this responsibility. Finally, award-winning photographer/videographer Charlie Hall ‘27 was selected to be the Video Editor for the Department of Global Communications for this year’s conference.  

This year’s seniors continued our tradition of leadership in the General Assembly. Olivia Brown, Elisabeth Crane, and Laila Fierce represented Canada in the GA; Adelaide Ritter and Alayna Thompson represented Micronesia in the GA; Ben Beckerman, Charles Cook, and Jack Fruin represented Saudi Arabia in the GA, and Jack “The Good” Barrett (inside joke–ask the students!), Evan Valentine, AJ Truss, and Asher Freiberg represented South Africa in the GA. Caroline Stinner was selected to oversee the Department of Peace Operations in the Secretariat component, her second year of being selected for that component, and Aria Little was assigned the challenge of representing Russia in the Security Council! 

Model UN is also a place where students from different classes can work together. Aaron Raney and Teague McMillan ‘27 were joined by Jamison Jackson and EJ Guerrier ‘28 in representing Dominica in the GA. Ruchika Ramachandran and Mia Orifice ‘27 were joined by Suzie Zhao ‘28 and Erin Wang ‘20 and represented Guinea in the GA. 

 

Juniors also use the conference as a chance to work with classmates, among other reasons: Ron Beckerman and Caleb Freifeld represented Thailand; Alice Cramer, Dalton Dervan, Hannah Mackler, and Devin McAteer represented Italy. Representing Austria was Sophie Von Horn, Sparrow Lucca, and Maya Boyapati; late additions to the delegation Liam Mooney and Aidan Harris represented Algeria. Rounding out the class of ‘28 was Greta Molvig, representing Denmark on the Security Council! 

Sophomore delegates included Rishav Reddy, Gil Jones, and Eliott George, representing Turkey, while Anand Sherman, Max Parker, and Asher Huffman represented Sweden. Elinor Bird, Genevieve Pace, and Yori Crozier, represented Liberia, while Oliver Burdette and Larabi Clark represented Kenya. Madison Rhodes, Kenzie Burke, Surina Birdee, and Layla Jahangir represented Cambodia, while Roshni Bandyopadhyay, Allyson Elliott, and Gianna White represented Costa Rica. Kostas Rokas, Oren Schwartz, Vihaan Sinha, and Matthew Golann represented Bolivia, while Knox Followill, Aayan Parikh, David Turnley, and Marcelo Saoud represented Barbados, and by their own account, “won” Model UN. 

Rounding out the sophomores were Elsa Absi, Bella Naim, Harper Hughey, and Arianna Washington, accepting the ultimate diplomatic challenge of representing Iran at a Model UN in middle Tennessee! Veer Kodali ‘28 rounded out the sophomore class and was selected to head the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs in the Secretariat component.  

Last but not least, some ninth-graders got in on the action! Naomi Asfaw, Mimi Blind, Eliose Garrett, and Livia Wernke represented Ethiopia, and Andrew Mixon, Anand Pastakia, and Max Tidwell represented India.

And all kinds of diplomatic action kept the Tigers busy across committees, assemblies, and the final plenary session. USN-written resolutions (as opposed to other delegations’ resolutions, clearly written by AI chatbots) were highly ranked in their committees and earned the right to be presented to the General Assembly. Delegations earning this honor included Bolivia promoting culturally sensitive coca cultivation, South Africa’s resolution creating a lemur sanctuary to restore the species, Saudi Arabia’s resolution to share the wealth, Iran’s offer of a path towards peace in the current conflict, Cambodia’s plan to coordinate the protection of the Mekong River as a source of fresh water, Turkey’s plan to augment anti-smuggling resources in the eastern Mediterranean, Sweden’s plan to support nuclear non-proliferation, Thailand’s measure to fight human trafficking, and Kenya’s plot to achieve global hegemony. 

USN had the highest number of resolutions per capita on the GA docket of any school at the conference, but that wasn’t the highest honor for our GA delegations! That honor goes to Canada (Fierce, Crane, and Brown) for being the first USN GA resolution to ever merit the Plenary docket at Model UN! This means that their resolution had the highest ranking of any resolution presented to any committee! 

Also appearing on the Plenary Docket was a Secretariat resolution, and Ruchika Ramachandran ‘27 was selected to the elite team of delegates to present it to the Assembly! 

And, of course, there were the awards. Earning the Outstanding Security Council Delegate Award was Aria Little! Earning Outstanding Statesperson Awards in the General Assembly were Naomi Asfaw, Kenzie Burke, and Jack Barrett! 

Earning Outstanding Resolution Awards were Canada (Fierce, Crane, Brown) and Turkey (Reddy, Jones, George)! 

And finally, there were the elections for next year’s officer positions. Continuing in the tradition set by such legends as Binyam Dunne and Lin Zheng ‘26, Brendan West and Caroline Kuiper ‘25, and Margot Ross ‘24, Eesha Nachnani ‘28 was elected to be a President of the General Assembly, and Veer Kodali ‘29 was elected to be a Vice-President of the GA! 

Please congratulate these students when you see them for a job well done!