Members of the FSAPS Model United Nations team returned from their trip to New York City on Saturday. Representing the Uzbekistan, These students participated in the 10th Annual Global Classrooms UNA-USA International Middle School Model UN Conference, where they competed with over 1700 students from 13 countries.
Arriving in the city early, students braved the rain, wind, and even snow as they took in the many sites and shopping opportunities. This included the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, riding the subway.
The conference was opened with a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters before moving to several floors of the Grand Hyatt hotel next to Grand Central Station. During the trip, students had many opportunities to ride the subway to visit far-flung places in the city, such as Central Park, Times Square (awe-inspiring at night), and the Statue of Liberty, among others. For many, buying sacks of candy at the venerable FAO Schwarz, gaming at the World of Nintendo, and eating at the many different restaurants was as exciting the competition itself.
The students had a great time participating in the conference, where they were split into various councils to discuss important issues facing the world today. During this time, students made friends with their peers from schools the US and around the world to present positions and resolutions to these issues.
This conference produced a terrific showing by FSAPS students in which several awards and honors were bestowed on our delegation.
In the World Health Organization, looking at ways to combat infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, Shreya Rekapalli and Aditi Tekkam were named Outstanding Delegation and also took the award for Best Position Paper. This is a terrific achievement, having one delegation win two awards at the same conference.
In addition, two of our delegations received Honorable Mention for their work in their respective councils. Chloe Richardson and Sophie Chan, representatives of the UN Women organization dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women, specifically girls’ education and Sanjeev Uppaluri and Jaeden Amiri-Owens discussing Chemical and Waste Management in the UN Environmental Programme.
The team also had impressive results from Christina Wang and Kian Najaf, exploring ways to combat racism as part of the Third Committee of the General Assembly - Social, Humanitarian & Cultural as well as Sophie Richardson and Sparsh Kudrimoti who debated sustainable energy in the UN Development Program.
We are extremely proud of the hard work our students put into preparing for the conference and for their performance. These students were gracious, dignified, and represented FSAPS in the best possible light. Most of all each had a great experience and created memories that will last a lifetime.
