Last month, Mira Costa sophomore Adam Gerard sat in the United Nations Headquarters in New York and convinced 300 representatives of other nations to adopt his ideas on the use of conflict into international policy.
It actually wasn’t so much his own policy as it was Brazil’s, the nation he and his partner, Costa senior Alyssa Mattocks, represented.
And the reps from other “nations” were really high school students from around the U.S., representing other countries at last month’s 36th annual National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) Conference, where Costa won first place and the top award for Best Large Delegation out of 200 schools.
The Mustangs’ first-place victory at the conference – the 6th in the school’s history – combined with top-notch performances at similar events throughout the year earned them the number one spot on the first-ever list of top 25 high school Model UN teams in the nation, put out earlier this month by Best Delegate, an online publication about the Model UN. Second and third place went to The Dalton School, a private coed school in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, an elite public school in New Jersey.
“[Costa] was the only team to schedule and win Best Large Delegation at three of the seven most competitive conferences – the most in the nation – and their win at NHSMUN combined with dominating performances at the two largest conferences…makes them Best Delgate’s choice as America’s Best High School Model UN team so far this year,” reads a recent post on Best Delegate’s website.
The distinction was also based on the team’s performances at conferences in Chicago, Berkeley and at UCLA, where it “took it hands down,” said Bob Timberlake, one of two Model UN coaches at Costa. Advanced placement economics teacher Wayne Knutson is the other coach.
“You always know Costa is going to be a powerhouse, but this is a big deal,” Timberlake said. “We’ve always been absolutely one of the top teams in the nation…Geography helped us a lot this year. We went through the West Cost, the Midwest and by the time we got to the East Coast in New York, we’d competed all over. And our guys did their job.”
For four days, 47 Costa students met with more than 3,000 students from 200 schools at the UN Headquarters and the Hilton Hotel in New York to debate and resolve issues including communicable diseases in Third World countries, education and loan accessibility for women, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and political instability in Libya, North Korea and the Middle East. Students worked in pairs to convince other students assigned to the same topic to accept the policies of the nations each represented. At the end, student delegates voted to adopt a resolution in the UN General Assembly Hall.
“It was amazing to sit at the same seats in the same room that the greatest world leaders have spoken in,” Gerard said.
Student delegates were scored by how well they spoke and led debates, the quality and novelty of ideas, how cooperative they were with other teams and how true they stuck to their assigned countries’ policies.
Gerard and Mattock convinced the few hundred students in their committee to adopt their resolution on the use of force in conflict, which — were this the real UN — would go on to become international policy. Some Costa students represented Libya during the conference and had to be ready at a moment’s notice to represent a new government’s policy depending on the outcome of actual events. Other students were on crisis committees that were awoken in the middle of the night and required to meet immediately – in business attire – to begin “solving” situations.
“I’ve told the boys, they cannot look like Men in Black and need to have some color in their ties,” Timberlake said. “What’s funny is the girls will actually take their partners, clean them up and coordinate their outfits. They tell the boys, ‘No, not that tie.’”
In addition to learning to dress appropriately, Model UN students learn to debate, research, write resolutions and position papers, and work with people from a variety of backgrounds around the country. The students on Costa’s team regularly watch documentaries and read The Economist and Foreign Policy.
“I’ve seen shy kids who aren’t sure of themselves grow into themselves,” Timberlake said. “They can talk to anyone and give the best interviews for college. They grow in so many ways as young men and women.”
For Gerard, who has known for awhile that he wants to go to law school and eventually enter politics, joining the Model UN team just made sense. He said the experience he’s gained from the Model UN in impromptu speaking and compromising has been invaluable.
“I really like politics and public speaking, so this was the perfect opportunity to do both of those things,” said Gerard, who has interned for former Congresswoman Jane Harman, former State Assembly Member Ted Lieu and currently interns for L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.
Timberlake said that Costa alumni members who were in the Model UN always say the same thing when home visiting from college.
“I ask ‘Did it prepare you?’ and they always say, ‘Yes.’”
The Mira Costa High School Model UN team will finish its season at University of California San Diego’s Triton Model UN Conference April 30 to May 1 at the campus, 9500 Gillman Dr., La Jolla. For more information, visit mchsmun@netfirms.com. ER
