Kevin Cahill kicked off the early morning training session for the 18th Model UN program. 49 teams will be participating this year and we had over 120 people in attendance with 90% of the students plus some parents and advisors for each team. The meeting was held at the Canyon Crest Academy's (CCA) Media Center. We had challenges with the heat and lighting but the enthusiasm in the room was so high that people didn't worry about the lack of heat despite a cold morning. We were greeted with hot coffee, croissants, bagels and muffins.
Kevin started off by welcoming the participants and highlighting the theme this year to be "Collaboration Mode". He said that this year we have teams from Mexico and Costa Rica also. the final competition date will be on April 7 and 8, 2018 at the University of San Diego campus. He introduced the Secretariat team as Yasmine Sadoudi (from San Diego H.S.) and Renata Valente (from SDSU). Yasmine has participated in few Model UN competitions in the past.
There will be 2 resolutions to be debated this year:
RESOLUTION-1: This will be about United Nations membership for Palestine. This was created by Yasmine and the topic will be interesting as it will be a discussion about adding a new country to the United Nations.
RESOLUTION-2: This will be about protecting our oceans from all the micro plastic pollution. The primary culprits are countries, such as, China, Vietnam, and Thailand,
Kevin then briefly touched on the agenda for the Saturday and Sunday of the event. There will be a grand dinner banquet on Sat April 7, 2018 for the participants and advisors. There will also be a surprise event at the end of that dinner :-). Kevin also talked about some key strategies for the competition and some of the common research tools to be used. Following that, Yasmine delivered a short training on Negotiation Skills.
In the end, Kevin announced the countries that were assigned to each team via a lottery system. The team sponsored by our club consists of two students from CCA - Sophia Sugarman (senior) and Sabrina Soffer (sophomore). Our team received CHINA as their country.
Sophia attended the event with her grandmother.
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