Model UN Fall Conferences in Review

VYMUN 
Starting in late October, the first conference was VYMUN which is the WPGA Model UN for beginning students. 52 students made the exciting trek by bus to the Westin Hotel in Whistler on Friday 30th October. This year, we not only examined global issues but because the conference fell on the Halloween weekend, there was a Halloween Dance and party for all 300 delegates on the Saturday night. The LFA students certainly joined in the spirit of things with some fantastic individual and group costumes and they danced to the "very good" music for several hours. However, when it came to the serious parts of the conference, the LFA contigency revealed their true talent. We won 21 awards.

There were 10 Outstanding Awards - Jaclyn Miller (on Security Council), Maddie Buss, Michelle Rodriquez, Phoene Cheung, Chloe Kan, Eleanor Lee,  Lisa Lazzaris, Karen Poon, Naomi Shi and Lauren Ebert.
There were 7 Best Position Paper Awards - Valerie Mok, Rhonda Tam, Michelle Du, Kasie Kwok, Jessica Goodridge, Victoria Spieker and Sarah Mowat. 

There were 4 Honorable mention Awards - Jadzia Scott, Nicole Shi, Rochelle Turnbull and Lorraine Fabre.

Congratulations to all of the grade 10's at this conference as your achievement was monumental. In fact, this was the highest number of awards at VYMUN ever, topping 19 in 2013.

SSUNS
The next exciting conference was the McGill Model UN (SSUNS) in Montreal mid November. This group of students gained much experience from attending this conference of 1100 students from all over Canada and North America. This conference is one of the best organized conference we attend and McGill's commmittee selections and topics are always riveting and creative. Lorraine Fabre accepted the challenge to be on a bi-lingual committee which primarily looked at typically Quebecois problems like the rising fees for post secondary institutions. She was very versatile and adept in changing from French into English in her comments on committee which was a requirement of this committee. The dais members spoke mostly in French. Another committee that was exciting and "avant garde" was a committee on the Aztec Empire and all of its associated warring problems. Phoebe C. Lee, one of the few girls on this committee, was a most passionate contributor on this committee and won an Honorable Mention Award for her very steady and exuberant participation throughout he entire conference.

One of the most rewarding features of Model UN and at this conference in particular, is the people one meets and the interactions that take place. All of the students present liaised with students from other schools to present resolutions. Elizabeth Vaz representing Nepal on the UN Disaster Risk Committee, managed to pass an important resolution on this 180 member committee, attesting to her ability to think carefully and her ability to take the lead with others. Elizabeth won the Honoarable Mention Award which was one of ony 5 awards given on this committee. Elizabeth's excellent knowlegde of her topics, her confident manner, and her assertiveness and persitence won her this award. Every other student at SSUNS had the experience of speaking out and gaining confidence. All students expressed how they found their committees stimulating and that they learnt so much at this one three day conference. The sights of Montreal were also enjoyed and these included Notre Dame Basilica and Old Montreal, seeing the lovely city skyline atop Mont Royal and of course Mc Gill University where we saw 6 Alumni including Elizabeth Murphy, Maria Aparicio, Kate Stradiotti and Alex Breukals who toured us around the university. Both the alumni group and the Model UN participants could not have been nicer girls! The LFA alumni group made a point of telling this model UN group, that LFA prepared them very well for university and was a great school. These comments came unsolicited, much to the delight of myself and Mr. Coady.

CONNECT MUN
Last but not least, we had 40 LFA students attend CONNECT MUN at the Hyatt in Vancouver on the 20th November. This local competition has approximately 650 students in attendance from many schools in the lower mainland. Because of the students' very good preparation and excellent abilities, we won 13 awards. This was quite the performance by the LFA team and both Mr. Coady and I felt that this group revealed the highest participation rate of any Model UN conference group. On many occasions when we entered a committee room, one of the LFA students was contributing a comment, presenting a resolution or answering tough questions on the clauses of their resolution. The confidence one gains from speaking even just a few times at a conference is always significant but this conference allowed many to surpass all personal goals making many LFA students the leaders on their respective committees.

There were 3 Best Delegate Awards - Grace Walker, Suzanne Pang and Kristina Wong.

There were 5 Outstanding Delegate Awards - Karen Poon, Sandy Pang, Phoebe Cheung, Paige Furlan and Abby Morisson.

There were 3 Honorable Mention Awards - Hannah Goodridge, Alyssia Lam and Jaclyn Miller.

There were 2 Best Position Papar Awards - germaine Chu and Enya Ho.

Congratulations to all of the 100 Model UN participants this fall.  You represented LFA so well and you have shown great academic and self development. I look forward to the very exciting conference opportunities that the rset of the year will bring.

Mrs. Julie Mills