INSPIRED LEADERSHIP MODEL UN PROGRAM BENEFITS FROM A REAL-WORLD UN VISIT

In February, 15 students from The Frederick Gunn School’s Model United Nations program were among more than 3,300 participants in the 60th North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN), the Western Hemisphere’s preeminent high school Model UN conference.

During the four-day conference in Washington, D.C., 12 Gunn students represented Libya and Panama and their policies while two of their peers, Neda Strelciunaite ’24 and Charlotte Smith ’24, were assigned separately to represent Kalahui, Hawaii, on the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). Additionally, Bridie Strowe ’24 took on a historical role this year as Yuan Zhenying, one of 24 delegates engaged in topics surrounding the New Culture Movement at Peking University in China in 1917.

“It is a very exciting year for MUN,” said Karoline Theobald P’09 ’14, who teaches English and serves, along with Andres Sovero of the World Languages faculty, as MUN Coordinator. “We have gained some new students who bring a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to this co-curricular activity.”

One of them, Ryan Ryu ’25, brought back to his peers lessons he learned on a trip to United Nations Headquarters in New York and the Yale Model United Nations Conference in mid-January.

A MUN veteran who is in his first year at Gunn, Ryu applied

A school, in Mr. Gunn’s theory and largely in his practice, was a mimic republic … The scholars were to him embryo citizens, interested in the weal [wellbeing] of the school community, and each charged, as an individual, with the duty of conserving it.”

– Clarence Deming, Class of 1866, The Biography of Frederick Gunn and was accepted to an educational training program at UN Headquarters on “Sustainable Development Goals and International Solidarity.” The youth program was organized by the Hope to the Future Association, an international NGO under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. While in New York, Ryu attended briefings led by UN officials, participated in interactive workshops on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and worked with peers to present possible project ideas and solutions to global challenges. He engaged in discussions with UN ambassadors, including Ambassador Hwang Joonkook of the Republic of Korea.

“The goal was to learn about how leaders around the world are working towards the goal of a sustainable future,” Ryu said, “and as a youth and a youth leader, what I can do and what I can learn to contribute to the sustainable future of the globe to become a global leader.”

Through the Hope to the Future Association, Ryu also participated in the Yale MUN Conference in New Haven, where he was assigned to the International Court of Justice to debate legally and ethically complex questions based on two real-world cases.

“We are incredibly lucky to have a student who is so serious about this co-curricular,” Theobald said. “He attends other events, and he does not come back and sit on his knowledge. He applies it and helps other students get better. He really is an asset.”