Having a snowball of a time at HarvardMUN.....

Harvard Model United Nations Conference is held annually at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston for 3000 High School Students, organised and entirely run by Harvard students who are studying International Relations. Each school is assigned a country to represent, and students spend months preparing for the committee debates on their two topics of global urgency, and writing their position papers. The idea at the conference is to try to negotiate a resolution with the greatest consensus as a way forward in solving world problems. Debates are run in strict accordance with United Nations Parliamentary procedure.....

This year I took 16 students to Boston from my school here in Mexico City, and we represented the country of Singapore in all the committee debates, even managing to win two of the prestigious individual awards. As well as working very hard, we also had a lot of fun sightseeing and playing in the snow (some of our students had never experienced snow before!!)

At the end of the 4 day conference,it seemed a shame to have to leave and return home, and even the city of Boston seemed reluctant to let us depart......

The fervent pleas were everywhere we turned just begging us to stay longer.....

Until reality finally kicked in of course - delivered by Rey - one of the students who won an individual award at the conference....

For any educators who don't know about Model United Nations, this is a wonderful learning experience for students, as the magnetic context of drama role-play simulation as delegates, motivates them no end to research, debate, present, justify, write and negotiate - all skills vital in the modern world. For more windows on the world this week check out My World Tuesday posts by clicking here. In my next post, I will return to writing about Mexico - but only up until July, as in August, I am moving to the South of France to take up a position at the International School of Monaco... it will be tough to leave Mexico after 6 years, but change is in the air.....