Model United Nations Experience 

the students involved talk about their experiences here

For the first time a delegation of students from Shrewsbury Sixth Form College students attended the very successful Model United Nations competition held at Joseph Chamberlain College in Birmingham over the weekend of March 4th-6th 2011. They were amongst nearly 300 delegates from 24 different sixth form colleges who represented 47 countries.

Jeevan Jones, Lucinda Roberts, James Leahy, Freddie Till and Kathryn Brooke formed the delegation from Thailand and all the team had cause for celebration at the end of the conference as the Thai delegation was identified as one of the top six delegations and a very proud Ambassador (Jeevan Jones) picked up the award from Martin Bell on behalf of the team. All the Thai resolutions made it to committee stage – following a period of intensive lobbying; 4 resolutions were passed for further debate at the General Assembly and Jeevan managed to convince the whole assembly that their resolution on the subject of Thailand and Cambodia should be supported.

Much of the preparation for the tournament was organised by the team themselves under the careful eye of Jeevan. Gap and Fon (two Thai students from neighbouring Shrewsbury School) had been invited to lunch in the previous week to give a first hand account of life in Thailand.

As well as success as the Thai delegation James, Freddie and Lucinda picked up individual awards for the nature of their debating and the structure of their resolutions. Overall it was a wonderful team effort and a fantastic opportunity to meet students from all over the country and to engage in powerful political debate.

The MUN was sponsored by the Sixth Form Colleges Forum (SFCF) and Chief Executive of the SFCF, David Igoe commented that he was very proud of the delegates who took part and said they were the future of politics in Britain. He said he regularly meets politicians in his role with the Sixth Form Colleges Forum, and a lot of them speak of apathy in young people. “I am delighted I will be able to report back to them that an interest in politics is alive and well in the young people represented here”.

The delegates were also addressed by world-renowned Human Rights lawyer Phil Shiner who spoke of Britain’s obligation in the current situation in Libya, while Martin Bell OBE, former war reporter with the BBC and current UNICEF ambassador also addressed the students and commended them on their practical ideas and well-researched resolutions.
 

[9 March 2011]