Maddie Buckley
Staff Writer
On November 4, Model United Nation students from Foran High will be boarding buses to go attend the first Mock Conference at Fairfield University. This trip will be able to prepare the students for the four-day/three-night overnight trip at Yale New Haven. According to the Model UN teacher Mrs. Gilman, students will be leaving the building around seven and be engaged in active debate for about six hours. Students will be grouped into various topics and be debating on these committees throughout the day. These topics include the Hockey World Cup Committee, The EU Crisis Committee, the Historical Conference of the Crimean War, GMO’s, the Olympic Crisis Committee, OPEC examining falling oil prices, the World Health Organization discussing antibiotic resistant diseases, and the Women’s committee discussing the gender pay gap. According to Gilman, “there are very few one day Model UN conferences. This is a good experience for the kids to engage in a one day debate.” This will be Foran’s third year taking the trip, although Gilman used to do the trip when she taught at Trumbull. Gilman said, “It’s an opportunity for the students to not only see Fairfield University, but to also engage in debate with other kids in the region. It’s a strong teaching conference, because the parliamentary procedure is less strict than it is at other conferences.” Gilman also said, “The conference is run by students. Fairfield has a strong collegiate team, and students that attend typically take it very seriously.” Juniors Catie Stiffler and Evan Meyer are new to Model UN. “I’m looking forward,” said Stiffler, “to visiting Fairfield University and interacting with new students.” Meyer said, “I’m looking forward to debating with people from other schools and having fun in the conferences.” According to Meyer, “to prepare for the trip we need to write a position paper on our topics based on what country or organization we are representing.” Students are looking forward to both the experience and seeing the campus, as well as learning new things to apply to the class.
