The members of IHS’s Model United Nations club won “Outstanding Delegation from a Large School” and 12 other awards at the Hilton Model United Nations Conference in Greece, NY on November 6 and 7.
With only 19 delegates, the club took home the most prestigious award available to a club and took top awards in a number of categories. In their respective committees, Sarah Couillard ’17, club officer Bella Culotta ’17, Isabel Dawson ’18, club president Liz Rosen ’16, Francis Schickel ’16, Casey Wetherbee ’17 and Scott Williams ’16 took home the “Best Delegate” award. In their respective committees, Jonathon Hawthorne ’16, Alison Ke ’17, Ben Monaghan ’16, Charlotte Perri ’17, and Zak Stillman ’16 won “Outstanding Delegate” award.
Other important accolades included Eva Bohn ’18 winning “Best New Delegate” and Alexandra Gibbons ’18 winning “Honorable Mention” in their respective committees. Although they did not win awards, excellent work was contributed by teammates Theo Jung ’18, Lindsay Fei ’16, and Ana-Luisa McCullough ’18.
This is the strongest performance by the club in over five years. Although Model UN has grown in strength over the last three years, it has not received a delegation award in at least five years. With 14 out of 17 award-eligible attendees getting honors, the club’s win rate was a record 82 percent, considerably higher than its normal 30 to 40 percent win rate.
In addition, two students, Max Fink ’17 and Abby Cooper ’16, acted as chairs of committees, a prestigious position at Model UN conferences. Traditionally, only one student has acted in this role per conference due to the amount of time spent commuting from Ithaca to Rochester, where chair meetings are held. Chairs are not eligible for “Best” or “Outstanding” awards, as they choose the students who receive these awards in their committee.
This delegation award was particularly notable because it was the first time IHS has unseated longtime rival Brighton High School, from Rochester, NY, in the “Outstanding School” category. This victory is well worth celebrating due to the enormous disparity in scale between the two clubs: Brighton Model UN has school support because it is a class at Brighton High School and brings more than 100 delegates to each conference, while the IHS Model UN is self-funded, meets after school, and has a membership of around 40.
Model UN meets every Thursday in F4 after school and is advised by Mr. Reiff and Mr. Prokosch. The club is devoted to learning about current events and the development of vital problem-solving skills. The next conference will be on January 8. New members are welcome.