MUSCATINE, Iowa–Over their spring break, students from Muscatine High School’s Model UN Club traveled to New York to participate in the National High School Model UN Conference. The largest conference they attend each year, students gathered with 2,700 students from 164 schools in 51 different countries to share their knowledge about global issues and work together to devise solutions to a variety of challenges. To compliment their learning at the conference, students also explored New York City.
This year, Muscatine’s students represented the country of Ecuador. Students served on all manner of committees, from those looking at immigration policy to those managing and creating new world heritage sites. Alexander Pautz, a senior, represented Ecuador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. He worked with students representing different countries to draft policies addressing some of the largest concerns facing world heritage sites, such as how to create new sites, how to manage tourism to allow access but prevent damage, and how to respond to climate change’s effects on current UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Looking back on the committee’s achievements, Alexander found that the great challenge of finding consensus led to some of the most satisfying outcomes of the conference. “I think the most challenging part of the conference was coming to a compromise on all the different interests of countries in a unified resolution paper; with so many stakes in such different aspects of the issue, it was difficult to decide on one course of action,” he said. “I think our greatest achievement in this committee was merging two draft papers that initially opposed each other to create a comprehensive policy that addressed everything from over tourism to climate change in the protection of world heritage sites.”
Muscatine High School’s Model UN Club has attended the National High School Model United Nations Conference since the 1970s. For the first time in those 50 years, the club earned the research and preparation award of excellence. The award honors students for their active participation in all their committees, the depth of their research, and their accuracy in portraying their country’s stance on all the issues they address.
While the conference taught students much about working with others and finding compromise to come to effective solutions, their time in New York City also taught them about traveling and discovering the culture of different places. Aaron Smith, an advisor for Muscatine’s Model UN Club and a social studies teacher at Muscatine High School, shared that students, “saw Broadway shows, had a conference session in the United Nations Building, toured multiple art facilities, visited the Statue of Liberty, and the 9/11 Memorial,” and that they tried four different world cuisines at mealtimes.
Alexander found he enjoyed the visits to art museums most: “We did have time to do some sightseeing on the trip, and my favorite stop was the Museum of Modern Art. I really enjoyed seeing art I knew, such as Starry Night and the Persistence of Memory, along with new art, such as some paintings by Henri Matisse.”