Eden Jablon

News Editor

Milken’s Model United Nations (UN) team departed March 9 for the annual University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Model UN competition. The team, comprised of 23 students, is a combination of individuals in the Model UN class and Model UN club.

“There are a lot of kids now in the program, and it’s getting more popular. In the fall, Model UN is a class, and students in the class learn the rules in the class. Later, Model UN continues as a club,” Mr. Beau Lindsay, Model UN coach, said.

Berkeley gave each pair of students a country assignment as well as a topic. The students then researched the topic from their countries’ points of view. At the competition, the students went to a committee debate and argued the topic with other countries with the hopes of coming to a resolution.

The students were assigned their topics two months ago, and spent their free time researching and working on statements.

“There was [even] a lot of work on the bus ride going up,” Lindsay said.

Representing the countries Mauritania and Lithuania, Sammy Lawrence ’14 and Joel Seligman ’14 won Outstanding Awards, while Ari Spitzer ’12, Jordan Shalom ’12, Julia Reifkind ’12 and Leigh Jacobson ’12 received commendations. At a conference with 1600 other students, those achievements are significant and impressive.

“The highlight of my experience was being able to integrate both academic and comedic activities by forming a bloc that represented policies that reflected draconian Shariah law, while staying on policy representing Mauritania (The Islamic Republic of),” Spitzer, Model UN captain and winner of an Outstanding Award, said.

Though this was the last competition of the year, the Model UN team is already looking forward to their next conference at the University of Pennsylvania.