Friday, December 27, 2002
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Friday, December 27, 2002 |
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Sandy Creek's model UN team one of best in state Fayette County's only Model United Nations (UN) Team has proven itself to be one of the best in the state as it sweeps up awards from two major conferences. Sandy Creek High's 39-member team participated in a Model UN Conference held at Georgia State earlier this month with the school's China delegation being named as one of the two outstanding delegations of 53 represented at the conference. Additionally, Sandy Creek received 15 individual Outstanding Delegate Awards and two Outstanding Rappouteur Awards. The awards combined earned Sandy Creek the best overall showing of the 26 schools that participated at the conference. Students representing the China delegation were John Akin, Matt Bufford, Tyler Campbell, Carmen Carrion, Matt Coffey, Samuel Lee, Lindsey Thompson, Melissa Wilbur, and Chase Wilson. Individual awards were earned by Akin, Bufford, Campbell, Donnie Clark, Avery Clay, Coffey, Aaron Crisp, Lee, Mitchell Lentini, Joshua Lewis, Amanda Scoggins-Lloyd, Megan Smelley, Thompson, Wilbur, and Wilson. Rappouteur Awards were given to Rebecca Elliotte and Shanda Whitlock. Earlier in the academic year, the Model UN team participate in the first competition of 2002 at Georgia Technical Institute bringing home one of seven delegation awards from the 50 country delegations represented. In addition, Coffey was presented with one of the few Outstanding Delegate Awards given at the conference. "I am so proud of the entire team. We have many new and younger students this year and they are doing a fantastic job. We are currently preparing for another conference in January and I'm certain our students will perform well," said Marlene Holland, faculty sponsor of the team. Model UN is an academic extra curricular activity open to all high school students. The goal of the activity is to give students an in-depth look at current world issues as well as an opportunity to expand their speaking and writing skills and develop collaborative social skills. At the Model UN conference, almost all of the resolution debate, amending and caucusing is impromptu, making it necessary for students to be able to think fast on their feet while applying diplomatic communication skills and being culturally sensitive. Conferences are in-depth, multi-day simulations of UN committees covering very current international topics ranging from arms proliferation, human trafficking and the AIDS pandemic to altering the UN charter, the Palestine issue, children's issues and terrorism. Students represent members of an assigned nation delegation and approach all topics from the perspective of that nation. Writing resolutions utilizing the UN format, working for compromise and consensus with other nation delegations and speaking extemporaneously are continuous through the 2-3 day conferences. To perform successfully as a delegate at the conference, students must have a broad range of knowledge of both their nation and topics. Many students on Sandy Creek's team have taken some of the international studies academic electives offered at the school which helps them compete strongly against other high school students. "When we go to these competitions students from other schools often ask our team members how they know so much about other countries and when they tell them that they took an 18-week course on Africa they just can't believe it. Not many high schools in Georgia offer these kinds of international courses," said Holland. Sandy Creek's next Model UN conference will take place at the University of Georgia Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Students are currently preparing for the conference, which will be attended by one to two full delegations.
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