~:[CH10 - Day 66]:~ Proud

 
~:[CH10 - Day 66]:~  Proud

I've been pretty proud of the Model UN students this year. Despite the conditions, they've stayed engaged, attended hours upon hours of committees on the weekends, volunteered to chair all the additional committees we've been hosting and excelling in this virtual environment. Our Nationals group this year was smaller (as expected) than usual, however, it didn't mean that they gave any less. Since November, they researched, they wrote papers, they were quizzed by me, met at night for hours as a group and even after the regular sessions had ended, another group of students spend their time, six hours after committee ended, on another Zoom call preparing their plenary speeches. With a group almost half the size, we ended up with about the same number of speakers at plenary. For those not familiar, to be chose for plenary typically means you're one of the top two delegates in your committee or at least well-spoken enough to represent your committee. Tomorrow they'll get to speak in front of a virtual audience of what may be 1,000+ students from around the world. While they did not get to roam the streets of New York, they still experienced one of my favorite moments of the experience (possibly to a greater extent), meeting students from around the globe. In our wrap up, they mentioned meeting students from Greece, Mexico, Venezuela, China, Vietnam, Ecuador, Lebanon, Canada among others. They also met actual representatives from South Africa and Japan and also had some time just to chat and connect with each other more in our meetings. I hope that they will get to roam the streets next year if conditions improve, but no matter what happens, I am even more proud of this year's group than ever, NHSMUN and our program as a whole. As always, with the closing ceremonies coming up, while it's a joy if they end up taking home a delegation award, they truly have already made me proud and the work they put in is the greatest award I could be given. They represented our school well so far and I look forward to wrapping it up tomorrow. One more day, which means one more day to be proud of them all.