The 2023 Rotary Model United Nation Assembly.

Earlier this term, four Y11 students represented Woodleigh at the 2023 Rotary Model United Nations Assembly. There were two teams, one representing Belarus and the other Yemen. The four students, Ronan Coster and James Longley (Belarus) and Alastair Jones and Patrick Seymour (Yemen), had to research their allocated countries and then prepare arguments on four different resolutions for a day of United Nation-styled debates.

This is a valuable program and affords students the chance to see the world from a different perspective than Australia’s.

A long but very rewarding day.

MARNEY POPE 
Teacher

Earlier this term Ronan Coster, Alastair (Al) Jones Patrick Seymour and myself (James) competed in the Rotary Club Model UN. Coming straight off the back of activities week camp, we were all tired but still looking forward to the event. In preparation, co-delegate, Ronan and I, researched everything about our allocated country Belarus, and the other co-delegates, Patrick and Al researched Yemen. With limited available information Ronan and I used actual Belarusian speeches from the real General Assembly. We wrote our speeches to mimic correct protocol as closely as we could to the actual Belorussia ones. Arguing for a country that holds such a different political view to Australia, was quite challenging to formulate arguments for, but it got significantly easier as we gained practice. My highlight of the day was presenting our speeches on the final resolution, ‘Social Media Regulation’. The entire assembly understood how the day operated and got into their country's characters, so the debates were very heated and well-planned. All in all, Model UN challenged us in a unique environment, which allowed us to develop our debating, and public speaking skills and self-confidence.
"Yemen is still tired" Al Jones (in relation to the war) was the favourite quote of the day!

James Longley, Y11.

Arriving at the MUNA conference for the first time was initially quite daunting, especially having to represent a small country like Yemen. Once Pat and I arrived at Nossal High, where the conference was held, we were brought to the reality that we had researched very little on Yemen, compared to others. So we prepared ourselves during the flag ceremony (it was in alphabetical order so we got comfortable) and placed our flag behind us.

The conference continued, as the different resolutions were brought out. Pat and I were challenged by some of these specific resolutions as many were not directly related to Yemen. For example, being ‘for or against’ Social Media changes and its access restrictions was not very relevant to our allocated country. Yemen is in a war so is more affected by humanitarian aid and not social media. Despite this, we managed to talk about it in our speech to the assembly.

Overall, Pat and I valued the experience and learnt a lot from the processes of the conference. It also challenged us in our public speaking skills.

Alastair Jones, Yr11