Friday, March 29, 2024

U hosts Model United Nations conference

April 9, 2001
Lansing Eastern High School student Greg Savoie II, a representative for Afghanistan, participates in a Model United Nations conference Friday at the Kellogg Center. —

Nick Kowalczyk wants Soviet troops to pull out of Afghanistan.

The senior at Novi High School was one of more than 80 students participating in MSU’s first-ever Model United Nations conference, which puts high school students in the roles of U.N. delegates, allowing them to debate and form resolutions on international affairs.

“We have a Model United Nations club at our high school,” said Kowalczyk, who represented the United States on the Historical Security Council. “I think it’s something that everyone can be involved in and it has an effect on everybody.”

Students on the nine-member Historical Security Council, set in the year 1980, were seeking a resolution to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Other committees debated topics ranging from nuclear armament to women’s rights.

Kowalczyk said he learned that on the international level, it can be very difficult to reach an agreement.

“It’s a lot harder to get what you want than it might seem,” he said.

The conference was hosted by the International Relations Organization, a student group at MSU.

International relations junior Scott Risner, secretary general of the MSU Model United Nations, said the conference was a success.

“It was incredible,” he said. “The intensity that the students brought to it really impressed me.”

Organizing and running the conference was no easy task, Risner said. He estimated he got about six hours of sleep during the entire weekend, and he’s not done yet.

“Tomorrow morning I’ll be back on the phone with the hotel booking for next year and we’ll start recruiting schools this week,” he said Sunday afternoon.

But all the work was time well-spent, Risner said.

“People had a good time,” he said. “I think it was worth it for everyone to give up a weekend.”

Katie Walter, a social studies teacher at Rochester Adams High School in Rochester Hills, said the conference provided a lot of firsthand experience for her students.

“We share a greater appreciation for how extremely difficult it is to come to any kind of resolution,” she said. “They’ve always had real good debating skills and they’ve honed those.”

Beyond that, said Walter, the students have grown closer to each other.

“It’s a wonderful bonding experience,” she said. “We have found

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