Groton Model UN Club Perseveres at Harvard Model United Nations

Twelve Groton School students traveled to Boston to attend Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) over the last weekend of January. Throughout four full and busy days, the students made use of their extensive pre-conference preparation and engaged in several hours-long committee meetings on topics ranging from cybersecurity to climate change. 

Much like the real United Nations, the students delivered—and listened to—impassioned speeches and conducted intense negotiations, all in search of pragmatic solutions to real-world problems. Harvard Model United Nations is perhaps the world’s largest Model UN conference for high schoolers, and the more than 3,000 students in attendance this year included delegations from more than one hundred schools comprising more than fifty different countries. Sixth Former Amy Ma commented, “Meeting delegates from places as far as Lebanon and Kenya was very eye-opening.” 

Ten members of Groton’s delegation to HMUN represented India in the United Nations’ General Assembly (GA) and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and on a Futuristic UN Security Council. Two students participated in two different historical simulations: Fifth Former Agathe

Robert portrayed the legendary early 18th century female pirate Anne Bonny in a simulation of an imagined pirate confederacy in the Caribbean. And Sixth Former Zhining Zhao portrayed the Chinese revolutionary Song Jiaoren in a simulation of the Republic of China’s Provisional Government of 1912.

Groton School’s delegates fared very well. Four of them were recognized by the various committee chairs for their hard work and effective engagement and leadership. Amy and her partner, Sixth Former Rowen Hildreth, earned Outstanding Delegate awards on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees committee on ECOSOC. Sixth Former Robbie Trowbridge won a commendation for his patient and productive work on the ECOSOC Special Summit on Globalization. And Zhining won a commendation for faring better than the historical figure he portrayed. Unlike Song, who was murdered by his political enemies in 1913, Zhining persevered and managed to gain complete power and thus avoid being assassinated. 

All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy the HMUN experience very much. Groton’s delegates certainly learned a lot about the United Nations and international diplomacy, and they represented themselves and Groton School extremely well.