On Friday, February 9th, the Wheatley Model United Nations team departed for Boston to attend the Boston Invitational Model United Nations Conference (BosMUN). Run by Boston University’s International Affairs Association (BUIAA), the conference is known as one of the more competitive conferences in the United States, and one of the most prestigious ones as well. As a result, Wheatley’s Model UN Club knew that they had brought a competitive team to handle the competition. Because of their extremely intense work ethic, the team spent countless hours and late nights writing papers, reading 60-page background guides, and researching topics to prepare for this single weekend.
The 2018 team was selected by the board: Jessica Poomkudy and John Scudero (Co-Presidents), Tony Deluxe (Vice President), Ashley Vincenzo (Secretary), Brenden Resnick (Treasurer), Rahul Ajmera and Peter Cuomo (Co-Public Relation Officers) with the help of the advisor Mr. Haig. Through tryouts that were held earlier in the year, the board had a tough decision to choose who was going to the conference. However, they eventually came to a consensus on the 26 people that should compete. The students that attended the conference were Zach Azevedo, Michaela Balboni, Patrick Brady, Maggie Caroddo, Jacob Chimerine, Kevin Contreras, Aidan Cozzolino, Caroline Crimmins, Sarah Hassan, Layla Jarrahy, Brett Katz, Teddy Koutsoftas, James Li, Aamir Muneer, Ilana Nimkoff, Jacob Ribotsky, Manan Shukla. Caleb Varghese, and Brenda Zhong.
After the drive to Boston, the team was met to strategize about how to compete against over a thousand other students around the world. The conference hosted a variety of committees that ranged from the Kosovo War to solving the water crisis in Sudan. Over the course of these three days, students spent over fourteen hours in committee sessions. These hours were used to debate topics and work with others in the hopes to pass resolutions by the end of the weekend. To achieve this goal, students worked outside these sessions discussing and working on acceptable compromises to their ideas with other members during lunch hours and breaks.
Wheatley students dominated all the committees they were in. Students led their own resolutions with the majority of the committee following their lead. From this, the team was able to successfully pass their ideas with the help of those around them. As a result, they not only built leadership skills, but made lasting friendships with those on their committee as well. Everyone enjoyed their time in and out of committee by meeting people from around the world and exploring the city of Boston.
Wheatley picked up five awards that are difficult to achieve at these conferences. Kevin Contreras and Ashley Vincenzo each won Outstanding Delegate, James Li won Honorable Mention, and John Scudero and Manan Shukla each won Best Position Paper. Congratulations to all the participants!
