On Friday, Nov. 8, fourteen BPHS students participated in the Model UN at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Model UN is a conference in which students from different high school’s act out what the United Nations does.
Each school is assigned a different country and through the information the students have gathered for their topic, they discuss regulations based on the view of their country.
This year, Bethel represented Austria.
Sean McClaine, a sophomore, was one of the fourteen that participated in this event.
McClaine said, “I did this program because I thought it’d be interesting to learn about the UN.”
In the program, McClaine’s topic was World Health. He said he chose this topic because he wants to be a doctor.
In this program, students have to be hard-working and be willing to face challenges that will be posed to them.
McClaine said, “The hardest part of the program was researching our country’s stances on the various issues.”
Jarrod Cingel, a senior, also participated in the Model UN.
Cingel said, “I participated in this because I compete in policy debate already, so I am very interested in international affairs. My coach was looking for participants, so I agreed to compete.”
Cingel’s topic was on the Ad Hoc Security Council which focused on international security. Cingel said in the debate the international security was centered around ways to resolve situations in Sudan and Somalia.
Cingel said that there was one main challenge during his debate.
“The most challenging part was compromising with the other ‘nations’ in the committee. Different countries have very different ideas on how to solve problems, so we had to compromise and work together in order to pass any plans and actually resolve the problems we faced.”
Even though both Sean McClaine and Jarrod Cingel had challenges during the program, both agreed that they wish to do this again in the future.
McClaine said, “It was a fun and unique learning experience.”
Through this program, students like Sean McClaine and Jarrod Cingel learn about how the United Nations works, which will better help them and our country in years to come.
