Royal Oak Model UN
Royal Oak Model UN Earns Top Honors at UMMUN 2008
ROYAL OAK, MI. - Royal Oak High School's Model United Nations Team (ROMUN) earned high honors at the University of Michigan Model UN conference in Ann Arbor, including a first place "Best School" award, the highest award at the conference.
The team's Sudan delegation was the top award winner, with a Best Delegate award going to sophomore Karly Lawniczak for her solid four days of debate in the World Health Organization. Sudan's Melanie Adams (senior) and Greg Ewing (junior) each earned awards in the Disarmament and Economic committees.
In special committees, all three of Royal Oak's senior delegates earned awards. Representing Canada, Ashley Hull earned a Best Delegate award; she helped bring about Mid-East peace in a historical debate on the 1967 Arab-Israel war. Alex Green, representing the United Kingdom, earned Honorable Mention in the Security Council debating Somalia stability and biochemical terrorism in China. Nick Canu represented Denmark and earned Verbal Commendation for his historical restructuring of the United Nations in 1945.
In addition, senior Zach Holden, representing Iran, earned Honorable Mention alongside Adams for his debate on Darfur and Iraqi disarmament. Senior Chris Photiades earned Verbal Commendation for his work as Argentina in the same committee.
The team debated difficult topics, from Ewing's external debt relief programs to Lawniczak's debate on helping children with HIV. Other topics included human rights abuses by multi-national corporations, religious intolerance (for which junior Caitlin Kiesel and sophomore Margo Sena authored resolutions), and North Korea development (where junior Gabi Rome authored several resolutions).
So many awards across so many committees helped the team earn the Best School award, the top award at the conference.
"But it just wasn't these award winners who did it," said Alec Snyder, one of team's advisors. The team award is shared by the students whose work impressed the UMMUN staff at every level, from the writing of position papers before the conference to caucus and speech skills and policy-building.
The students returned from the four day conference on Sunday and then continued studying for their mid-term exams this week. The ROMUN competition team is an extra-curricular for the students; they debate and research on their own time, including-for this conference-the December holiday.
"The group is driven," said Steve Chisnell, one of the team's advisors. "They don't want just to win an argument: they want to solve the problem."
In all the team took 26 delegates to the conference representing six different nations. Nearly 500 students from 20 schools in the Midwest competed at the UMMUN conference.
The Royal Oak Model UN team numbers nearly 50 students this year from the new high school campus. The team is preparing for an upcoming conference at Michigan State University in March and an advocacy trip to China this summer.
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