GPCS Model UN Students at MeMUNC – 3 Win Individual Awards

On May 14 – 16, Greater Portland Christian School (GPCS) sent a team to the Maine Model United Nations Conference (MeMUNC) organized by USM students and faculty. The 14 students representing GPCS showed poise and resiliency as they participated in the largest MeMUNC since the pandemic, with approximately 425 high school students from 26 public and private schools around Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont involved in the 3-day conference held on the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine.

Model United Nations is an academic competition where students role-play as diplomats operating in a simulated international organization. Training for the MeMUNC begins in early November for the GPCS team with the kickoff for their weekly 90-minute meetings. Student delegates are assigned a country and then research background information about that country, along with information on international issues, to develop an understanding of what their assigned country’s policy would be on the issue. During the conference, delegates compete in the simulations of various UN committees and are judged by staff members based primarily on their speaking, writing, negotiating, and problem-solving abilities.

The GPCS Model UN program was created in 2007 and has been in existence for 19 years, attending the MeMUNC 18 times over that period. This year our delegates represented Guyana, Czechia, and Bahrain, as well as the European Microstates of Monaco and Liechtenstein, in six different committee simulations. These different meeting groups ranged in size from 15 students to 120 students and offered the delegates a chance to engage on two different topics in each committee. The students who attended competed at a high level, and three GPCS students were recognized with awards for their outstanding performances during the competition.