College Teams Awarded at MUNA

Two of our five College student delegation teams have been awarded at the annual Model United Nations Assembly Conference (commonly known as MUNA), over the weekend.

The two day Conference, held this year at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, replicates the actual United Nations Assembly where student teams representing 192 countries come together to debate and discuss significant global issues.

Team ‘New Zealand’, or ‘Middle Earth’ as they affectionately became known, was awarded ‘Most Entertaining Team’ and consisted of Alexi Carlier, Djon Pye and Arunabh Prakash.

Darryn Ooi, representing the United States, was also awarded ‘delegate that stood up to the most pressure’.

The many topics covered this year ranged from the role of the United Nations in dealing with child soldiers and biodiversity, to the conflict in Libya.

This year the five countries the students represented were the United States of America, New Zealand, Somalia, Switzerland and Oman and each team is expected to design a ‘national’ costume.

New Zealand was represented by Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo; team USA comprised Wonder Woman, Captain America, and the Statue of Liberty, while Switzerland’s ensemble included a very impressive block of Swiss cheese.

Another highlight of the conference was Hamish Clark and Alexi Carlier being voted bloc leaders to represent the Middle East and Asia/Oceania.

Humour was an integral part of the MUNA experience - essentially this helped alleviate much of the mundane aspects associated with international diplomacy.

At the conclusion of the conference Labour Party leader David Shearer addressed MUNA delegates about his experiences working in the UN. This provided valuable insight into how the organisation students were emulating functions in reality.

MUNA teams were as follows:

USA
Darryn Ooi
Sarah Bradley
Mabel Ye

New Zealand
Djon Pye
Alexi Carlier
Arunabh Prakash

Oman
Hamish Clark
Bryden Lloyd
Liam Stewart

Switzerland
Anna Piaggi
Patrick Gu
Susan Ji

Somalia
Casey Seto
Nacoya Anderson
Cordelia Oh

With thanks to Head of History, Bridget Anitelea and Year 13 student, Alexi Carlier