Last weekend a group from the Marist Model United Nations club, comprising Salma, Alice, Heidi, Jerushka, Denise and Vittoria were voted “Best Delegation” by their peers at the Gordons Model United Nations Conference. Debating with over 150 students from 6 other schools, our students (representing China) were also awarded “Most Improved Delegate” (Salma) and “Outstanding Delegate” (Jerushka and Alice). Marist students articulated China’s position on questions as diverse as..

• regulating arms transfers to Ukraine
• Yemini pirates in the Red Sea
• human rights in war-torn areas
• private sector involvement with environmental protection
• the Cuban missile crisis (Historical)
• long-range missiles in Ukraine
• emergency healthcare in Palestine
• …and sustainable development in Africa.

Our team heard a brilliant speech from Surrey Heath Liberal Democrat MP (previously Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway) Alistair Pinkerton about the enormous failure of diplomacy that had taken place at the White House between Presidents Trump and Zelensky just hours earlier. At dinner, they heard from a British Army general about European re-armament. The conference could not have taken place at a more important moment in the history of 21st century geopolitics, and Marist students were debating and passing resolutions on these same issues just as national representatives do at the actual United Nations. They gained valuable, transferable life skills.