Model UN Sends Ten Students to AmeriMUNC Competition

Foxcroft sent ten students to the conference this year, who competed on two types of committees: General Assemblies and Crisis Committees. 

General Assemblies are where students are assigned to represent a country. They have to review the issues from their countries’ perspectives and promote what would be best for the country. Ultimately students use debate to convince other countries to agree with them and diplomacy to come up with joint resolutions to the problems presented. General Assembly committees are challenging because they are large — 30 to 40 students each. In an activity where points are awarded for speaking and taking the lead in a resolution paper, it’s more difficult to be seen and heard in such a large group.

While many of the General Assembly kids were new to Model UN, they all participated by speaking, voting, and helping to write resolutions. Foxcroft was represented on several General Assemblies, including UN Women, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the Disarmament and International Security Committee. By the end of the weekend, the General Assembly kids were excited, overwhelmed, and happy with their efforts. They met so many students from different schools and were able to participate in creating resolutions. 

The other type of committee Foxcroft students participated in was the Crisis Committee. In Crisis Committees, students represent individual members of governments or company boards. Crisis Committees are different from General Assemblies in that each student’s goal is individual success, as opposed to group consensus, but that success is often found by being a part of the directives written by and voted on by members of the group. In Crisis, there is a “backroom” where conference officials create urgent situations to which the members of the Crisis Committees must respond.

In a Crisis Committee, there is a lot of intrigue, spycraft, and scandal. It is not uncommon for characters to be killed off, arrested, or have to escape their group. In those extreme cases, students may be given new characters to play mid-game if their character is no longer in play. This year, Foxcfroft had students on the Cabinets of Australia, Japan, China, and India. Our students represented the Indian Minister of Power and Renewable Energy, the Chinese Head of the Publicity Department, the Attorney General of Australia, and the President of the House of Councilors for Japan. Their emergent issues included the accidental dumping of toxic water in fishing lanes and a Prime Minister being ousted from the Australian government and replaced with one of his cabinet members. The students had a great time, and when asked if they would do Crisis again, Anila S. ’25, Mimi H-L. ’26, Jeanne T-L. ’25, and Avery H. ’23 all gave a resounding “YES!”

Next up for the Model UN team is a competition at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. We have also been invited to upcoming conferences at the University of Maryland, College Park, and George Washington University.