On December 1st and 2nd South Windsor High School students traveled to the University of Hartford to participate in the World Affairs Council of Connecticut’s annual Model United Nations event.

“I have being going to this convention of the last four years and this experiences has helped me in so many aspects of my life including, public speaking, working with others, and problem solving,” stated South Windsor High School student Coriana Farinella.

At this convention students from across Connecticut meet to debate topics that are occurring globally everyday.  Also the overarching topics are some of the main ones addressed by the actual United Nations.  This year many South Windsor High School students took home some awards.  The innovation award was given to 3 groups of students and only 1 best delegation award was also given.  South Windsor has had a reputation of walking away with many awards each year they attend this event.  The preparation that students put into this event clearly is reflected with the awards that they win.

“I feel like no matter the award won, the hard work that each student put into this conference worked to their benefit,” said Trevor Hoffman another student at South Windsor High School.

For many weekends students have debated position papers and also have grappled with running through mock simulations that only further prepared them for what they were going to face at the conference.  Also since each student is split up into various countries and committees research on each topic was required so that on the day of the conference, each and every member of the Model UN club from South Windsor would not only know what they are talking about, they would also feel comfortable debating other students in trying to make their own points and actions more stronger.

“This is my first time at the conference and I thought that sitting back and taking in everything that was going on around me would given me a better chance of walking away with an award next year,” a student claimed.

One of the many beautiful things about this conference is that you are not required to speak.  Most delegations are made up of 2 or 3 students, usually at least having one that possesses strong public speaking skills and another who is very intellectually aware on the topic at hand to help the group with facts and statistics when needed.  This combination of people makes for a great team effort from the South Windsor front, that had the school coming home with wins.