|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Foothill High students came away with the second highest award last weekend at the 27th annual Contra Costa County Model United Nations Conference.
At the two-day event last Friday and Saturday, more than 300 student “delegates” from local districts gathered at Diablo Valley College to discuss global issues, while representing different nations and negotiating on their behalf.
The team from San Ramon’s California High led the pack by earning the Outstanding Large Delegation Crystal Gavel Award. Next was Foothill, which was awarded the Exceptional Large Delegation Plaque. For smaller teams, Miramonte High received the Outstanding Small Delegation Crystal Gavel Award and Campolindo High the Exceptional Small Delegation Plaque.
“We are pleased to see so many high school students throughout our county and the Bay Area take advantage of our Model UN program,” said Karen Sakata, superintendent of schools for Contra Costa County.
“Model UN is an excellent opportunity for students to display all the hard work and preparation they have put in, as they successfully discuss, persuade, and work with fellow committee members on real-world problems and complex international relations,” Sakata added. “The skills they are currently refining with this program will be the same ones they’ll use in college and/or in their future careers.”
The event was organized and produced by the Contra Costa County Office of Education and coordinated by Kevin Felix Chan of Best Delegate — an organization that puts together Model UN training programs worldwide — in conjunction with members of the Model UN Club at U.C. Davis.
Also in the Tri-Valley, San Ramon’s Dougherty Valley High and Danville’s Athenian High also participated in the event.
Students discussed a wide range of topics — all while representing a total of 70 different countries — from “biological and chemical weapons” to “the question of North Korea” to “children in armed conflict,” among many others.
While Model UN is intended to be less of a competition, awards and plaques were presented to teams that demonstrated exemplary performance, and individual delegates will be recognized for their debate skills, leadership skills, knowledge of the issues and presentation of key resolutions.
Over 20 Foothill students took home individual awards this year. “Outstanding” awards — the equivalent of first place — were given to Harsha Mudaliar, Amritha Ramalingam, Zara Fatteh, Deepak Ragu, Arman Abrishamchian and Vishnu Arul.
Second place “Exceptional” recognitions were awarded to Avi Shah, Vaishik Kota, Asim Biswal, Nishitha Shetty, Shrinidhy Srinivas, Vishal Cherukuri, Keerthana Nallamotu, Jaski Halait and Robert Gan.
And third place “Distinguished” awards went to Qaasim Ashraf, Pranav Veerubhotla, Subha Khan, Fariba Rahman, Shreekar Eedara and Nick Jiang.
-
Over 300 students representing 70 different ‘countries’ took part in the conference. (Photo courtesy of Contra Costa County Office of Education) -
Foothill High’s Model UN team was awarded the Exceptional Large Delegation plaque at the Contra Costa County Model UN Conference that took place at Diablo Valley College last weekend. (Photo courtesy of Contra Costa County Office of Education)
