Macleans College students participate in prestigious United Nations events

Catherine Yuan (Batten House), Amelia Hu (Mansfield), Aaron Huang (Rutherford), Min-Yi Wong (Hillary), and Yusra Khan (Batten) travelled to Wellington to attend the annual New Zealand National Model United Nations, also known as NZMUN. This is New Zealand’s flagship foreign affairs and diplomacy conference where participants have the main focus of building on their public speaking, debating, communication and problem solving ability whilst meeting high profile New Zealand politicians and leaders.

Run by UN Youth New Zealand, the event saw a record attendance of nearly 400 students from all over the country. Four days of excitement and thrilling debates took place, which produced an all-round inspiring experience.

Additionally, Leo Mamedov (Kupe House) was part of the New Zealand national team of seven students to represent the New Zealand delegation to Brisbane for the annual National Youth Conference (NatCon) run by UN Youth Australia. The New Zealand team were joined by 80 other participants from all states and territories for five days of general debating, public speaking, group negotiations and various leadership workshops.

Both NZMUN and NatCon resembled a mock United Nations General Assembly where participants got the chance to raise their concerns and increase awareness on many global issues while representing their assigned countries. The countries of Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Korea, Georgia, Spain and Ecuador were represented and delegates received the chance to focus on all current issues affecting day to day life - critical technologies, conflict, climate change, poverty and more.

Looking to the future, students are encouraged to take up the opportunity to participate in events such as Model United Nations to further immerse themselves in global affairs, and educate themselves about all the different country commitments within the United Nations.