By Alexandra Steyn

On Saturday, April 18, the Model United Nations club hosted Rye Country Day School’s first conference on campus. Delegations from local public and private schools, including Holy Child, King, Sacred Heart, Scarsdale High School, and Rye High School, convened on the RCDS campus for a nine-hour marathon of committee meetings. Students could choose from six committees with a variety of topics, from the wage gap between men and women to the Red Scare and other historical crises. Within the framework of the UN, delegates explored how to tackle various issues and collaborate to reach equitable solutions for their committees.

The six committees can be divided into three sub-groups. Based on experience, delegates can join general assemblies, which consist of bigger committees and novice delegates, specialized committees, and crisis committees, which are more fast-paced, with the goal of consolidating power rather than collaborating to reach a solution. However, in each of these committees, delegates can build and learn valuable skills. Kevin Neilinger ‘27, one leader of the Model UN club at RCDS, said that Model UN is an “amazing experience for public speaking, networking, critical thinking, and problem solving.” All these skills are built through the collaborative and participatory nature of Model UN, which encourages public presentation and interactions between delegates.

The day began at 8:30 am with Opening Ceremonies, followed by three committee sessions and Closing Ceremonies at 5:15 pm, resulting in a packed day. To plan for such a chaotic event, Neilinger and Zara Khemlani ‘27, another leader of the Model UN club, worked closely with the club’s faculty advisor and Director of Global Studies, Mr. Murray. They started with basic logistics, figuring out how many people their conference could accommodate, what spaces they could use, who they could invite, and their budget. Working with her sister, RCDS graduate Anya Khemlani ‘23, Khemlani designed a website for the conference. Mr. Murray then advocated on behalf of their club and booked rooms for the conference.

Another of their key responsibilities was training the twelve chairs of the committees. Typically a senior, a chair is a stoic moderator who ensures decorum is maintained, debate flows smoothly, delegates use correct information, and sessions are well-organized. Chairs must be well-versed on their committee’s topic, as they write the background guides each delegate receives prior to the conference and share feedback with students at certain points during the sessions. Khemlani and Neilinger worked with the chairs in several training sessions leading up to the conference to ensure the chairs could handle their responsibilities.

For Khemlani, the highlight of the event was seeing “students from different schools come together and collaborate with each other.” For Neilinger, he was excited for RCDS students’ participation in the conference. He reflected that giving the students an “opportunity to explore MUN public speaking and debate is ultimately positive for the community,” as they can use the skills they developed in the conference in their extracurricular activities and classes at RCDS and beyond.

The conference ultimately proved a success, providing the Model UN club with funds for future conferences, building bridges between schools, and promoting the development of crucial skills in all delegates.