Phillips Academy won “Best Small Delegation” at the Ninth Boston Invitational Model United Nation Conference this past weekend. The “Best Small Delegation” award is given to the school that won the most individual awards per delegation. Andover competed against over 1100 students from around the world. “I am so glad that I got to know these kids and got a chance to see their hard work pay off,” said Teruyo Shimazu, Instructor in Japanese and Faculty Advisor to Andover MUN. “These students gave up their weekend of social time in order to participate in this conference. Usually I don’t care about winning a trophy, but this time I was overwhelmed with pride,” Shimazu said. This was the MUN’s first time participating in the conference sponsored by Boston University. While Andover usually attends the NAIMUN Conference at Georgetown University, budget cuts prevented Andover from doing so this year. Shimazu said that the club chose to participate in this conference for the first time because of its convenient location, which lowered the cost. “I was very pleased by the way the Boston University ran the conference from registration, to hotels, to the running of committees,” she said. Shimazu was particularly impressed by training sessions offered to early arrivals. “I had not seen [training sessions] offered before and was pleasantly surprised,” she said. Andover’s return to Georgetown next year is not guaranteed, but Shimazu believes the club has discovered a good alternative. “This conference has proven to be a better option [then NAIMUN] not only because of the cost, but because traveling to Washington requires students to miss too many classes,” Shimazu said. Jeremy Hutton ’11 was a member of the European Court of Human Rights, a specialized committee that shared the same level of authority as the United Nations Cabinet. Hutton was recognized as the Outstanding Delegate of his assembly. “I think Georgetown was unique in its size and location, but this conference was very nice as well,” said Hutton. “The level of competition was quite high.” Hutton’s committee focused on the disputed right of the Italian government to hang crucifixes in classrooms. “It was incredibly heated partially because we suspended the rules of parliamentary procedure so the conversation was very loose,” said Hutton. “This conference showed me how important it is to look at an issue from different sides. I now look at things with more of an open mind and am willing to compromise.” Kerry Lanzo ’11 served on the PAN African Parliament that debated political, social, and economic conflicts in Zimbabwe. “I found the conference to be very interesting because so many perspectives on these issues were present. 300 of the kids were international, and I even met a delegate from Cyprus,” said Lanzo. According to Lanzo, students spent approximately 14 hours in committee sessions and a minimum of four hours preparing. “We were provided with topic guides, and did a lot of outside research and preparation for our position papers. We spent all the time in committees discussing our ideas and pushing the opinions our countries held,” she said. “Normally I have some sort of concern or complaint that I raise with the administration but at this conference, I had absolutely no issues,” said Shimazu. “It ran very smoothly.”
