By Michael Todd
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa Model United Nations program attended the University of California Berkeley Model UN conference on March 3-5, and to the National High School Model UN conference on March 7-13 and March 13-18.
A group of 30 students attended the conference at Berkeley as well as both conferences in New York. Costa attended two separate NHSMUN conferences on consecutive weekends in New York.
“When we prepare wisely and smartly, I think we are one of the top schools anywhere we go,” MUN advisor Robert Timberlake said. “With a little bit of luck and a couple of breaks here and there, we are one of the top schools no doubt.”
Costa students won 15 individual awards at the Berkeley conference and Costa won Best Large Delegation. Two students won gavels, seven students won outstanding delegate awards and six students won commendations.
“We prepared very well by using our time in class to research,” sophomore Troy Gleason said. “It is evident that everyone put in a lot of time and effort as we won several awards.”
Approximately 150 schools attended the UC Berkeley conference from states all over the country. Costa prepared for this debate by using class time to do research and participating in “roasts” after school, which is when the advisors ask students questions about their topics.
Video: This video shows what Model United Nations is all about and how students of the program strive to be the best delegate that they can be.
“We prepare after school by using many different scenarios and situations,” Timberlake said. “We do many speaking activities and question and answer activities in order to be fully prepared.”
Approximately 5,000 students attended both of the NHSMUN conference sessions from over 50 countries around the world. This allows students from Costa to meet with students of many other countries, including meeting students from the country that they will debate for, sophomore Holden Brown said.
“The NHSMUN conference was a very unique and different experience for me,” Brown said. “I was able to meet many different people from countries all over the world, which was an awesome learning experience.”
There were no individual awards at the NHSMUN conference however, Costa won best large delegation at both of the conferences in New York.
“We all prepared a lot for this debate as it was our last one of the year,” Brown said. “We put in time in and out of class to do research and it paid off as we ended up winning.”
These were the final three conferences of the school year for the Costa MUN program. They will attend their next conference in the fall of the next school year.
“These conferences wrapped up what has been a very busy year for all of us,” Timberlake said. “We know if we we prepare well we are one of the best schools anywhere, and this year has shown the we’ve been pretty good.”
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