Middle school students from Richmond and Columbia County schools and the Ron Clark Academy in metro Atlanta became citizens of other countries for one day.
About 130 students participated in the Eighth Annual Junior Model United Nations, held March 9 at the Augusta University Summerville campus. This year marked the return to an in-person event after the 2021 program was held virtually because of COVID-19.
“Students are assigned countries by us at the beginning of the year, or whenever they register for the conference. And then they learn all about their countries,” said Dr. Nadia Jilani-Hyler, who is a senior lecturer of political science and the program director at AU. “They learn about the United Nations, they learn about the topic of our conference, which this year is climate change and environmental security.”
Serving as delegates from their assigned counties, the students prepare for the conference where they draft a resolution that will be voted on at the end of the daylong conference.
[adrotate banner=”51″]
Participating also allows students to practice public speaking, problem-solving, negotiation and professionalism.
Previous theme’s have ranged from nuclear disarmament to a zombie pandemic. Jilani-Hyler selected climate change and environmental security for this year’s event.
“It seems like a topic that young people tend to care a lot about, and one that they may feel like they have little agency over, like adults are kind of failing them, handing them an impossible situation when they get older,” she said. “Maybe gives them a sense of agency over the topic, while also realizing how complicated it really is, to get all of these countries on board on something that we really need cooperation on.”
However, Jilani-Hyler is also aware students may be thinking about the United Nations in terms of its involvement in addressing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I intend to speak a little bit about it during my opening ceremony remarks, mainly because I’m a little bit worried about bullying. You know, these are middle schoolers, and they tend to pick on each other. And we do ask them to be in character for other countries. But we had actually the students from the Russian Federation request a change at the last minute, and we were able to accommodate that change,” said Jilani-Hyler.
The program is sponsored by the Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Augusta University.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
