Farragut’s Model UN students participate in virtual GatorMUN Conference
The Admiral Farragut Academy Model United Nations team participated in their fifth GatorMUN over the weekend of January 22-24.
This year, the delegation team represented the Bahamas and, for the weekend, students became delegates in important international forums addressing complex global issues such as preventing the spread of diseases, defending human rights, and upholding justice in the international system. Participating students included juniors John Young, Benjamin Crawford, Jon Incavido, Ayden Leavitt, Kalynn Miner, Helena Panuthos, Kuanjue Shao, Conry Cabantac, and Tyler Turner, and sophomores Richard Palmer and Pedro Chalfun de Aquino.
Under more conventional circumstances, the conference is held over three days at the University of Florida campus and is the largest student-run Model UN conference in the country. On Friday and Sunday, Farragut’s Model UN students met in their respective delegations virtually from their dorms and from their homes, but on Saturday night, they enjoyed a socially-distanced gathering in DeSeta Hall (pictured).
GatorMUN provides a learning experience unlike any other by breaking from the traditional classroom setting to transform high school students into experts on pressing international issues. Because it has been found that delegates respond enthusiastically to fast-paced and high-intensity situations, GatorMUN XVII offered crisis simulations. Crises encourage delegates to use their problem-solving skills to apply their previous knowledge to new situations, ensuring that the debate never gets stagnant. In these committees, delegates prepared to debate a specific issue but had to react to new information as the conference progressed. As in the real world, each decision they make has consequences, and the committee had to respond to new situations.
