By Marco Valle
On Saturday, March 18, Model UN delegates from across the district competed in the 29th Sewanhaka Intradistrict Model United Nations Conference, SIDMUN. SIDMUN is an annual conference exclusively for schools in the Sewanhaka school district, and this year, it took place at Floral Park Memorial High School. The topics were small arms and light weapons, guidelines on the roles of peacekeepers, impact of civil unrest on children, rights of indigenous people in South America and conflict in the Tigray region. Across all of these topics, delegates were tasked to draft unique solutions that addressed multiple aspects of their respective issues.
“Seeing all the schools in the district and so many different kids come together to solve world issues is great,” sophomore Deborah Aderibigbe said. “It’s also cool seeing NHP’s club do great.”
Source by Anna Detke
Juniors Varun Pillai and Alvin Paul in crisis committee debate on the conflict in the Tigray region as senior Nikson Alex chairs the crisis debate.
SIDMUN allows students to debate pressing world issues with people they usually do not have the opportunity to interact with.
“SIDMUN was an outlet for me to reunite with other MUN kids and upperclassmen,” sophomore Jaimy Mathew said. “It was an event where everyone had the privilege to speak on topics that are important to the wellbeing of the people. I enjoyed the communication and the fast pace of debate.”
While not as intense as conferences such as BOSMUN and RUMUN, SIDMUN exposes students to a variety of perspectives without the worry of distance or money.
“SIDMUN was a very different experience than RUMUN due to the fact that it was a much smaller conference with delegates from our district and not from many other schools like Rutgers,” sophomore Sahir Bhatia said. “I think that both conferences were good experiences with different skills being required and learned in each one respectively.”
Source by Anna Detke
Sophomore Marco Valle and junior Fiona O'Reilly are surprisingly smiling after five hours of debate on the topic of small arms and light weapons.
SIDMUN fills the role of a final for students who are in the Model UN class. It provides them the opportunity to practice everything that they have learned throughout the year. Freshman partners Dhara Patel and Nyelle Sarreal skillfully maneuvered throughout the debate and were awarded Best Delegate.
“When the award announcer for UNICEF said, ‘The best delegate award goes to Italy,’ my partner, Nyelle Sarreal, and I screamed in joy,” Patel said. “Excitement filled my body and we ran up on stage.”
“In my opinion, the switch from in-class debate to SIDMUN wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. On the contrary, the experience was exhilarating, and I was ecstatic every time I was given the opportunity to talk, especially when I was saying thank you to the upperclassmen when receiving my award,” Sarreal said.
The success of SIDMUN would not be possible without the guidance of Model UN adviser, Mr. Novak.
“The year ending is bittersweet because obviously winning two flags and children going on to do excellent at SIDMUN is incredible, but losing a senior class that has put so much effort into MUN is bittersweet,” adviser Mr. Novak said. “Losing staples of the club like Rachel and Brenda is sad, but we all know they will experience things far beyond this club.”
Source by Anna Detke
Throughout the day, many photos were taken that can be seen on the Model UN Instagram and in front of Mr. Novak's classroom in the showcase in the social studies hallway.
Awards
UNSC
Best Delegate: Switzerland (Grace Heskial & Veronica Fulgieri)
Outstanding Delegate: Gabon (Ethan Mehta & Alexander Tomalski)
Honorable Mention: USA (Alvin Paul & Varun Pillai)
SPECPOL
Best Delegate: USA (Guneet Hanjra & Nicole Donnelly)
Outstanding Delegate: Malaysia (Deborah Aderibigbe & Jash Mody )
Honorable Mention: Rwanda (Suha Tasfia & Tiffany Tso)
Honorable Mention: Chile (Liam Cavanagh & Shohom Chakraborty)
Honorable Mention: Saudi Arabia (Leah Del Orbe & Helai Eren)
UNICEF
Best Delegate: Italy (Dhara Patel & Nyelle Sarreal)
Outstanding Delegate: Malaysia (Angelina Alias & Rebecca John)
Honorable Mention: Gabon (Gianna Bonetti & Tanisha Patel)
Honorable Mention: Saudi Arabia (Hima Binu & Krish Singh)
Honorable Mention: Switzerland (Jay Shah & Sanjna Nischal)
Best Position Paper: USA (Sitatafeef Islam & Rehan Farooq )
SOCHUM
Best Delegate: USA (Brandon Noguera & Kaitlyn Bell)
Honorable Mention: Saudi Arabia (Sahir Bhatia & Aayan Ahmed)
Novice Award: Switzerland (Aaryan Kapoor & Mason Berardelli)
Novice Award: Malaysia (Disha Chakraborty & Simran Luckas)
Best Position Paper: Fiji (Sania Daniyal)
DISEC
Best Delegate: Chile (Fiona O’Reilly & Marco Valle)
Outstanding Delegate: Switzerland (Guraneel Kaur & Pari Shah)
Honorable Mention: USA (Darsh Mirchandani & Theodora Doukas)
Honorable Mention: Malaysia (Serina John & Emilin George)
Novice Award: Saudi Arabia (Allison Sanassi & Sharon Xiao)
Novice Award: Fiji (Sarah Chummar & Carmela Drossman-Schlossberg)