Upper School Model UN Hosts Virtual Quaker Model UN Conference Nov. 20-22

Upper School Model UN students are gearing up to host the third Quaker Model United Nations Conference (QMUNC III) from November 20-22. The event will be held virtually due to the pandemic. 

The Opening Ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. Friday evening and feature Megan Schmidt, one of two representatives from the Quaker United Nations Office, who leads the organization’s Peacebuilding Program. 

QMUNC was created in 2017 by Anna Goula ’18 as her senior capstone project, with the tradition continuing even after she graduated. Bringing together numerous U.S. Friends schools and this year a number of international schools (Monteverde Friends School in Costa Rica and Brummana High School in Lebanon are currently registered), QMUNC serves to represent important Quaker values and testimonies. Although the topics have changed from year to year, each QMUNC committee is based around one of the SPICES: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. This year’s topics include the Korean War, post-World War I reparations, black market organ trafficking, the Venezuelan humanitarian crisis, gender-based violence in refugee camps, and the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. Combined with traditional Model United Nations procedures, QMUNC allows delegates to consider, discuss, and debate world issues with Quaker values in mind.

Secretaries-General of the conference and of MFS Model UN are Christine Chandran ‘21 and Kayla Patel ‘21. MFS Model UN Advisor is History Department Chair Clark Thomson.