CIS Students attend Model UN Conference

By Lisa Leland
Communications and Marketing Executive
Canadian International School

In February, the largest middle school Model UN Conference in the world took place in Singapore. Model UN serves as a platform for students to learn UN protocol, share perspectives, and gain confidence with presenting and debating important United Nations issues.

Thirty-seven students from the Canadian International School’s Tanjong Katong and Lakeside campuses attended the conference and spent a weekend debating and passing resolutions pertaining to human rights, ECOSOC, the environment, food security, and the security council. It was a marvelous event with twenty-eight schools from Singapore, China, India, Malaysia and as far away as Jordan and Saudi Arabia taking part.

Alexandra Chapman (Grade 7 Tanjong Katong student), who had the experience of being a Delegate representing Ethiopia reported the following:

“At the Model UN, students took on the role of diplomats and debated real world issues, such as relief for the East Africa drought, promotion of fair trade and ending tobacco production. Our campus represented Ethiopia and Iraq. Delegates had to write resolutions and make speeches about global issues whilst keeping in mind the perspective and interests of the country we were representing. It took a lot of research and thought, but with the help of our teachers, and our peers, we accomplished our task. In conclusion, this was a phenomenal experience. We learned about the world, made friends and gained confidence by taking the risk to speak in front of our committees during debates. We are already looking forward to next year’s conference.”