MMUN New York City 2023
By providing a global education, students have the opportunity to experience the task of building a peaceful world. It gives birth to global citizens who not only understand the issues faced by all in the 21st Century but who are willing to take action to change the course of world events. Now, at the conclusion of MMUN NYC 2023, our most recent student delegates understand the
meaning of these words.
At the Opening Ceremony, Judith Cunningham the founder and Director of the Montessori Model United Nations, told the audience, “You are all Helpers and in the next few days, you will help your committees find solutions to the most pressing issues.” At the concluding ceremonies, as students sat in the United Nations General Assembly, they were told “now you can become Doers by taking your solutions and turning them into Action. As we say in Montessori, true learning is experiential. In order to fully learn, we need to see, hear, touch and find the truth in reality. This is the real world experience, our student-delegates have just completed.
Congratulations to our MMUN NYC 2023 Global Citizens!
● Brady Baltzell & Erik Livesay
● Cole Bower & Delilah Lupe
● Grace Bower & Isaac Olson
● Gianni Camarata & Liam Resnick
● Isabella Dalton & Hope Robertson
● Rook Faber & Massimo Toromazote
● Jonah Girard & Enler Twadell
● Finley Hartstein & Sage Wilson
● Siobhan King & Riley Wohldmann
Highlights of the MMUN NY Conference
The big event the MMUN Conference began with Opening Ceremonies and presentations of the 193 country flags. Our students represented Croatia, Ecuador and the Gambia. Our student-delegates sat in their committee rooms in an unfamiliar environment with unfamiliar people but by the afternoon of Day 1 they were talking about world issues, leading discussions and making new friends. Speeches on issues were given, sub-topics were picked, and draft
resolutions were formed. Students merged 4 draft resolutions, edited each line, combined suggestions, and deleted and reworded statements during informal and formal consultations. In the end, all committees voted on final drafts and picked countries to represent the committee and the issues at Closing Ceremonies. Our record over 13 years remained intact, as 2 of our
teams were chosen to speak at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the grandest place of all. Each student that participated had their own success. Each student grew, found new confidence, presented a speech and had their voices heard in committee. During Final Voting in the UNGA, our students sat in the seats of global diplomats and voted for the Resolutions they had created. At the close, final resolutions were sent to the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Csaba Korosi, previously, the Permanent Representative of the Mission of Hungary to the United Nations. Students were able to walk across the beautiful plaza of the United Nations. Walking across this Plaza, means you are no longer in the United States but are now on foreign soil. Students viewed the Peace Statue gifted by Croatia, the Sphere Within a Sphere gifted from Italy, and the
Knotted Gun representing non-violence gifted from Sweden. In the back of the plaza, is the replica of a slave ship known as the Permanent Memorial to the Transatlantic Slave Trade by artist Rodney Leon of Haiti. Students walked through the nickle doors donated by Canada and engraved with Pax, Justia, Veritas and Fraternitas as they entered the United Nations headquarters. Children on their way to change the world. The New York MMUN experience included many highlights. What can we say about seeing Hamilton on Broadway, meeting the actors at the Stage Door of the Richard Rogers theater or touring the 911 Memorial Museum site, viewing the 911 Memorial Pools, riding the NYC subway, shopping in the Oculus 911 Transportation Hub, hanging in the Whisper Room of Grand Central Station, taking a walking tour of Rockefeller Center, NBC studios, Radio City Music Hall and
Avenue of the Americas and shopping in and around Times Square. We dined at Junior’s Deli, had a celebration sitting on the balcony of John’s Pizza dining on salads, garlic bread, pizza, brownies and pitchers of soft drinks, had a late night dinner at the Marriott Marquis, grabbed burgers and shakes at the Shake Shack, ate street food off the carts, grabbed lunch at Pret a Manger, French Baguette, Chick-fil-A, and the food court at Grand Central (loved the Tartines)...and the best, brownies and cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery…did I mention a few visits to Starbucks?
Last reflection.
MMUN means months of hard work and dedication. To learn so many new skills is exhausting. The reward is the sense of accomplishment, the growth of self awareness and confidence, and the knowledge that you have the power to impact the world.
As MMUN says, “Create the world you want!”
Student quotes:
Student after attending the 2012 NYC Conference; "Now I know what I want to do with the rest of my life."
Student delegate to UNICEF, " Working in my committee taught me to follow my heart and listen to my own voice."
Student commenting on their issue, Children in Armed Conflict, "When I first got my issue, I didn't even know what it meant. Now I follow the UN News Center and my committee and it makes me feel proud."
"Brava, now you know more than half the people in the world," Professor Salvatore Zappalá,
Legal Counsel to the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN, to one of our students at our meeting at the Mission [when he asked her if she knew the difference between a refugee, internally displaced person and an asylum seeker] and she did.
Student delegate upon returning from China, “I will never again think of China as a government.
From now on when I hear China, I will think of the people, their kindness, their warmth and how much we had in common. I will always remember their hospitality and the beauty of the land.”
A big THANK YOU and lots of hugs to our chaperones and of course, to Ms. Maike. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Until next year……Peace.
Ms. Sandler
