The team recently traveled to William and Mary College for its annual overnight conference, which attracted over 40 different high schools from all over the country. At the tournament, students had the opportunity to represent various countries and discuss current issues in a mock United Nations trial. Langley did extremely well, placing 2nd out all of the schools.
The victory was definitely well deserved, and was the result of intensive preparation. Langley students were assigned their countries, as well as three topics to research, in October (Langley represented Japan and the Netherlands.)
The students were placed into three different committees: novice, general assembly, and specialized committee Representing Japan and Netherlands, students were placed in three different categories for committees: novice committees for beginners, general assemblies for intermediate students, and specialized committees for the most advanced students.
“In a specialized committee, you have the opportunity to speak more since there are only 15 people,” said senior Will Mannon. “You have a much greater influence on everyone, and it’s much more intense.”
Other students were placed in the largest committees compromised of about 148 people. “It was my first overnight conference, and it was fun to interact with kids from all over the United States,” said sophomore Kushali Marwaha.
After over 10 hours of deliberation within their committees, students participated in a closing ceremony, where the awards were presented. The awards presented were: verbal accommodation, honorable delegate, outstanding delegate, and best delegate.
The next overnight conference this year is at University of Pennsylvania in late January, while the next high school conferences are at CD Hylton, and Tech Mun.
“This whole experience is eye opening,” said junior Andrew Kil, who was one of the delegates who received honorable delegate. “I recommend that anyone who has a passion for public speaking should be in Model UN.”