Provided

More than 700 students and advisers from 42 high schools came to campus April 11-14 for the 2013 Cornell Model United Nations Conference.

The 2013 Cornell Model United Nations Conference (CMUNC), with the theme “Raise Your Placard, Raise Your Voice,” attracted 700 students and advisers from 42 high schools to campus, April 11-14.

The event focused on youth empowerment and leadership development, said the event’s Secretary General Meril Pothen ’13, a policy analysis and management major.

“Usually [these conferences] have a focus like preventing child trafficking or advocating for LGBT rights, which are all very worthy causes,” Pothen said. “But I really wanted it to be something where students could harness their own passion for what they wanted to talk about.”

Keynote speaker Tom Fox, vice president of Partnership for Public Service, author of the Washington Post’s Federal Coach column and an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, urged student delegates to “follow [their] daydreams”; find opportunities to stretch themselves; reflect on their successes, failures and abilities; and give themselves time to renew in order to become leaders.

“You’ve got to repeat these steps time and time again to get better,” Fox said. “You have to decide when you’re ready to be a leader.”

The conference was hosted by the Cornell International Affairs Society (CIAS) and organized by a staff of about 170 Cornell students, including CIAS members and volunteers from Alpha Phi Omega, Cornell’s co-ed service fraternity.

The proceedings simulated a variety of U.N.-style committees, ranging from a 12-person crisis committee on the humanitarian nonprofit Syrian Arab Red Crescent to a 95-person committee on disarmament and international security. This year’s conference also included a Joint House and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Among the conference’s delegates were five teenage girls from Monroe County chosen to represent Somalia. The students are teen leaders in a Cornell 4-H youth engagement program called CITIZEN U, a joint effort of Cornell Cooperative Extension and the College of Human Ecology to support at-risk youth to become active citizens in their communities, graduate from high school and attend college.

The conference increased partnership with local vendors, Pothen said. Opening ceremonies were held at the State Theatre of Ithaca, and both Yogurt Crazy and Collegetown Bagels – which offered a “Motion to Adjourn” sandwich – donated part of their proceeds to One World Futbol, the organization CMUNC organizers chose to support this year.

“CMUNC was really a citywide affair,” Pothen. “Through these local partnerships, we were able to heighten and make more public our philanthropic perspective.”

The donated proceeds from CTB and Yogurt Crazy, in addition to the $1,400 conference attendees raised through “Jar Wars” – a competition among committees to raise the most money – will send more than 60 indestructible soccer balls to inner-city neighborhoods in the United States and to war-torn areas around the world.

“We thought this organization was something that would really resonate with kids,” Pothen said. “Imagine playing in an area filled with broken glass or garbage or shrapnel. By doing this, we were able to give this organization a voice.”

CMUNC focuses on skill development, networking and public speaking, but “students learn so much more than that,” Pothen said.

“Through this sort of theatrical game – where you take on a character that believes things you may not believe, and you try to persuade others to believe those things – you are forced to step outside your own views,” she said. “So many of the conflicts in this world occur because of people having a difference of opinions. Model U.N. helps students learn how other views come about, in a peaceful way.”

Sarah Cutler ’16 is a student communications assistant for the College of Human Ecology.