On March 16 through 19, a group of 33 Falk seventh- and eighth-graders traveled to New York City with Falk teachers to participate in a Model United Nations conference that drew delegations from across the United States as well as Ghana, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany.

For members of Falk’s Model United Nations Club, the trip was the culmination of a year of hard work. Led by Middle School Spanish teacher Valerie Rossi and Middle School Social Studies teacher Greg Wittig, the students met at lunchtime and recess, beginning in September. They worked first to hone their debate skills and gain familiarity with the rules and terminology of Model UN, then to research and write position papers that would serve as the basis of debate at the conference.

In January, students were assigned countries and placed on committees. Each committee considered a topic, such as “Digital Safety in the Metaverse” or “Food Insecurity, Climate Change, and the Energy Crisis.” Falk students served as delegates of Argentina, Egypt, France, India, Hungary, Morocco, and the United Kingdom.

In addition to sharpening their debate skills, says Middle School division director Dr. Joanna Newlin, “They also learn to see things from another perspective, because they’re not debating from their own point of view. They never refer to themselves as ‘I’ or ‘we.’ It’s always ‘The delegates of Argentina.’”

Students serving as Hungarian delegates, for example, had to conduct research to argue from the perspective of that country’s authoritarian government, whose views may differ widely from their own. (Students from other schools, Newlin points out, had to serve on a Russian delegation considering the topic “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and its Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Consequences.”)

Rossi helped students prepare to take another nation’s perspective by likening the exercise to a role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons, she says.

“I told them, ‘You cease to be you,’” Rossi says. “You cease to have your perspectives and opinions and become delegates of those countries. And it was a little bit of a learning curve.”

Rossi credits Greg Wittig with guiding students’ writing process, which in turned helped them organize their thoughts for debate at the conference.

Once at the conference, students shared and debated their countries’ policy recommendations, with the end goal of approving resolutions. Each committee, Rossi says, came up with some resolutions that were then sent to the actual United Nations.

“We did light work from September through December,” says Rossi, with students practicing their debate skills through more playful activities like on-the-spot debates responding to questions like “Which is better, cats or dogs?”

But once students knew their assignments, Rossi says, “It was two and a half months of really in-depth work.”

That focus and dedication paid off. Competing against not only middle schoolers but some high school students, Falk students won a number of prizes issued by Altitude for Educational Management, the Brazil-based educational organization that presented the conference.

The following Falk Middle School students were recognized by the judges:

• Jack Harding and Simone Leong & Yalkin Kaynar and Sophie Filipink-Smith won Best Position Papers from the International Telecommunication Union committee;
• Sam Nicotra and Niam Predd won Most Improved Delegates from the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Issues Committee;
• Aiko Witten and Gabe Belgrove won Best Position Paper from the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Issues Committee;
• Richie Gozansky won Most Improved Delegate from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime; and
• Elena Maria Silva won Best Position Paper from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

“They did so well,” says Rossi. “I just want them to have this experience and have fun and learn and be curious, but the fact that we got some position paper awards out of it is truly remarkable.”

This trip was the first time Falk has sent a group to the Model UN competition since 2019, due the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, a group of Middle School teachers including Rossi, Middle School science teacher Alex Dragon, and student teacher Grant Schaeffer organized an internal competition centered around climate change.

“But going to the conference is just so much more powerful,” says Newlin.

Six Falk faculty members accompanied the group to New York. Although the conference schedule was intense, running from 9 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. each day, the group managed to experience New York, including trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and meals at several of the city’s food markets.

“We had an absolute blast in New York,” says Rossi. “It was a perfect blend of academic work and enjoying the city.”

“These types of experiences are my favorite part of being in a school like this,” adds Newlin, “because you see the kids out of their element, out in the real world. This is something that is really an authentic experience for them.”