To the Secretary-General, His Excellence Ban Ki-moon, and the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser,
Thank you for the amazing time we had at this year’s Montessori Model United Nations (sponsored by the Government of Armenia in collaboration with the United States Federation for Middle East Peace and the Montessori Model United Nations program). Five of our students learned about the geography, history, government, culture and current issues of Japan, and represented the country of Japan during committee sessions for UNEP, UNICEF, UNPBC, and SOCHUM during the recent 2012 Montessori Model United Nations Conference in April. We learned how to work well with other people and how to write effective resolutions. Last year, our school, Academy of the Child, also participated in MMUN committee sessions and did well, but this year we did a lot better because we had more experience and knew what to expect. While we were there we made worldwide friends, and without them we would not have been able to accomplish what we did. It was hard work to prepare for the MMUN Conference, but it was worth it because we had a wonderful time and learned so much. Thank you Mr. Ban Ki-moon and Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser for the opportunity to have this learning experience.
We learned how to work well with people and write powerful resolutions. It is great to work together with lots of people because a draft resolution is more likely to pass when that happens. A committee will also have more ideas and opinions from different people to put into draft resolutions when many delegates work together and share their ideas. Every delegation comes up with different solutions to problems, and if all of those could be put into one resolution that everybody votes on and passes, it would be great because the committee would have reached complete consensus. Resolutions that pass unanimously would mean that the committee worked well together.
While we were there we made friends, and without them we would not have been able to accomplish what we did. The friends we made were very helpful because, when there was a deadline, we could rely on them to get the resolution finished. Another reason is that we could fill in for each other as needed. For example, while we were talking to one group of students, they could help us by expressing our ideas to another group. We made many friends from all over the world who worked with us to prepare resolutions, and we exchanged addresses before the conference was over to keep in touch with Montessori students in other parts of the world.
Last year Academy of the Child attended Montessori Model United Nations 2011 and we did well, but this year we feel we did much better because we had more experience. One of the reasons that it was helpful to have had one year of previous experience was because we knew what to expect, which helped us get things accomplished in the committee rooms.We knew what to do, which helped us become major contributors on the resolutions. Since we had been to the conference twice, we found it was much easier the second time.
It was hard work to be able to participate in a Model United Nations program, but this one was worth it. We had to work for many months in order to be able to go to the conference. As we prepared for the New York trip, some of the delegates had to write four position papers because others needed help with theirs. We even did a practice U.N. session at our school. We pretended to be instruments and debated the seating positions of the instruments in the orchestra in order to learn to use formal addresses and follow rules of procedure during committee sessions. We worked very hard to be able to attend MMUN, but the work we did paid off.
Thank you Mr. Ban Ki-moon and Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser for this wonderful experience. We know that it was a once in a lifetime chance to go to the actual U.N. Headquarters in New York City, sit in the seats of the real U.N. delegates and discuss and vote on world issues there. One of our students even had a chance to speak at the U.N. in support of a resolution which was brought to a vote, and we are very thankful for that opportunity.
