By Oliver Angert (Reporter ‘24)
The Friends’ Central School Model UN team participated in the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC) event this January. I sat down with Jack Barsotti, who attended the conference, to ask him how it went. Here is our interview:
When was it?
January 25-28
How many people attended from Friends Central?
16 students and two teachers
Who were the teachers?
Mr. McDonnell and Mr. Calder
How long did it take?
It took four days, each lasting for eight hours.
“We had about two four-hour sessions of debate. Well, on Friday and Saturday we did; on Thursday it was a lot shorter.”
How long did it take to get there?
“It was in Philly, so about 20 minutes.”
How many people were there total?
Around 2,000 students plus the teachers and advisors
How many schools were attending?
Around 80 to 90 schools
Which country did Friends Central represent?
The Philippines
What were the topics that were being debated?
“The UNCTAD committee debated Supply Chain Disruptions and Governance of the South China Sea, and SPECPOL did Rights Of Journalists in Conflict Zones and Self Determination.”
Did anything else interesting happen that you would like to share?
“It was four days of really interesting debate. We got to talk about a lot of very interesting topics: spy tech, supply chains, and self determination. We all worked on resolutions for these topics, a lot of which passed in our final votes. And despite being a small country, the Philippines had a big impact on our committees.”