The Model United Nations club at Grandview Heights High School walked away with a top honor at a national conference in New York City.
The team won the Award of Distinction, the top award, for research and preparation and the Award of Merit, a third-place honor, for committee performance, at the National High School Model United Nations Conference.
They are the only two awards available for a school to win, said Caleb Evans, a teacher and Model UN adviser for the high school.
The event, which included training conferences, was March 16-21 at the New York Hilton Midtown.
The trip was funded by the Grandview Heights Marble Cliff Education Foundation.
Typically, Model UN teams visit the United Nations building but the panel was in session, dealing with the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, said senior Tyler Schmied, secretary general of the GHHS club and a member of its crisis team.
“The trip to New York City exceeded all of our wildest expectations,” said Schmied, also a co-founder of the Model UN club at the high school.
As freshmen, Schmied and Harvey Pierce approached Evans, asking him to lead the group.
A physical science teacher, Evans said he agreed to the request but only If students were willing to work as equals, learn together and not be afraid of failure.
COVID-19 intervened with the traditional plans last year, so the teams participated in the national conference online, Schmied said.
“We did our best,” Schmied said. “We didn’t win any awards or anything like that, but it was a great experience on how to perform better next time.”
Schmied said he intends to study international relations at college.
“The Model UN has definitely shaped that,” he said.
The club meets Tuesdays during lunch period and has grown from an informal membership of fewer than 10 students to about 30 regular participants.
Since its inception, the club has evolved to being less about receiving information and more about finding ways to ensure students can actively participate in discussions, Pierce said.
“It’s pretty wild,” Evans said. “I told them all along how intelligent and great they are. It was great, though, to receive those team recognitions.”
gseman@thisweeknews.com
@ThisWeekGary
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Grandview Heights High School Model UN team earns top honor at national conference
