Seventeen enthusiastic LEH students travelled to Epsom College this week with the determination to truly represent their allocated countries and engage in some great debate at the annual Epsom College MUN Conference (EPMUN). They represented the delegations of Mexico, Iran(!) and shared the delegation of Serbia with Hampton School. Delegates debated and passed amendments and resolutions on topics like the question of reducing global wealth inequality, the US-Venezuela conflict, the treatment and protection of prisoners of war, improving the access to safe water and sanitation, the militarisation of Artificial Intelligence and regulating social media use by children.
Two of our students received Highly Commended Delegate Awards: Serena who represented Iran in the Health Committee and Iris who represented Iran in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (SOCHUM) Committee – the seventh consecutive accolade presented to her across numerous conferences! Another two pupils, Lilia who represented Iran in the Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council and Manisher who represented Mexico in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (SOCHUM) Committee received Outstanding Delegate Awards.
Year 11 students, Amy and Lilia reported on how they got on:
“Despite the conference being limited to a single day, we all managed to build friendly alliances and lifelong friendships; this conference also helped me reconnect with a friend who I hadn’t seen since Year 7! The day, especially my committee – the Security Council – was filled with lively chatter and fruitful debate, with Russia and France attempting to veto every single clause the committee had produced! Finally, we all came together at the end of the day in General Assembly to discuss the US – Greenland crisis. Overall, EPMUN was an extremely enjoyable and enriching experience and I’m so grateful for our wonderful teachers who provided us with this opportunity to express ourselves with like-minded people.” Amy
“A range of students from across many year groups took part in this year’s EPSOM College MUN conference and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We debated many prevalent topics such as the need for global economic equality and potential peacekeeping solutions to the Thailand and Cambodia conflict. Most of which resulted in numerous, passionate debates between rivalling countries and even several committee evictions, all in the spirit of Model United Nations! This experience allowed us to not only stay up to date with current geopolitical events but also practice our public speaking skills. We ended the day in General Assembly tackling the hypothetical crisis of a US invasion into Greenland. In this debate we were highly proactive and passed a resolution condemning the United States and taking action to oppose their invasion. Overall, this conference was a large success with several of our delegates winning both highly commended and outstanding delegate awards in their respective committees. However most importantly there was a large amount of participation from every delegate, who all performed exceptionally well!”
Huge congratulations to all delegates involved and it is always so lovely to see the pupils from across different year groups get involved and collaborate in these debates.
