Some wonderful news from New York City.

Seventeen Nueva middle school students participated in the Model United Nations Global Classrooms Conference in the UN Building in New York. Our students represented the delegations from Iceland, Lesotho, and Sri Lanka on a range of UN committees, competing against 1,100 students from around the world.
All of our delegations did exceptionally well on their committees -- presenting their opening speeches, negotiating with other esteemed delegates, writing draft resolutions, and finally voting and passing their revised resolutions. Many of our delegations were sponsors and signatories on successful resolutions, and it was truly wonderful to see them put their months of research and practice to the test. Congratulations to all of our students for their work:

8th Graders: Shayaan, Minkee, John, David, Tullia, and Shelby.
7th Graders: Molly, Mackenzie, Sam, Nick L, Clark, Eric, Evan, and Justin.
6th Graders: Supriya, Ila, and Kiran.

Six of our students were given special recognition for their work:

Clark and John were given the award for Best Delegation in the General Assembly 3rd Committee. Clark and John worked feverishly all day to bring together resolution ideas, seeking compromises with competing resolutions and building strategic alliances with their fellow delegates.

Kiran and Shayaan were awarded Honorable Mentions for their excellent work in the UNDP Committee debating the future of the Millennium Development Goals.

Tullia and Shelby were awarded Honorable Mentions for their successful ESCAP resolution to ban the trafficking of wild animals.

For more information, see Shayaan's article in The Nueva Times. Congratulations once again to all of our delegates!