The students attending the conference were Robert Harrelson (grade 9) and Natalie Duranceau (grade 10) of Arlington High School, Alex Chen (grade 9) of Lexington High School (formerly of Arlington and Ottoson Middle School), Jeremy Norberg-Bohm (grade 9) and Aidan Wilcox (grade

10), Arlington residents of the Chapel Hill Chauncy Hill School in Waltham, Alec Shea (a grade 8/9 student) an Arlington resident attending the Fayerweather Street School, and Rebecca Rosenthal (grade 10), a homeschooled student who attends classes at Middlesex Community College, along with their adviser, Kim Kay Holt.

The students represented Afghanistan in committees of the United Nations General Assembly, including the Disarmament and International Security Committee, the 1960 Historical General Assembly, the Economic and Financial Committee, and the Special Political and Decolonization Committee.

They spent a number of months preparing for their role as delegates of Afghanistan discussing their assigned committee topics, learning the procedures and rules of debate, and learning about their committees, the United Nations itself, and the Non-Governmental Organizations who would be involved in their conference committees.

The Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC, provided them with a great deal of assistance in researching their topics, for which they produced written “position papers” for the conference staff by early January.

Topics included Maritime Piracy, the Israel-Palestine Conflict, the Right and Responsibility of Nations to Protect their Citizens, Terrorism, the 1960 Congo Crisis, the Global Financial Crisis, and Sustainable Economic Development of Multinational Companies.

At the conference itself, they engaged in international diplomacy in their committees around their topics and also in their engagement with students from around the globe during meal breaks and at a Saturday night delegate dance.

They gave a resounding vote that they want to attend the conference again next January and will have a debriefing session on Feb. 8 followed immediately by a brief planning and information session from 8 – 8:30 p.m. at Calvary Church United Methodist (thanks to Calvary for the space, but the club is not in any way connected to the church, for their spring conference, which is open to others who are interested in participating in this program and their parents/guardians.

If you would like more information about the high school or middle school Model United Nations Club program, or any other LEAP Arlington program, please email Kim Holt at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .