SFX students visit NYC for the Model United Nations conference Published 12 March 2020 • News Students attended the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference for the third time this year. They spent months researching and preparing for their committees in which they were tasked to find solutions to some global issues. The students were representing Jamaica year, this meant that they had to research the position of Jamaican UN delegates in order to effectively take on the role. The committees and topics students were working on were diverse and included UNEA and the ‘Impact of Livestock Farming on Climate Change’, UNESCO and the ‘Prevention of Violent Extremism Caused by Religious Intolerance’, and WHA and ‘Reducing the Threat of Non-Communicable Diseases. During the conference students got to visit the United Nations Head Quarters for a briefing session. This year we were also incredibly lucky to secure a briefing at Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom. Students had a meeting with two senior UN delegates for the UK – one from the security council and one from the general assembly. This gave the students an opportunity to discuss how best to research and prepare for the committees, how to engage in effective diplomacy and also the different routes into the sector. We arrived 2 days early for the conference which gave students the opportunity to do some sightseeing of New York – we were so luck with the weather and didn’t need our coats on a couple of the days. On the first day we walking nearly 40,000 steps which included the Highline, Chelsea Market, Times Square, Twin Towers Memorial site, Staten Island Ferry, and China Town. On the second day we took the metro to Brooklyn and explored the area and the temporary exhibition by Anthony Gormley and then walked over the Brooklyn bridge back to Manhattan. In the afternoon we went to a talk at the Tenements Museum called ‘Under one roof’ which explore the social history of migration in New York. The students then had some time to shop around the Flat Iron building and Macey’s followed by the famous Joes Pizza. Wednesday morning, we woke up and went to the Upper West Side and for breakfast and then walked through Central Park to Upper East side. In the final part of sightseeing we got the metro down to Soho for Lunch so that we could be back and ready for the conference opening ceremony.