Students from Victoria University Secondary College stepped into the shoes of state ambassadors to tackle world poverty.
Hosted by the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA), year 8 and 9 Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) elective students took part in a model United Nations conference with a simulation session of the General Assembly.
AVID elective teacher Clare Mercadante said students were assigned a country and challenged to debate the topic of ‘Zero Hunger’. Students investigated the major issues of their country and researched what their nation was doing to support people who do not have access to food.
“Students negotiated with other countries on the day and drew on their diplomacy skills to create a draft resolution and ensure that their countries’ views were heard on the day,” Ms Mercadante said.
“They each created a position statement and delivered a two minute speech to talk about the issues taking place in their countries, and discussed any amendments they wanted to make to the draft. The day was full of debate and, by the end of the day, a final resolution was voted on with an agreement reached by all the ambassadors.”
Ms Mercadante said students were excited to take on their roles in representing their country, and were joined via Zoom with peers from their sister-school in China
“The conference was a great way for students to further their skills in public speaking, collaboration, leadership and critical thinking. It also opened their minds to bigger issues that are going on in the world,” she said.
Hannah Hammoud
