Students Lead Inaugural Model UN Conference

Student delegates from Northfield Mount Hermon and Williston Northampton School gathered on the NMH campus Feb. 15 to discuss and debate global (and in some cases, interstellar and interdimensional) issues during the first NMH Model United Nations Conference.

The conference featured three daylong moderated caucuses centered around the topic of "scarcity," in which students were challenged to represent their assigned country or political figure through a host of real and imagined scenarios.

The event began with remarks from NMH team leaders and a keynote address by alumna Kate Leversee '03 of the Keene, New Hampshire-based nonprofit The Community Kitchen.

Hisu Kang '26, who serves as co-secretary general for the NMH team, noted that issues of scarcity touch nearly every corner of our lives and every community across the world. "If scarcity is a problem, uncertainty is the shadow it casts. It is easy to look at a world defined by what we lack and what we don't know and decide that the safest thing to do is pull back, protect our own, and treat life as a zero sum game."

MUN, in contrast, is "an exercise in optimism" at its core, Kang said. "Today, you aren't just representing a country. You are practicing the skill of finding a path forward when the options seem limited."

Leversee, the director of operations for The Community Kitchen, spoke of the effects her time at NMH had on her career path and priorities and how those lessons inform her work at her nonprofit, whose food pantry and meal program distributes nearly 500,000 meals annually to 42 towns and communities, utilizing a network of hundreds of volunteers.

"We are relatively small, but the impact that we have is great, particularly to folks that we serve. Our outreach and our unfailing commitment to showing up really does make us a community effort," Leversee said. "This is the most meaningful work that I've ever done, because it is real and it reaches people at their hardest moments. You don't have to work in food to change food systems. Whatever you do, if you work in policy or law, you will shape how people do it."

Following the keynote ceremony, students broke off into their assigned caucuses. The General Assembly group tackled a range of topics related to the ethical applications of generative AI.

The Special Political Committee caucus was given the task of coming to a global consensus around resource management and international relations within a fictitious scenario involving interstellar expansionism.

In the Crisis Committee, seasoned MUN delegates were assigned the role of political and business leaders faced with an evolving scenario based around the sudden appearance of a portal to another dimension, rife with material abundance, complete with unexpected plot twists meant to test delegates' ability to faithfully represent their character interests and respond to issues in real time.

Amidst the politicking, backdoor conversations, and lively debate, students from both schools worked to build consensus among their peers, negotiate compromises, and present their arguments convincingly, all skills that lend themselves to the classroom, boardroom, and beyond, said Kang.

"We all do Model UN to improve our critical thinking skills and diplomacy," she said. "Ultimately, it is our future that we're heading into, and everything we're seeing today will accumulate within that future. Having the tools to discuss and tackle these problems, even if they might not be a one-to-one ratio, is vital."

Faculty advisor Tiffany Thiri said she was proud of the collaboration and hard work students put into putting on a successful conference. “These students have done all of it, from the placards down to the minutia. They do the background research, they create guides, chair the [caucuses], and teach all of the procedure. I think it's reflective of the whole program.”

The NMH Model UN Conference culminated in an awards ceremony, where the following delegates were recognized for their performance throughout the day:

• General Assembly: 
  • Outstanding Delegate: Nancy Huang '27, Colombia, NMH
  • Honorable Mention: Amir Stoudemire, Burkina Faso, Williston
     
• SPECPOL:
  • Outstanding Delegate: Izzy Jimah, South Korea, Williston 
  • Honorable Mention: Aleks Vyatkins '28, Pakistan, NMH
     
• Ad Hoc Crisis: 
  • Outstanding Delegate: Luisa Ortiz '26, Joe Biden, NMH 
  • Honorable Mention: Victoria Lyu '29, Elon Musk, NMH

The success of the NMH conference follows a strong showing by the school's MUN team at Boston University's Model UN conference on Feb. 6 to 8, where six NMH students were recognized among the 2,500 participants from around the world with the following awards:

• Tad Coleman '27: Outstanding Delegate in the World Trade Organization
   
• Luisa Ortiz '26: Honorable Mention for her portrayal of Josie Esmender in the Brick by Brick: Lego Board of Directors Committee
   
• Seneca Smith '27 and Arisa Teramoto '27: Honorable Mention for their representation of Pakistan in the Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
   
• Andrew Nguyen '28: Honorable Mention representing Kuwait in the COP30 Summit
   
• Mac Hargrove '26: Diplomatic Commendation for his portrayal of Tiffany Godoy in the Dress to Impress! Milan Fashion Week Committee
   
• Hisu Kang '26: Diplomatic Commendation for her portrayal of PinkPantheress in the Ad Hoc Committee

Hosting a conference of their own on the NMH campus further highlights the team's accomplishments, said the team's co-secretary general Jayhee Lee '26. He particularly relishes his mentorship role with younger students who are new to NMH.

"It's always fun to talk to them, because not only are they learning about MUN, they're also learning about the school at the same time," Lee said. "I feel like I'm kind of setting a standard for how seriously people take some of the stuff they're learning at NMH."

Those ties extend beyond students' time at the school, said faculty co-advisor MecKenzie Sarage. "We have so many alumni who helped build this program, who connect continuously with the leadership team. It's a passionate project by both current and former students."

Leversee was impressed by the depth of engagement by students on the topic and sees parallels between the MUN team's goals and the lessons she learned as a student at the school. "NMH certainly was formative in a few ways: It obviously opens a global perspective into things," she said. "Having a formal opportunity to think about ethics here — not just theoretical but applicable ethics — is something that I carried with me into college and is what ultimately led me to begin thinking about the world in a way that I probably wouldn't have without this particular opportunity."

The goal of MUN is reflective of NMH's mission, agreed Lee: to prepare students to enter into the world ready to participate in high level civic engagement.

"One of the outcomes that we've wanted for the whole program was to make this something where people will actually learn about the problem, rather than just focusing on the awards," he said. "Being able to lead and communicate with a broad range of people is a very important part of that. Those skills have really been helpful for me, and I hope we've laid the framework for future teams to follow."

— Max Hunt

Photos by Ben Rosenthal '27 and Stacie Hagenbaugh. See more images from the 2026 NMH Model UN Conference on Flickr.