St Joseph’s College Students at the UN

Students from St Joseph’s College, Banora Point, participated in the ‘Model of the United Nations Assembly’ competition at the Tweed Civic Centre representing the USA.

A passionate team from St Joseph’s College (SJC), Banora Point, Jacquelyn Roma (Year 11), Seana Connolly (Year 10) and Valentina Muccillo (Year 10), participated in the ‘Model of the United Nations Assembly’ (MUNA) at the Tweed Civic Centre.

MUNA is an annual event hosted by Rotary. Teams of three students select a country; research its history, politics, economics, peoples, international alignment and policies in current world affairs. Students then debate selected resolutions from each country’s point of view in a simulated United Nations Assembly.

The event brought together twenty Catholic and independent schools from Grafton to the Gold Coast, where students debated a range of resolutions, including:

Regulating international migration,
International trade and development,
The situation in the South China Sea, and
The military coup in Myanmar.

The SJC team spent several weeks leading up to the debate researching the country they represented, the United States of America, using their lunchtimes to gain the knowledge in preparation for their active and enthusiastic involvement in the vigorous debate surrounding each resolution.

SJC Leader of Learning HSIE, Tom Nethery, said, ‘I was incredibly proud of the three girls and the way they represented themselves, SJC and their team USA. They threw themselves confidently into the debate, having to think on their feet to respond to other countries' sometimes controversial views.’

For her excellent performance at the debate, Valentina Muccillo deservedly received the Chairman's Encouragement Award at the end of the MUNA assembly.