Middle School Model U.N. Opens Session at Ranney

It may have been one of the first nice Saturday’s of spring, but four Upper School and approximately 20 Middle School students had more important matters to attend to - such as planning the best way for the United Nations to bring education, provide clean water and decrease waterborne illnesses in Central Africa. These topics served as the basis for several hours of lively debate and negotiations at Ranney’s Middle School Model U.N., held on April 25 in the Distance Learning Center.

According to Louise Dewar, Upper School History department chair, this was Ranney’s first foray into Model U.N. at Middle School level. The Upper School Model U.N. team has attended Model U.N. meets for over 20 years, including meets sponsored by Georgetown, Brown and Princeton Universities. Members of the Upper School team, Alison Mancuso ‘09, Rachel Brodsky ‘10, Renzo Severino ‘11 and Lauren Resnikoff ‘11, helped guide their younger schoolmates through the process, even creating a humorous but instructional video on parliamentary procedure. “This a great opportunity for Upper School students to teach Middle Schoolers something about parliamentary procedure, the goals and mechanisms of the United Nations, and to encourage students to work together to address such critical global issues as education and health care.”

Before they began their U.N. committee session, students had the opportunity to listen to Ranney grandparent and guest speaker Murray Treiser, M.D. Dr. Treiser is a retired plastic surgeon who traveled to Malawi, in central Africa, in 2007 under the auspices of the non-profit organizations “Somebody Cares” and “Raising Malawi.” While in Malawi, he oversaw a mobile clinic that treated over 8,500 patients during one month’s time, treating diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, epilepsy and diarrhea. Dr. Treiser’s presentation on the living conditions, culture and spirit of the Malawi people, in particular its children, was an eye opening experience for the Middle School students and helped invigorate debate. Dr. Treiser remained for the committee session itself, offering his services to students as an “expert witness” as they worked to develop solutions to the various issues under discussion.

Based on the success of this first-ever event, plans have already been made to once again convene a session of the Middle School Model U.N. next year.

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