USCHS pair earn top honors at Model UN

Feb. 23, 2023

The Upper St. Clair High School co-delegation of Theeya Chen and Isabel Vilensky were awarded Outstanding Delegation for representing China on the INTERPOL Committee at the annual Duquesne University Model United Nations High School Conference. The event was held on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023, on Duquesne’s campus.

Outstanding Delegation is the conference’s top award and represents Upper St. Clair’s highest finish of the year. In total, nine Upper St. Clair High School students participated in the regional event. The students were coached by Mr. Thomas Yochum, gifted education teacher.

“All nine students should be commended on their active participation at the conference, which organizers noted was one of the best they have seen,” Mr. Yochum said. “Our students were prepared with research and confidently led discussion across most key committees. And, they chose to spend their ‘day off school’ to work individually and collectively representing USC in an intellectually demanding environment.”

 

In addition to Theeya and Isabel, Upper St. Clair High School participants included Jamie Barrett, Anoushka Barve, Prachi Chetlur, Jasmine Dietiker, Anna Engelman, Lucia Miles and Medha Misra.

Model UN, a simulation of the sessions of the United Nations, provides an opportunity for high school students to apply their studies to real-world contexts and practice diplomacy, negotiating, and resolution writing.

The Duquesne Model UN Conference included the following eight committees: Committee on Disarmament and International Security (DISEC); Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Issues Committee (SOCHUM); United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC); Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL); International Criminal Police Organization Union (INTERPOL); Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); United Nations Security Council (UNSC); and the Crisis Committee, which examined the 1956 Suez Crisis.