Mission Viejo/ Laguna Beach : Students Are ‘Diplomats’ at U.N. General Assembly

Budding diplomats from a pair of Orange County high schools recently made progress where others have often found failure and disappointment--the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The contingent of students from Laguna Beach and Mission Viejo high schools, numbering 30 in all, participated in the “National High School Model United Nations” this month, held in part at U.N. headquarters in New York. The annual event drew 2,700 students from 118 high schools throughout the United States.

The Orange County students assumed the roles of the U.S. and the Syrian delegations. The U.S. team, made up of a near-even mix of Mission Viejo and Laguna Beach students, was honored as one of the five best delegations at the event. Although it garnered no awards, the Syrian delegation swiftly took control of the Third World bloc.

General Assembly debates and committee work centered on actual U.N. agenda items ranging from disarmament and Third World debt relief to the Iran-Iraq war and population growth, said Suzanne Charlton, an instructor at Mission Viejo High and adviser to its model U.N. program.

The students also were briefed by members of the actual U.S. and Syrian delegations, did some sightseeing and attended an anti-apartheid rally at Columbia University. “Since apartheid was an item we dealt with on the agenda, it was exciting to see it become a public issue,” Charlton said.

The experience also gave students a feel for current world events, she said. “Once you act it out and have spoken out on behalf of a political point of view, you learn it and retain it,” Charlton said. “They emerge with a real understanding for the divergent points of view.” Rome Friesen, adviser to Laguna Beach High’s model U.N. program, said he plans to hold a model U.N. at his school in early June. “It’ll be open to all student body members, and we’re anticipating about 100 participants,” he said. “It’s our way of gathering the flock for next year.”