TEENS MEET IN DALLAS FOR MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE

This 2018-19 school year the Texas Model United Nations program welcomed 544 teens from 42 schools across the state including 386 teens from 24 schools across Dallas. Dallas and Houston officers and YMCAs each hosted Regional Summits and 210 participants attended the 4th MUN State Assembly held at the Plano Marriott.

YMCA Texas Model United Nations is a youth development program in which students simulate the United Nations as member states who meet to solve pressing global problems with the art of compromise and diplomacy.

​The Texas Model UN State Assembly is a three-day, two-night conference for high school students that creates a working replica of the United Nations, conducted almost entirely by students. Delegates can participate in a model General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Security Council, Media Corps and more. Middle School students can participate during one day of the State Assembly, as well as the local Regional Summits in the DFW and Houston areas.

At this year’s State Assembly two inaugural awards were presented, The Ligia Gutierrez Outstanding Staff Award and the Moody Gancich Outstanding Volunteer Award named after Jennifer Moody Ogden and Dario Ganich. Mark Mills, a longtime supporter and philanthropist to the YMCA Model UN program, established an on-going fund to award two graduating seniors who have had active participant in Texas Model United Nations for 2 years or more, to receive $2500 college scholarships. A panel comprised of staff and volunteers choose from a pool of eligible candidates, to select winners, one from Dallas and one from other regions around Texas, for the scholarship, to be awarded at the closing ceremony of the State Assembly each year.

Student officers for the next school year 2019-20 hail from the Plano YMCA, Coppell YMCA, White Rock YMCA, as well as Houston’s Woodlands YMCA. They will begin planning for the school year over summer months.