In aims for students to challenge their diplomacy skills. Gables’ Model United Nations (MUN) team attended the University of Florida’s 14th annual ‘GatorMUN.’ At the conference, the team went head-to-head against some of Florida’s best high school MUN teams. Over the three days of the conference, students engaged in stimulating debates that highlighted the importance of global awareness. To sum the weekend, one of Gables’ students, Jordan Armour, was awarded ‘Outstanding Delegate’ in his perspective committee.

“It was a very rewarding experience. I got to meet a lot of interesting people from different schools around Florida. I enjoyed representing the school and I’m glad I won an award–all the meetings did pay off. I definitely recommend joining the team,” Armour said.

GatorMUN XIV offered two different types of committees for new delegates and returning delegates that wanted to branch out their abilities. The two different types were Assembly Style Committees and Crisis Style Committees. The team of twelve spent hours in their assigned groups drafting resolutions collaborating with other competitors or anxiously awaiting a spontaneous catastrophe to occur that would dramatize the Crisis Style Committees. In addition to the educational experience, students were able to interact with UF students and obtain feedback from them pointing out improvements that could be made.

“This was my first GatorMUN and at first, I was scared because it’s one of the toughest MUN conferences in Florida, but I’m very happy I did because it was a great experience being with all my friends and even though I didn’t win an award, I learned a lot from watching top competitors debate,” sophomore Brianna Curran said.

Although this is only the second time Gables attends GatorMUN, the Model UN team is looking forward to more conferences that serve as learning experiences and allows them to execute their passion for debate and diplomatic relations in a competitive environment.  In their upcoming competition on Feb.11, the team intends on applying their acquired skills from GatorMUN, and aims to bring home more awards.