Model United Nations (MUN) is a St. Margaret’s Episcopal School club that meets with our middle school students at In-Session on Thursdays. MUN helps students further strengthen their skills in interpersonal communication and critical thinking by ensuring that they are informed global citizens. Last week, MUN hosted a panel to look at global issues that continue to oppress humans and their rights. The panel consisted of the following members, Ms. Kimberly Kim who talked about racism, Mrs. Diane Adamson who presented on feminism, Dr. Janice Avalone who represented mental health issues and gave helpful resources, and Sahar Khashayar who brought LGBT awareness.
Every person on the panel brought in-depth information regarding each topic and the statistics surprised many students. When stated, “1 out of 5 child or teen has a mental disorder,” the students quickly looked around and began counting. They were astonished to know that someone in their group of five could be part of this statistic. Furthermore, students felt empathy when they were informed that “1 out of 4 parents cannot get help for their child’s mental disorder due to the lack of resources.”
Another topic that also resonated with the students was racism. Some students expressed that they too, identify themselves to be part of minorities that encounter racism. Many were able to relate because they too shared similar stories to the examples provided by the panel. In addition, students learned of ways to overcome situations of racism by involving a supervising adult or individually taking a stand to defend someone. Eighth grader, Edgar, stated, “What I took away from this is that you have a voice and calling people out on the spot about their comments that hurt other people is good so that they stop doing it.” It is great that students know that they can do more when present in a circumstance that degrades another person and their rights.
The goal was to help the students develop their individual voices in society and have a better understanding of the complexity of human rights. This panel sets the starting point for students to embark on a mission to work on a campaign project in the next few weeks. We look forward to seeing our students become engaged and advocate for equal human rights.
