MADISON – Politics, policies and resolutions set the tone at a recent conference for the Model United Nations team from Bob Jones High School.

The Alabama Model UN Conference XVI convened at the University of Alabama on Feb. 14-16.

“We had a very good showing at the UN Conference (ALMUN). Our team also won ‘Best Delegation,’ which is the same as winning first place for the conference. We finished second the previous year, and this group of 29 students was determined to go in and come out with the top prize this time around,” history teacher and advisor Michael Hoyle said.

Bob Jones won numerous individual awards:

* “Best Position Paper” — Kalison Beigh.

* “Verbal Commendation” category – Fourth place. Julia Ehrman, Olivia MendezMorales, Katie Nguyen and Karsten Wallace.

* Honorable Mention – Third Place. Kalison Beigh, Swetha Jakka and Ben Mitchell.

* “Outstanding Delegate” – Second place. Simon Adkins, Molly Halter, Ian Harbour, Millie Hoksbergen and Eric Joy.

“Best Delegate” – First place, Committee’s Gavel. Candace Bardwell, Caleb Johnson, Veronica Layne, Natalie LeCompte and Gwendolyn Sexton.

“We had a wide range of countries that we represented: the United States, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, China, Afghanistan, UAE, Chad and Denmark,” Hoyle said. “In these committees, students dealt with issues such as debt restructuring, food security, global poverty, and vaccine hesitancy.”

In crisis committees, students portrayed characters (instead of countries) related to Nineveh, “The Hunger Games” and a possible World War III.

“Our students went to great lengths to research their topics, country positions and characters in preparation for this conference. They held work sessions and a mock committee session to help each other develop skills and to further prepare to compete,” Hoyle said.

“In all of the years that I have been sponsoring Model UN, this group has, by far, been the most passionate and dedicated team that I have ever had,” Hoyle said. “They want to excel and succeed at Model UN and are willing to put in the time and effort. I foresee many of them continuing with Model UN at the collegiate level.”

“I need to thank the other two faculty advisors who went on this trip, Mrs. Leah Faris and Mrs. Amy Thompson. Not only did they help me organize and facilitate the trip, they were also available for our team when they had questions or needed advice on how to proceed with research and debate. I could not have done this without them,” Hoyle said.