Global Classrooms in action

Since 2000, UNA-USA's Global Classrooms program has been engaging middle school and high school students by exploring current world issues through interactive simulations and engaging curriculum. The program cultivates literacy and leadership as students explore important topics such as peacekeeping, sustainable development, human rights, and the economics of globalization. At the core of Global Classrooms is Model UN, wherein students step into shoes of UN Ambassadors and debate a range of issues on the UN agenda. Find out more about Global Classrooms at www.globalclassroooms.org.

View the video below, produced by UNA-Minnesota, to see the Global Classrooms program, and Model UN in action.



Global Classrooms is made possible through a dynamic partnership with Merrill Lynch, with the goal of empowering young people from around the world to become active and engaged global citizens. The collaboration between Global Classrooms and Merrill Lynch offers students tangible ways to enhance their understanding of the international economy while they develop global literacy and other important life skills.

Click below to listen to an interview with Dr. Eddy Bayardelle, President of the Merrill Lynch Foundation and Head of Global Philanthropy. Learn more about Merrill Lynch at Global Classrooms at www.unausa.org/mlgcpartnership.

More videos of distinguished speakers at UNA-USA Model UN events across

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• Secretary General Ban-ki Moon addresses students at UNAUSAMUN 2008 at UNHQ
  Secretary General Ban takes student questions   1 | 2 
  
  
• Ban-ki Moon addresses Los Angles students
  
  
• Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte speaks and answeres student questions at the US State Department
  
  
• Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt addresses UNAUSAMUN 2008
  
  
• UNA-USA President Ambassador William Luers addresses students at UNAUSAMUN 2008
  
  
• A great library of U.N. related videos, as well as Student and Faculty related study guides, courtesy of Richland College.
  
  
• Even more UNA-USA videos available here on YouTube

Washington Post - Model UN and HERO Program

Model U.N. Experience Becomes Reality in Africa
Teen Puts Winning Essay to Work

By Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 7, 2008; Page SM03

Christina Dawson was flipping through a CosmoGirl magazine when a contest caught her eye: Write an essay about what you would do to help African children, and win a trip to the continent with other youth ambassadors.

Dawson, a senior at Chopticon High School when she learned of the contest in the spring, wrote that she would use her artistic skills to "add color to the classroom." She drew on her experiences, such as living in Malaysia and visiting Peru, to explain the challenges faced by children in developing countries.

Click here to read the full article.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte speaks with Global Classrooms Model UN students

The 2008 Global Classrooms: Washington, DC Model UN Conference, held at the U.S. State Department in April, featured an address and Q&A session with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.  View Ambassador Negroponte's remarks, and his fielding of questions from the Model UN delegates.

Remarks

Student questions pt. 1


Student questions pt. 2

Ban Ki-moon visits Model UN students

Twice in the past eight months, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has addressed UNA-USA's Global Classrooms students. In February, Mr. Ban visited Chicago's Walter Payton Prepatory School, where he and Mayor Richard Daley were treated to a lively Model UN simulation. In May the Secretary General once again addressed student delegates during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 UNA-USA Model UN Conference (UNAUSAMUN), held in the General Assembly Hall of UN Headquarters.

Chicago's ABC News video and report on Mr. Ban's visit to Walter Payton Prep

Ban Ki-moon at UNAUSAMUN 2008, New York


Ambassador William Luers Addresses the 2008 UNAUSAMUN Model UN Conference - YouTube

UNA Photos on Flickr:
UNAUSAMUN 2008 | Global Classrooms: Chicago

South African students win honors at UNAUSAMUN 2008

Model UN Team Wins Honours in New York UN Debate
South African Institute of International Affairs (Johannesburg)
PRESS RELEASE
30 May 2008

The recent xenophobia attacks in South Africa have made it difficult to be proud to be South African. But when four young South Africans recently took part in a Model United Nations competition in New York, they reminded us of what it means to be true ambassadors of the new South Africa and showed us a glimpse of a generation of future leaders that have the potential to take South Africa to new heights.

Abigail Keene (Redhill), Zahraa Khotu (Parktown Girls), Banele Dlamini (Orlando West) and Dominic van Loggerenberg (Redhill), were the 2007 finalists of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) Schools Development Programme. As the 2007 finalists, they competed in the 2008 United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) Globalclassrooms finals in New York on 16 & 17 May 2008. The four finalists, representing the Republic of Tanzania, competed against approximately 2500 scholars from throughout the US and around the world. Abigail Keene and Zahraa Khotu won Best Delegation in the United Nations Development Programme session on Multinational Corporations and Development. Furthermore, Banele Dlamini and Dominic van Loggerenberg competed against 195 teams from around the world in the General Assembly session on Multinational Terrorism both receiving Honourable Mentions. read more...

A second article on the South African delegation here

Another Model UN Alum

Rainn Wilson, of 'The Office', discusses his Model UN past at 2:45.

Hollywood Actress Speaks at Global Classrooms Model UN Conference

U.N. Ambassador Calls for End to Slavery

Julia Ormond serves as the keynote speaker at USC’s two-day United Nations conference attended by hundreds of students.

By James Grant
06/10/08

Ormond: “May the next generation say ‘let us be the one that is going to be proactive in creating peace.’ ”

United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and actress Julia Ormond recently challenged 800 high school and middle school students gathered at USC to use their influence to end the scourge of human slavery.

“There are more people enslaved today than at any other time in our history,” she told the audience. “The selling of children is the fastest-growing global crime.”

An estimated 27 million people around the world today live in conditions that qualify as slavery, she said.

The unfortunate victims include boys forced to dive into African lakes to untangle fishing nets, girls sold into prostitution in Asia and the Americas, and workers of all ages confined to harsh conditions in various agricultural and production operations around the globe.

“There is an intimate link between poverty and crime,” Ormond said. “Our morality is often stripped from us by poverty.”

Ormond’s comments came at the kickoff of the United Nations Association’s Pacific Rim International Model United Nations conference, which attracted about 800 students from Southern California, Hong Kong and Japan.

During the two-day conference, the students took on roles as global diplomats, seeking to find solutions to a variety of economic and development topics – including eradication of illicit drug crops and other criminal activities.

Ormond challenged the diplomat/students to redouble their efforts to promote conditions that would help take away the rewards of human trafficking. “We’ve spent much of history going to war against one another,” she said. “May the next generation say ‘let us be the one that is going to be proactive in creating peace.’ ” read more...