PAMUN

The 21st of November, 15 La Tour students of the Anglophone Section attended PAMUN, a conference that simulates the United Nations. In this conference, students take the place of the UN states’ ambassadors. Most of the countries that are members of the United Nations are represented in the conference. International issues and problems are presented to students, also known as “delegates in the Model UN”. They prepare speeches, have to strategize, negotiate, debate, to try to resolve problems such as terrorism, economy, and environmental problems. Along with other problems such as corruption, health and the Syrian refugees. The main objective is to install “international cooperation” during the process.

In order to have the most authentic simulation possible, the students have to learn about the history, geography, culture, economic situation and society of the country that they represent. They have the opportunity to increase their knowledge regarding many countries, to improve their writing, public speaking, strategizing, ability to compromise, leadership skills etc.

The “delegates” come from countries from all over the world, such as Mexico, Russia, United Arab Emirates… Approximately 48 schools participate in PAMUN, with about 700 students from the ages of 15 to 18 years old. The conference took place at the “Palais de la Mutualité” in Paris, France.

This year, the La Tour students who took part in the event took the PAMUN elective, taught by Mr. Benjamin Slade; where they debated, researched and learnt how to express themselves properly with the vocabulary imposed by the UN. However the students only had seven lessons before the event, therefore were not as prepared as they would have liked. Despite this, the students still felt confident. They were assigned several countries such as the Ukraine, Norway and Sudan and learnt about their different problems.

Mr. Slade is very satisfied with the way the conference unfolded. He has been in charge of this elective for four years at La Tour, and enjoys it very much. In addition to this, he was very pleased by the fact that the Security Council had 15 students contained in it, and one of them being the La Tour student, Lilian Lee. As relayed to the 2ndes and 1eres in Electives Presentations by Madje E-H, the conference was a success and all the students loved it.

-By Victor T. and Yasmine S.