On May 12 six Bermuda High School IB students along with a chaperone left Bermuda not completely sure of what the next two days would hold to attend a Model United Nations (MUN) Conference at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. The country the students represented was Estonia a country that many of the team did not even know existed until then. Since the conference models the United Nations, students were assigned to be on councils including the United Nations Environmental Programme, Social Cultural and Humanitarian and the Human Rights Council.The day was different for everyone; some people actively participated in debates in their committees and worked to prepare resolutions while there were others who were more reserved, and spent the majority of their time passing notes to delegates in other countries in an effort to get work done that way.The United Nations Environmental Programme had to tackle the issues of deforestation and biofuels. They finished with these issues early and were presented with a fake crisis to handle. The Human Rights Council discussed indigenous people and migrant workers while the Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee discussed forced marriage and environmentally displaced people.Each country was given the opportunity to stand and give their view on the tabled issues and then work with other countries to prepare resolution papers to combat the issues, which were then presented to the entire committee with a period for amendments and then voted on.The experience in total was priceless and unforgettable, as we not only got to bond as a group of people who don’t normally spend a great deal of time together outside of the classroom, but also because we got to meet other students from across Massachusetts and learn from their public speaking skills as well as gain knowledge about different perspectives on problems that nations faced all across the world.It was fun being the only ‘foreigners’ there, as everyone else was from schools within the state and it also provided us with an opportunity to proudly talk about our home.If given the opportunity my fellow teammates and I would attend another MUN conference without thinking twice about it.Sean Stapley, 17, who aspires to become a UN diplomat, stated, ‘The trip was a great learning experience and I was exposed to a style of debate that I had never encountered before. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and I would love to attend another conference.’