“The recipient of this year’s Secretary-General’s Award is…Leonardtown High School!” Applause erupted in the conference hall as seniors Hannah Chi, Hannah Connelly, and Tom Church accepted the award. As if on cue, the LHS participants quoted Mr. Denny, shouting “strength and honor!”

Each year, a number of students from Mr. Denny and Mr. Henderson’s global diplomacy classes participate in the Old Dominion University Model United Nations Conference, or ODUMUNC, for short. This year was the 37th anniversary of the program, and the Leonardtown students certainly made it a memorable experience for all. Out of 1100 high school students, numerous LHS students received awards for being exemplary delegations. In addition to individual awards, Leonardtown High School was presented with the “Secretary-General’s Award,” the highest honor that is only awarded to one school each year for outstanding participation in the program. This year marks the seventh time Leonardtown has won the award.

Winning is only part of it, though. There are so many skills for students to learn from the simulation. Aside from public-speaking and social skills, students are given the opportunity to see world issues and conflicts from another country’s point of view. It is important to be able to do that, because as future leaders of the world, it is important to understand and consider everyone’s points of view.

Model United Nations, or MUN, has been around since the 1920’s. There are records indicating that men and women as well as students formed great Model League of Nations coalitions to help participate in some of the world’s growing conflicts and to develop individual problem-solving and diplomacy skills. This is precisely what occurred last weekend concerning the students from Leonardtown who embarked on the Old Dominion University MUN trip.