School trip to Rome
On the 28th of February, 2019, the ninth annual John Cabot University Model United Nations officially began.
Just the previous evening, PRIMA International's JCUMUN delegates arrived in Italy, consisting of four Year 13 students: Milica- Switzerland, Luka- United Kingdom, Ana- Colombia, and myself- Mexico, along with our two chaperones for the trip, Mr. Joe and Ms. Duda.
As this was my first ever visit to Rome (and Italy in general), I was excited to start exploring the city and the many wonderful cultural sites it has to offer. Early the next morning, together with Mr. Joe, Ms. Duda, and my fellow students, I began a small tour around Rome, visiting breathtaking locations from Vatican City and the Spanish Steps to the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. This made for an incredible start to our trip, allowing us to familiarize ourselves with the rich history and traditions of early Europe. The notion that I, an ordinary high school student from Serbia, was walking on the same ground not far from where thousands of years ago, ferocious gladiatorial combats took place, was stupefying. It was an experience like no other and provided me with a new-found appreciation for my own background and heritage, as well as European history as a whole.
After a long day of navigating the narrow, cobbled streets of Rome, gawking at places of incomprehensible educational and artistic value, and stuffing ourselves full of delicious Italian pizza, we finally made our way back to our hotel, Domus Terenzio, to prepare for the JCUMUN Opening Ceremony.
For several hours that day, we had the pleasure of listening to speeches delivered by distinguished diplomats, including Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Ambassador of Brazil to Italy, Malta and San Marino, and Franklin Abiola Ogunyemi Temiloluwa, Deputy Ambassador of Nigeria to Italy. Aside from learning plenty about the UN's operation and the values of diplomacy, we also got a chance to socialize with fellow delegates and get to know individuals from all over the world. There were delegates from Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, and many more fascinating places.
The next three days were made up of seven conferences, each ranging from one to three hours in length and consisting of continuous riveting debates in the form of moderated and unmoderated caucuses. These enabled us to develop our skills of public speaking and debate, requiring a lot of patience, understanding, and cooperation. Eventually, we began writing our resolutions, working together to propose relevant solutions to the issue of human trafficking, formulating necessary amendments, and voting for or against each of these. By the final conference meeting, we had all become extremely invested in the topics at hand and were eager to pass at least one resolution addressing the problem, having already submitted a total of four different ones. Ultimately, we managed to reach an agreement, with the majority of delegates voted in favor of the resolution of the US, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
Overall, the event was incredibly gratifying, filling each of us with a major sense of accomplishment by the end, helping us learn and grow as diplomats, and creating a sense of community between all of us. Lunches and coffee breaks between each conference also allowed us to discuss things outside of just debate, and ice-breakers and trivia added a welcome sense of light-heartedness, reminding us that we were all simply there to broaden our perspectives and to get to meet many new and interesting people.
