Students from West Hartford’s Kingswood Oxford School have continued success in the Yale Model U.N. event.

KO’s team enjoyed success at the Yale Model U.N. Submitted photo

Submitted by Jackie Pisani, Kingswood Oxford School

Continuing its 14 year winning streak, Kingswood Oxford students proved, once again, their adroit diplomatic skills by capturing a number of top awards at Yale’s Model United Nations (YMUN) held on Thursday, Jan. 19 through Jan. 22.

YMUN is a simulation of the United Nations where students collaborate with one another, discuss pressing issues and resolve their disputes.

More than 1,500 students from across the globe participated in the event. KO sent 49 students, one of its largest contingencies, acting as delegates for one of three countries: Russia, Ukraine or Saudi Arabia. Topics ranged from the South China Sea and chemical weapons, human trafficking and the refugee crisis.

Combining public speaking, content development and writing, YMUN tests the “delegates” capacity for problem solving and critical thinking. Students are divided into various groups including the large scale General Assembly, medium sized Economic and Social Counsels, small to medium Regional bodies and lastly, the small group Specialized groups.

Six Kingswood Oxford students won awards: Commendations went to Alec Rossi ‘17 of Kensington and Ben Small in Press Corp, and to Adam Ovian ‘18 Wethersfield in Security Council. Ariba Memon ‘17 of South Windsor won Outstanding Delegate in Security Council. Hannah Bash ‘18 of West Hartford won Honorable Delegate in Arab League and Olivia Rossi ‘18 of Middle Haddam won Best Delegate in Arab League. In addition, KO alumnus Ben Waldman was one of the YMUN chairs. Waldman created a brand new committee called the International Court of Justice, although none of the KO delegates sat in his committee.

The preeminent independent c0-ed, college preparatory day school in Greater Hartford, Kingswood Oxford School is located just steps from Blue Back Square and West Hartford Center. Its 502 students come from 62 towns in CT and western MA as well as China.