Culture and Connection at KUNA 2018
The Kentucky United Nations Assembly of 2018 is a great success!
Students celebrate the start of KUNA! (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
April 12, 2018
The Kentucky United Nations Assembly (KUNA) is a 3-day experiential learning conference in which students participate directly in simulated international diplomacy. On March 11th, the members of WCHS’ Y-Club traveled to the Galt House in Louisville for a conference and presentation in culture and government.
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Students represent The Republic of North Korea (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Student Micha Lynn (10) presents his resolution (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Students explore the cultural village in native attire (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Students enjoy the General Assembly (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Claire Pinkston (9) presents her resolution (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Abigail Mortell (11) stands at the International Court of Justice (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Students prevent their displays at the cultural village (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Ryan Alvey (10) dresses in Austrailian attire (Picture via KUNA Media Corps)
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Students spent multiple months preparing for the conference. Our Y-Club represented the countries of Brazil and Australia. At the conference, students from schools across Kentucky took to the stage to each represent a different country and present resolutions on global issues. Before KUNA, students spent weeks drafting resolutions to represent their country of choice in a student lead mock United Nations assembly.
The KUNA conference began with a general assembly lead by Nathan Zao, a senior from Kentucky Country Day School. Zao, an excellent speaker and talented conference leader, spoke many times throughout the 3 days and inspirationally spoke of his past and present KUNA experiences. The conference continued into the cultural village, where each school set up a booth inspired by their country of choice. This space included many creative and interesting student-made cultural displays.
Moving into the next day, the people of the conference separated out into different committees to present and pass the student-written resolutions. These covered many different issues revolving around world crisis. Students representing different countries spoke for or against each resolution, much like an actual United Nations Assembly. After questionnaire and conversation about different resolutions, students took a vote by country to determine if the resolution had been passed or defeated.
On the final day of the conference, students listened to speeches by leaders of the conference, as well as the winners of the student election for next year’s leaders. The overall conference experience was highly uplifting and very inspiring. The level of student leadership and responsibility was astounding, and the conference was a great educational opportunity.
