Two high schools won awards Saturday for their efforts at the Global Classrooms International Model U.N. Conference, which assembled nearly 2,500 students from 23 countries to discuss global issues in a simulation of real U.N. sessions, the organizer said.
Nada High School in Hyogo Prefecture and Nishiyamato Gakuen High School in Nara Prefecture were among six Japanese schools that sent delegations to the United Nations Association of the United States of America's latest annual event, held for three days from Thursday.
Delegates to the event, who pretend to be diplomats representing a country assigned by the organizer, negotiate with their counterparts just as in actual U.N. procedures. The Japanese were asked to represent Croatia.
Nishiyamato Gakuen students Kazuhiro Sato and Hironobu Nishida, both 17, were recognized for their efforts to have the simulated U.N. General Assembly adopt a resolution against cyberterrorism.
"We and a few others drew up a draft resolution and circulated it" to garner support from other delegations, said Nishida. "I can't believe we won the award as there were so many times when I thought we wouldn't make it," said Sato.