Whiz Kids: High School World Affairs Council

Name: World Affairs Council

School: Haddonfield Memorial High School

Accomplishment:

"The HMHS World Affairs Council won Best Small Delegation at Johns Hopkins University Model United Nations Conference (JHUMUNC) in Baltimore on February 10-13, beating nearly 40 schools in their division," according to a news release from the high school.

Key to Awesomeness:

"In addition to this accomplishment, the delegation was awarded the Best Small School at Philadelphia Model United Nations (PhilMUN) on February 24-27 for the fourth consecutive year in this competition," the news release said. "Throughout the year, members of the HMHS World Affairs Council participate in academic simulations of the United Nations at various high schools and universities in the region. At these conferences, students utilize communication and critical thinking skills to represent a country and debate topics pertaining to international relations and diplomacy. On April 2, 2011, the HMHS World Affairs Council will host Haddonfield Model United Nations, which is a one-day competition for high school students from New Jersey and surrounding states. This conference marks the ninth annual competition organized by HMHS students dedicated to the exploration and resolution of international concerns."

Club advisers Kimberly Dickstein and Jeffrey Boogaard said their students value their experiences on the World Affairs Council.

"We have attended Philadelphia Model UN for seven years, but this is our first involvement with Johns Hopkins Model United Nations," Dickstein said. "I have been co-advising WAC for the last two years with Jeff since I was involved in Model UN programming as a high school student at Eastern High School and college student at Rutgers University. I am always amazed watching our students work tirelessly in both preparation and debate at these conferences regardless of the end result. Our students truly value the experience of representing a country’s policies while cooperating with others to find feasible solutions for international problems."

Boogaard said: "The HMHS World Affairs Council originated as a club in 1998. We attended small one-day conferences in the South Jersey and Philadelphia area and then formed the South Jersey Model UN consortium with Eastern High School. Since then, other schools have joined and now four South Jersey schools host one-day Model UN conferences. Over the years, we have attended overnight conferences sponsored by Rutgers University, Georgetown University, and the University of Chicago. It is gratifying as a teacher and adviser to see how dedicated the students are and how supportive they are of one another.  Many students have graduated from HMHS and continued Model UN in college, including some who host high school conferences at their university.” 

Haddonfield Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual  kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid.  Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to me at bill.duhart@patch.com Be sure to include all of the following information

●      Nominator's Name

●      Nominator's E-Mail

●      Whiz Kid's Name

●      Whiz Kid's Age

●      Whiz Kid's School

●      Whiz Kid's Accomplishment

●      Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

If your nominee is selected, we'll contact you and assign a photographer to take a photo. For questions, e-mail bill.duhart@patch.com