Noura Boland ’29 participated in a fictional crisis committee about Pandora after the first Avatar movie! In her role as Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, she argued that humans should be able to extract minerals from Pandora to keep humanity alive on Earth due to overpopulation. 

Marci Pao ’28 participated in a historical crisis committee focused on the Chinese Civil War in the aftermath of World War II. In her role as the diplomat Zhou Enlai, she was tasked with accompanying Mao Zedong to peace talks with Chiang Kai-shek and managing negotiations with the Nationalist Party. 

Nora Abd El Kader ’27 was positioned as the Netherlands in UNODC: Drug Trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The Netherlands holds a high position in UNODC, serving as vice chair of the committee. Keeping the high position and influence in mind, she made sure to maintain her argument throughout the committee, prioritizing harm reduction and treating drug use as a public health issue rather than a criminal one. In the end, a civil and efficient compromise created a solution that included education, job creation, and funding for other opportunities to reduce the need to sell drugs, and it was passed by a majority of the delegates in her committee.

This was the last Model UN conference of the year for Friends, but the club looks forward to an exciting 2026-2027 conference season!