Fraser-Woods Students Attend United Nations Conference

By Susan Coney

Fraser-Woods students Parker Delmolino, Michael Delspina, Justin Waltzer, and Andrew Elstein from Teri LaRocque’s seventh grade humanities class recently attended a youth conference held at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York.

The conference represents a new program called Youth Visits the United Nations, which offers three days of events dedicated to providing students with knowledge on how the UN functions. As part of the program the students learn about the workings of the UN through discussion, lectures, observations, and activities. The conference culminated in a tour of the UN headquarters and a lunch in the Delegates Dining Room.

As a prerequisite to attending the conference, the each boy wrote an essay about why he wanted to visit the UN and submitted it to his teacher, Ms LaRocque, who helped the students with the application process. The students were accompanied by parent chaperones and commented that they learned a great deal by attending.

Andrew Elstein said that one of his favorite parts of the visit was the opportunity to view all the different showcases, exhibits, and displays representing different countries from around the world. Justin Waltzer said that he enjoyed viewing the outside grounds of the UN and seeing all of the statues.

Michael Delspina said that he found the entire trip very interesting and was surprised to learn the difference between a translator and an interpreter. He learned that a translator does their work through written documents and that an interpreter orally translates language between people through discussion.

While attending the youth conference the students listened to representatives from Australia and learned about that country’s peacekeeping policy. The boys also learned of a new UN campaign called the Millennium Campaign which goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

One subject area that all four boys expressed interest and concern over were the existence of landmines all over the world. At the UN conference the boys saw what landmines look like, how they work and learned of the devastation they cause throughout the world. Parker Delmolino commented that the cost of building and installing a landmine is very inexpensive but it is extremely time consuming and costly to locate and remove landmines. He expressed great interest in the UN’s efforts to safely remove landmines.

All of the boys learned that thousands of people of all ages are injured or killed by landmines each year. The UN representatives told the students how their organization helps to provide prosthetic limbs and medical care for those who are injured by mines through United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). They also learned that UNICEF provides drinking water, medicine, vaccines, food, blankets, and emergency services for those in need throughout the world.

As part of the Youth Visits the United Nations program the students were asked to share information that they learned at the conference with classmates and peers. All four students stated that the program was very informational and they would recommend it to others.