Eight members of the upper school’s Model United Nations program attended the 66th Berkeley Model United Nations (BMUN) at UC Berkeley from March 2 to 4.

The Harker delegation of Amy Dunphy (12), Logan Bhamidipaty (11), Jerry Su (11), Helen Yang (11), Jai Bahri (10), Sriya Prathuri (10), Michael Eng (9) and Andrew Lu (9) received the Best Small Delegation award in the field of schools with under 15 delegates.

Michael and Andrew, together representing Cyprus in the UN Economic & Financial Committee, won the Best Position Paper Award for their research on the status of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Syria, Israel and Palestine, international black markets and currency valuation. Joint Cabinet Crisis competitors Sriya and Logan Bhamidipaty, representing the U.S. Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, respectively, were named Best Delegate and Outstanding Delegate for their work addressing multiple angles of U.S.-China relations.

“In general, we focused on the economic aspects of crises around the world. Specifically, we weren’t doing what the UN Refugee Agency was doing with refugees; we were trying to find an economic solution to integration and see how it could benefit the economies of host countries,” Andrew said. “Cyprus is a relatively small country and in the past, it has tried to implement refugees into their economy, but it didn’t really work that well. There’s a substantial number of people you have to host and it costs a lot, so those were reasons for its unpopularity in Cyprus.”

Inviting over 115 schools and 2,000 delegates to participate in three days of competitive events at this year’s conference, BMUN aims to spread awareness of international issues and the spirit of diplomacy through U.N. simulations as well as develop public speaking and policy debate skills in high school students. Each of the conference’s 21 committees were chaired by a panel of UC Berkeley students majoring in a variety of science and social science disciplines, such as environmental science, molecular and cell biology, political science and economics.

“One of the things that Model UN forces you to do is look at something from another perspective that can be wildly different from your own. I’ve had some of my friends do topics on LGBTQ+ issues but had to argue it from Saudi Arabia’s point of view,” Logan said. “Being able to shift my outlook on global affairs has really given me a more comprehensive understanding of a lot of the policy issues I encounter nowadays.”

Beyond advancing their country’s agenda in committee sessions and collaborating with other delegates to draft resolutions, or proposed solutions to the challenges their committee discusses, competitors also submit position papers written from their country’s perspective on their committee’s two competition topics. Papers were due Feb. 5 to be considered for the Best Position Paper Award and Feb. 12 to be considered for any committee award.

Sriya, competing for the first time in Joint Cabinet Crisis, prepared for the event by researching issues such as the dispute over the South China Sea, space exploration, Olympic hosting bids and North Korean denuclearization.

“Even though [Logan and I] were in the same committee, we were in different rooms as I was part of the U.S. cabinet and he was part of the Chinese cabinet. If there was a crisis and they responded—we have to respond to each other’s actions—we’d collaborate or wage war with each other, depending on the situation,” she said. “I thought I would probably get Outstanding or maybe a verbal commendation, but I wasn’t expecting Best. One of the committee members, representing the CIA, was very eloquent, and I thought she would get it. When my name was called, I was really shocked.”

Prior to BMUN, the upper school’s Model UN program competed in the Los Angeles Model UN from Nov. 11 to 12 at UCLA and the Santa Clara Valley Model UN from Jan. 26 to 27 at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose.