The Richmond Forum partners with Governor’s School Model United Nations to bring prominent speakers to local students.
On the weekend of March 23-24, The Richmond Forum and the 21st Annual Governor’s School Model United Nations Conference (GSMUN XXI) will bring the region together to learn more about our world.
Samantha Power, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, will be at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School on Saturday, March 24th to speak with middle and high school students from the Richmond region. She will speak to her experiences as the Ambassador to the U.N. and discuss the U.N.’s role in global cooperation. Courtesy of a partnership with The Richmond Forum that began in 2015 with GSMUN XVII, the conference has been fortunate enough to host many prestigious keynote speakers, including the Honorable Ehud Barak, former Prime minister and Minister of Defense of Israel, Ben Bernanke, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
GSMUN brings students together from surrounding counties and cities to debate important international issues and to develop diplomacy in the next generation of world leaders. In March 2017, nearly 500 delegates from schools in central Virginia and surrounding areas discussed, debated, and found solutions for some of the greatest challenges facing our world today. The student-led Secretariat of GSMUN XXI looks to expand the impact of the Governor’s School Model United Nations Conference in 2018.
The delegates, who come from local middle and secondary schools, will discuss issues over the weekend in committees led by Governor’s School students, which include a groundbreaking House of Saud Committee, as well as a simulation of the 2008 U.S. Financial Crisis and a pair of interdependent crisis committees modeling the Indo-Pakistani War.
In addition to debating global issues, the conference seeks to make a difference in the community by fundraising for a chosen charity that addresses an important global issue throughout the year. In previous years, the conference has supported charities such as One Hundred Pounds of Hope, and last year raised $10,000 for Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere), an international charity that provides disaster relief and medical training to many areas around the world. This year, GSMUN XXI will be fundraising for Love146, a U.S. based international human rights organization that works to end child trafficking and exploitation. GSMUN is proud to lend a hand to further such an amazing cause. Those wishing to make a business or individual contribution to the conference charity may contact [email protected].
