Southwest Florida is home to a handful of high schools that dominate in the world of Model United Nations.
In fact, three schools in this area were ranked in the top 25 high school Model UN programs in the country last year.
It’s a stunning achievement for a small metropolitan area.
Port Charlotte High School has one of the top five programs in the country. It’s on par with two private college prep schools in New York City and two top-ranked public schools in California.
The Local Conference
This March, all of these top teams faced off in a local conference in Fort Myers.
High School Model United Nations conferences are what one would expect. It’s a group of young people, dressed in business attire, acting as delegates of countries in a mock trial tackling international crises.
The students are broken into committees—among them is the UN Security Council. In that committee, students debate over whether the UN should intervene in war-torn Syria, or the Sudan, where years of violence has led to millions of refugees.
One student moderates the debate using parliamentary procedure; others debate geopolitical strategy in front of a dozen other students from other schools.
The student that gives the best, most well-researched, creative and eloquent argument will win the competition.
The two and a half hour debate requires weeks of preparation. And, for most students, Model UN is an extracurricular activity.
Oasis High Senior Johana Gonzalez of Cape Coral said the many hours a week she studies for Model UN has taught her more about the world than any of her classes.
“It has just changed my life and the perspective that I look at the world,” she said.
What It Takes
If you ask some of the teachers involved in Model UN, like Port Charlotte High’s coach Bob Johnson, most of these students actually study for Model UN more than they study for their regular classes.
“This is more work than any of their academic classes,” Johnson said.
At the Southwest Florida Model United Nations conference, the studying pays off.
Best Delegate-- a website devoted to all things Model UN—called Southwest Florida a ‘National Powerhouse.’
The standout schools: Port Charlotte High, Cape Coral’s Gulf Coast High and Fort Myers’ Canterbury are winning big at conferences all over the country.
But the big question is: how did a region with less than 1 million residents generate so many top teams alongside big cities like New York and Los Angeles?
Why Coaches Matter
Rick Coughlin is an assistant professor of political science at Florida Gulf Coast University, which hosted this year’s conference. He says it’s the coaches that make the teams great.
Coughlin has been writing up the topics and discussion questions for the students in the Southwest Florida Model UN conference for the past several years.
“The coaches are really good and really dedicated and get their students interested,” Coughlin said.
And that’s a tough job. Usually, it’s easier to get high school students interested in popular sports. But these teachers—or coaches—make international politics and debate compelling enough to draw the same enthusiasm.
Marsha Layne is a Model UN coach at Gulf Coast High School along with Susan Soulard. Best Delegate ranked their team among the top 25 in the country. She said having the money to travel also gets the students more interested in Model UN.
“Having a travel team like that is a little bit compelling because they get to see all different parts of the country,” she explained.
The Southwest Florida conference has several teams competing that travel multiple times a year for Model UN.
But it wasn’t always this way.
How Things Were
Years ago, Southwest Florida only had one team winning in competitions all over the country--Port Charlotte High School.
Even though Port Charlotte is still top dog in this local conference, Coughlin said other teams in the region are giving them a run for their money.
“They used to be an absolute dominant team here at this particular conference. And I think they sort of set the mark for other teams to try and emulate,” he said.
He said that makes this conference an incubator for talent.
“I think that helps to develop not only the top teams but also the teams right below the top teams who want to emulate what they see these top teams doing,” he said.
Layne said at this point, Port Charlotte is more of a pace car for her students.
“We are getting to the point where we look at each other for competition,” she said.
Johnson says he’s noticed the change.
“They’ve done a really nice job going out and getting the experience and this conference in terms of numbers this small and in terms of the level of the competition, it’s one of the better conferences literally in the United States,” Johnson said.
Life-long Impacts
Cape Coral High’s coach Michael Cook said ultimately the students put in the work and reap the rewards.
“Really Model UN is not about the debates we are having. It’s about the softer skills these kids are getting,” he said. “Because these are the skills—speaking, communicating, thinking creatively, looking at things from other perspectives—those are life-long skills that they are going to have.”
These skills are landing local students spots in schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford every year. Port Charlotte senior Joel Davis is one of the winners from this conference.
Davis is attending Oxford University next fall. He said Model UN is the reason why.
“It definitely was Model UN that was the most impactful organization in my life and led me to apply at Oxford,” Davis said.
Southwest Florida teams are looking forward to future conferences in New York, DC and even Canada this spring.
