High school students from 24 schools from Bermuda, Maine, and the Greater Boston Area gathered Friday and Saturday, May 17-18, to discuss current global issues at the United Nations Association of Greater Boston’s (UNA-GB) 2013 Regional Model UN Conference (RMUN) held on the Northeastern University campus.The Bermudian delegation included: Isabella Benson; Sophie Booth; Leah Wright; Carolyn Soares; Caitlin Hyland and Sydney Mason.As participants in the RMUN conference, student delegates took on the role of diplomats from 59 nations including China, Saudi Arabia, and France and represented their countries in seven United Nations committees, the UN Security Council, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the International Labour Organisation, the Human Rights Council, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Disarmament and International Security Committee, and UN-HABITAT. Students engaged in vigorous debates, alliance building, strategic negotiations, and resolution writing. They debated solutions to pressing, current global issues such as the rise of slums around the world, organised crime, and nuclear pollution.The conference began with a keynote address by Dr, Kimberly Jones, a professor at Northeastern University who gave an attention-grabbing speech about international conflict resolution, and negotiation. She also talked about her experiences as a Model UN delegate.The RMUN conference is an annual event held by UNA-GB in partnership with Northeastern University and sponsored by National Grid. It brings the empowering experience of Model UN to a broad spectrum of students throughout the Boston area focusing the efforts on schools in urban areas that rarely have access to the prestigious Model UN programme.“National Grid is proud to be a sponsor of UNA-GB’s Model UN programme and its efforts to help middle and high school students from different backgrounds develop important workforce skills,” said Marcy Reed, President, National Grid, MA. “By providing students with hands on learning experiences that promote broad, global awareness and citizenship, this organisation is truly helping to create a future generation of leaders who are better informed on global issues.”