Front (l-r): Aileen Alon, Matt Meadows, and Emily Dean. Second row: Kate Neilsen, Halle Carde, Sona Coshal, Caroline Corley, Lin Lin Zhao, Liz Prinz, and Marques Ardoin. Third row: Miles Martine, Leacy Burke, Hayley Swinson, Molly Sanders, Chelsey Boggs, Danny Weinberg, Nikki Sareen, Lad Williamson, Matt Scully, John Sumpter, Julian Green, Hank Blume, Emily Robertson, and Francie Berger. For an unprecedented 17th year in a row, the Richland Northeast High School Model United Nations team took first place at the National High School Model UN Conference, held in New York City March 21-26. The 24 team members served on 14 committees and presented a 250-page research paper evaluating Iran's policies. They presented concrete solutions in the committee areas: disarmament, so-cial/humanitarian, special political, economic and financial, legal, UNDP, UNEP, GATT 1979, UNHCR, CSW, CCPCJ, WHO, World Bank, and UNPF.

Team members competed against more than 2,700 students from throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, winning the Award of Distinction for both its research and its performance.

"The students wanted to do a country they felt would stretch them academically and politically," said Lynn Washington, director of RNE's Convergence Media program and long-time Model UN advisor. "We asked for and received Iran. This provided an even greater challenge than we thought, due to Iran's new president. In their research, the students found a somewhat different Iran than that presented by the American government or our media. Iran is a strong supporter of the United Nations and its activities related to solving poverty and helping the less-developed countries achieve sustainability."

RNE National High School Model UN team: Disarmament,Lad Wil-liamson and Matt Meadows; Social/Humanitarian,Chelsey Boggs and Leacy Burke; Special Political, Marques Ardoin and Elizabeth Prinz; Economic and Financial,Francine Berger and Hank Blume; Legal, Caroline Corley and Danny Weinberg; UNDP, Molly Sanders and Hallie Carde; UNEP,Emily Rob-ertson; GATT 1979, Matt Scully; UNHCR, Julian Green; WHO, Nikki Sareen and John Sumpter; CSW, Lin Lin Zhao and Aileen Alon; CCPCJ, Hayley Swinson and Kate Nielson; UNPF,Miles Martin; and World Bank, Emily Dean and Sona Coshal.

In addition, the International Model UN Board of Directors selected RNE 2003 graduates Foard Copeland and Ryan Gassaway to be next year's secretary-general and director-general, respectively. These two young men will plan, organize, and execute the NHSMUN conference for 2007. It is only the third time a RNE student has served in these positions.