Dexter’s Model United Nations Club Talk Education, AI and Afghanistan

Dexter High School’s (DHS) Model United Nations Club attended their first conference of the year where they tackled topics like Access to Education on a Global Scale; the Challenge of Regulating the Development of Artificial Intelligence in Information and the Regional Challenge of the Afghanistan Water Crisis.

DHS sent 10 delegates to the Royal Oak SuperMUN Conference, which was held on Oct. 18, at Royal Oak High School. To learn more, the Sun Times News connected with DHS teacher and Model UN Advisor Jaime Dudash.

Dudash said delegates preselected three different levels of committee topics.

Beginner delegates tackled the issue of Access to Education on a Global Scale. Intermediate diplomats addressed the challenge of Regulating the development of Artificial Intelligence in Information while Advanced Model UN students engaged in the regional challenge of the Afghanistan Water Crisis.

“We had nearly double the number of delegates with many new faces engaging in their first United Nations conference so this is very exciting to see students find their voice on issues of global import,” Dudash said. “The delegation will attend SEMMUNA one of the largest one-day conferences at Bloomfield Hills High School in a month and nearly 1000 student delegates will be honing their skills on another key theme:  Fast fashion and the costs to the global community, planning solutions to real problems that exist.”

The conference began with an engaging keynote speech from State Representative Natalie Price who represents the sixth district of Michigan in the State House of Representatives, Dudash said. 

He said Price admitted she asked her legislative aides to draft her opening remarks at the conference for which her aides were “aided” by the use of AI (artificial intelligence). 

Dudash said Rep. Price, a former educator, turned the tables and after sharing her remarks asked the student delegates to pick apart and challenge what was “not” in the speech.  He said the politically adroit students asked about addressing budget shortfalls in education, health care and even the state’s aging roads infrastructure.

He said it was a great barometer of how engaged the over 160 delegates from across southeast Michigan are topics of political import.

Of her experience, DHS freshman Kyla Brewer said, “Everyone there was so dedicated to making the world a better place and committed to coming up with a solution to the problem at hand. If kids were in charge of the world it would be prosperous.”