Villa Madonna Academy had a successful trip to the Middle School Kentucky United Nations Assembly in Louisville. Freshman Quinn Holtzman of Villa Hills led the conference as Secretary-General. She helped plan the student-led conference and reviewed resolutions with her Chief of Staff Chloe Schaeffer of Burlington.
Holtzman was the first Villa student to be elected to KUNA’s highest office, but she is not the last. Eighth-grader Ryan McLagan of Walton was elected to lead next year’s middle school conference.
Villa’s student delegation earned the Outstanding Statesmanship award. This award goes to a school nominated by the conference advisors as having the highest overall quality of contribution to the debate.
Students also earned Outstanding Country Representation. They represented Ireland at the conference. They performed an Irish jig, wrote a resolution from Ireland’s point of view, and debated other resolutions from Ireland’s perspective.
In addition, Villa’s Security Council team of Ksenia Miller of Villa Hills and Riley Clark of Burlington won Outstanding Security Council Members. They represented China on the council and debated issues such as internal conflicts, military overreach and women’s peace and security.
Villa’s resolution group of Maddie Carroll of Villa Hills, Lily Lewis of Crescent Springs, Olive Kuhns of Fort Mitchell and Cam Kratzer of Hebron wrote a resolution asking member nations to adopt consistent by-name standards for counting youth who are struggling with homelessness arguing there is not an accurate count of people who lack housing. Their resolution was voted by their peers to win a Schools Choice Award, and it passed in their voting committee.
Three Villa students Maddie Carroll, Kate Bertoli, and Carmen DeAtley-Rosales earned Outstanding Speaker awards for their contributions to debate at the conference.
