Upper School Students Attend International Model United Nations Conference

Earlier this spring, Upper School students traveled to New York City to participate in this year’s international Model United Nations Conference. Students on the trip, co-sponsored by the Upper School History Department and Crossroads’ Model United Nations club, attended workshops and participated in debates on this year’s conference theme, “Beyond the Algorithm: Navigating the Future of Artificial Intelligence.”

Three Crossroads students were selected for special honors. In addition to receiving the BYTE of Innovation Student Impact Award for his website Money Map AI, ninth grader Armaan Hariharan was chosen by the United Nations International School UN committee to lead a presentation on the topic of artificial intelligence and finance at the United Nations General Assembly before an audience of over 600 students. His presentation detailed the ways in which AI can be used to help teens build financial literacy. Armaan developed Money Map AI as a passion project to create an easily accessible resource for teens to learn budgeting. He’s working to integrate the site with existing financial tools such as Plaid, an extension that allows users to pair their bank accounts to his site to better track their expenses and spending.  

Tenth graders Quincy Levine and Arabella Joaquin both wrote articles for the conference that were chosen for publication. Quincy’s research focused on how financial institutions like BNP Paribas and JP Morgan have begun using AI-generated financial models. He shared the pros and cons of the emerging technology, including potential effects on the job market for financial advisors. Arabella’s research focused on the impact of AI on the creative sector and how generative AI—which can produce images, audio and text—might affect the film and television industry.

Throughout the conference, Upper Schoolers leaned into the critical thinking skills that are routinely part of their class discussions at Crossroads, considering both the positives and negatives of AI technology while attending workshops at the conference.

“My biggest takeaway is that a lot of people talk about how ethical it is, how morally right it is,” said Armaan. “That was something I was already questioning, but I started questioning even more now. I've been trying to research how we can bridge the gap using AI. How can we make it actually help people instead of just making the rich richer?”

In addition to taking part in debates and workshops, students toured the United Nations Headquarters, visiting the historic General Assembly Hall and various chambers within the building. They met students from around the world including delegations from Spain, Korea, Germany and Vietnam, getting the chance to connect and learn from each other.  

“You learn a lot, and not just in the sense of what you would learn in a math or science class,” said Quincy. “You learn a lot about the people around you, how people think and the different opinions that people across our nation and across the world have, which is really eye-opening.”

When asked what advice they would give to younger students who might be interested in joining Crossroads’ Model UN delegation, Armaan, Arabella and Quincy all recommend just going for it. 

“The first conference is always the scariest, but the only way to get better at something is to start it,” said Arabella. “Once you start, it's easy. And everyone's so welcoming. During this conference, there were so many friends that I could go to if I had questions. Crossroads is such a supportive environment, so you’re going to have no problem transitioning and doing it.”