Oasis High will hold its first Model United Nations conference this weekend.
Peter Ndiang’ui, a world geography teacher at Oasis High and recent winner of the Lighthouse Award, said the school will hold its own in-house conference Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“It is our in-house conference after taking part in other conferences over the year,” he said.
This is the first year the charter high school had its own Model UN team and Ndiang’ui said they have been to other conferences at Cape Coral High, Florida Gulf Coast University, University of Central Florida and in St. Augustine. Thirty-three students are currently members of the club, he said.
Students from Fort Myers High and the Canterbury School are also volunteering to help with some of the judging on Saturday.
Model UN clubs travel to different conferences in Lee County, and as far away as Boston University, representing one of the countries in the United Nations. Club members spend months researching information about their assigned nation and debate certain topics during a conference.
“They have been working all year in different topics,” said Ndiang’ui, who was the faculty advisor for the Model UN at the Canterbury School before working at the city charter school.
Saturday’s conference will center on the AIDS crisis and gender equality, as well as finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region in Sudan.
Cape Coral City Councilman Bill Deile is the keynote speaker at the conference and will address the students at 4:30 p.m. There will also be an awards ceremony.