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UF hosts high school students for Gator Model UN conference

<p dir="ltr">Chris Joyce, a 22-year-old political science senior, speaks to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Sunday morning in Matherly Hall. The crisis committee was part of the 11th annual Gator Model United Nations Conference.</p>

Chris Joyce, a 22-year-old political science senior, speaks to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Sunday morning in Matherly Hall. The crisis committee was part of the 11th annual Gator Model United Nations Conference.

A masked man burst through the door, shielding himself from gunfire as he snatched the girl closest to him and made his escape. The FBI Art Crime Unit now had to deal with not only five missing paintings but also a missing director.

This diplomatic crisis was part of the 11th annual Gator Model U.N. conference this weekend. UF’s campus was filled with young aspiring diplomats from Mississippi, Georgia and Florida for the largest student-run high school conference in the Southeastern United States.

About 450 high school students came to the three-day conference hosted by the UF Model U.N. club and were tasked with solving diplomatic issues in either assembly or crisis committees.

“Assembly committees run exactly the way the real United Nations works. There’s a set topic; they debate resolutions,” said Aaron Kalafarski, a 21-year-old UF political science junior who directed the conference as Secretariat-General. “Crisis committee is more like a story. They are main characters, and they play a huge part in creating the story.”

Alex Koberda, a junior from Chiles High School, donned a long black beard and brown robe to play Rasputin in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a crisis committee based on the 1999 comic series created by Alan Moore.

“I chose Rasputin because being a psychopath is so much fun to play. He has the most fiction and the fewest facts so you can bend the rules,” said Koberda, 16, who used his powers to create a storm that wiped out fleets trying to invade Russia.

In addition to the 21 committees, the conference hosted one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Jacob Atem, and raised money for his charity.

“Gator MUN is one of the most professional conferences, it’s the best thought-out and one of the most creative,” Koberda said. “They’re not afraid to push the rules.”

[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 2/3/2014 under the headline "UF hosts high school students for Gator Model UN conference"]

Chris Joyce, a 22-year-old political science senior, speaks to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Sunday morning in Matherly Hall. The crisis committee was part of the 11th annual Gator Model United Nations Conference.

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