The Oasis High School Model UN (United Nations) Team won all the top awards at the recent UN-USA sponsored Global Classrooms Conference. The conference was held at the University of South Florida in Tampa and the team garnished “every single high school award” according to Model UN Advisor Peter Ndiangui.

“I am extremely proud of this team. I have been doing this for over two decades, taking kids all over the world, and I’ve never been in a situation where a team won every single award for the high school category.” he said. “It was amazing,”

For the second year in a row, the team also attained the Secretary General’s Award which is given to the top school delegation.

The conference was attended by nearly 2,000 middle and high school students mostly from schools in Florida.

The high school conference was divided into four committees with only the top delegate attaining the award in each committee.

The top award winners in each committee included Grayson Sifrar representing UK in the Security Council, Claudia Hernandez representing UK in UNFPA committee, Toby Williams representing Togo in the UNHCR committee and Bernard Sarmiento representing Brazil in CSTD committee.

Other delegates who contributed to the winning of the Secretary-General’s Award included senior Tyler Hollis and juniors Johana Gonzalez, Nicole Ospina, Devin Backhaus, Emily Schwarck, Samantha Gonzalez and Kristen Reilly. Sophomores included Zachary Peralto, John O’Donnell and Ciara Bennese, and freshmen, Samir Nacer, Claudia Sanchez, Nika Verna, Anisha Pednekar and Blake Pentland.

Hernandez is the secretary general of the local school group. She explained that in the real United Nations, the secretary general is like the president of the organization.

“The conference was great,” she said. “I was really proud of my team, that we just swept that conference. And what was the most special for me was that this was my last conference so I got to leave it with a bang.”

“These students have worked hard and progressed throughout the year and have peaked at just the right time,” said Principal Chris Terrill. “They are doing an outstanding job and representing Oasis very well.”