By: Renee Day, iEARN Global Education Ambassador, California, USA

The Ramona Model UN team held its first virtual RAM-MUN Conference last spring as part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) MUN 4 Refugees Challenge. The purpose of the competition was to engage MUN teams around the world to debate and craft resolutions to address 4 issues facing refugees: climate and forced displacement, countering toxic narratives, economic inclusion, and access to education.

The Ramona MUN team chose to address access to education for refugees. As an extension of their iEARN Project, Be Kind, Don't Leave Them Behind, the USA for UNHCR Tent Walk held in 2016, the team decided to conduct a community awareness campaign about the issue at the local level. They consulted with local non-profits who support the transition of refugees to the local community and conducted a series of outreach visits and policy summits with local middle schools and high schools in the region prior to the virtual conference. 

Although the in-person conference was supposed to be held on March 13, 2020, it was moved to May 23, 2020 to a virtual setting due to the pandemic. The team hosted schools from the Inland area to simulate UNHCR's Executive Committee and discuss the topic, Increasing Access to Education for Refugees. The resolution drafted from that simulation was submitted to UNHCR as part of the MUN 4 Refugees Challenge.  According to UNHCR, Over 20,000 students from 75 countries participated in the challenge. 

On December 9, 2020, UNHCR announced the winners of the MUN 4 Refugees Challenge. The Ramona MUN team is one of the 8 teams who won the challenge and has been named Best MUN, Topic 4: Access to Education. My Nguyen is one of the speakers in a video by UNHCR. 

This year My has decided to lead the team in the iEARN project Girl Rising and address SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 4: Quality Education. The team hopes to partner with UN Women as they collaborate with their peers in the iEARN Girl Rising project.