FALLS CHURCH, VA. The eighth session of the Virginia Invitational Conference, hosted by Langley High School successfully welcomed yet another conference highlighting the celebrated aspects of MUN -- diplomacy, leadership, and cooperation through fruitful debate and insightful resolutions by participants from all over Virginia.

         This year, the session also saw nine delegates from the Longfellow team face present world issues head-on, ranging from the development of sustainable agricultural methods to the fight for gender equality in Israeli law. To some, the VIMUNC experience was a first dip into MUN -- to others, it was a chance to expound on diplomacy, leadership, and of course, personal creativity in problem-solving. But most of all, to the joy of the Longfellow team after a moment of bated breath, VIMUNC VIII closed with Longfellow Middle School winning the Secretary-General Award of 'Best Middle School' -- thus continuing the Longfellow streak this season of the same award being won at past conferences, such as those hosted by Mclean and Chantilly High School at the sixth and sixteenth iterations respectively.

"I really think that Longfellow's Model UN team, through its back-to-back victories, now with VIMUNC also, is really displaying its newfound position as a regional leader in MUN competitions." Zakareya Hamed, the delegation of Hungary at VIMUNC, says. Many team members agree. "It's truly an age of a new reign," another delegate states. "The age of Rocky Run and Carson is over."

All in all, the summary of the eighth VIMUNC closes fairly nicely; to many attending delegates, VIMUNC was an experience to add onto their MUN memories, expounding on experience with a side of spice.

"VIMUNC was actually really really fun," said Brynn Lee, who represented the Netherlands in the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) committee. "I had a good time."

Individual awards for VIMUNC VIII are:

Brynn Lee (Netherlands): Verbal Commendation - UNEP

Emily Ma (Hungary): Best Delegate - UNEP

Victoria Zhang (Netherlands): Honorable Mention - SOCHUM

Zakareya Hamed (Hungary): Best Delegate - SOCHUM

Megan Zhang (Haim Katz) : Best Delegate - Knesset

Neha Chandran (Stephen A. Hurlbut): Best Delegate - Gilded Age Congress

Krish Bommakanti (Steve Jurvetson): Honorable Mention - SpaceX

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Article by Megan Zhang, Staff Writer