From the HSIE Faculty
Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) - Expressions of Interest
St Joseph’s College is once again hoping to enter a number of teams in the annual MUNA challenge.
Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) is a Rotary District project designed to create an awareness of the role of the United Nations in mediating international issues.
The purpose of MUNA is to encourage young people to learn about other nations and to understand and appreciate the workings of the United Nations while they develop debating skills and gain self confidence in public speaking.
The debates reproduce genuine UN debates often with a fine flow of rhetoric, points of order, motions of dissent and bloc walkouts! Past resolutions have included human rights, global climate challenges and the spread of viruses. MUNA is actually a United Nations initiative and there are a variety of MUNA events held throughout the world.
Teams of three students from Year 11 or Year 12 are preferred, but students from Year 10 may also be considered.
The teams select a country, research its history, politics, economics, peoples, international alignment and policies in current world affairs. Having chosen a country, they then debate selected resolutions from each country’s point of view in a simulated United Nations Assembly.
MUNA 2022 will be conducted at the Tweed Heads Civic Centre on Saturday 30 April 2022 (end of Week 1 Term 2) from 8:30am to approximately 4:30pm. Team registrations need to be finalised by Wednesday 23 March (Week 8, Term 1). So, if you are interested or would like to find out more, please see Mr Nethery or your HSIE teacher and listen out during AWC notices.
Mr Tom Nethery
Leader of Learning - HSIE
‘Until the Dawn of Day’
St Joseph’s College Year 9 student, Zack Andrewartha, has a special link with World War I. His forebear, Trooper James Albert Beyers, enlisted in Gladstone, Queensland, on 27 August 1914, just two weeks after Britain and Australia declared war on Germany. In September 1914 he embarked in Brisbane on the HMAT ‘Star of England’ (A15) as part of the 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment, bound for training in Egypt.
The 2nd Light Horse Regiment deployed to Gallipoli on 12 May 1915, attacking the Turkish trenches opposite Quinn’s Post – a highly contested position along the ANZAC line. Sadly, two days later, on 14 May 1915, Trooper J.A. Beyers was killed in action, aged 24 years. He is buried in the Quinn’s Post Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula where his epitaph reads ‘Until the Dawn of Day’.
Pictured: Year 9 student Zack Andrewartha reflects at the St Joseph’s College War Memorial with a portrait of his WWI forebear, Trooper James Albert Beyers.
Mr Bryson Coverdale
History Teacher