Earlier this month, Hillsborough High School’s esteemed debate team traveled to Canada to attend the University of Toronto Model United Nations, which is a conference where schools from Canada, the United States, Asia, and Europe all attend. At this conference, UTMUN “integrates dynamic and real-world crisis that carry far-reaching international implications.”

All members of the club did extremely well, and made our school and town proud. However, five students in particular were honored at the conference. Rakesh Senthilvelan, Sid Shankar, Shridhar Parthasarathy, Scott Lowry, and Smay Shah were are recognized for individual achievements by the University of Toronto.

“My favorite part about our trip to Toronto was that we were able to immerse ourselves in a different culture and fully experience the similarities and differences between the US and Canada,” senior Aayush Goradia said. “From eating local delicacies to speaking some French with other delegates in the conference, I was able to gain exposure to an entirely new country, which was quite unforgettable.”

The biggest struggle the team faced was the snow storm. They had to leave a night earlier in order to beat the storm, staying at a Newark airport hotel. The flight was then delayed 12 hours, and on the way back, they had to stay over an extra night since a second snow storm hit.

“We are grateful to Dr. Schiff and Ms. Bingert for working with us to get to and from the conference despite the weather,” adviser Robert Fenster said. “For some students this was their first experience traveling outside the country and it was both fun and enriching.”

The team was lucky enough to be in the airport when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down their decision keeping the injunction against President Trump’s travel ban executive order. The debate team is known to be highly political, which caused a lot of interesting conversations between the group. Overall, the Hillsborough team did a fantastic job representing our school at this impressive conference!