By Sushant Kunwar
This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all clubs were restricted to an all-virtual schedule until early November. From that point onward, clubs have been allowed to meet in person, but only by adhering to the hybrid model, essentially splitting the clubs into two groups, the blue cohort and the orange cohort.
One such club is BHS Model Congress, one of the largest clubs in Branford High School, boasting over 80 members. Last week, about 50 representatives from Branford High School attended the Yale Model Congress conference. However, the conference was different this year, in the sense that it was done all virtually.
To carry out the virtual conference, YMC used Classroom Cloud, a cloud-based interface that allowed participants to connect into their committee and full sessions through Zoom as well as provide other resources and information regarding the conference.
“YMC [Yale Model Congress] has handled the unprecedented circumstances well in the organization of this year‘s conference,” said BHS Model Congress Vice President Tyler Jarvis, “They have organized many events such as speakers and breakout rooms for us to be in. Though it is hard that we can’t go to Yale this year, I believe that they have done an adequate job organizing the conference.”
It was also a brand new experience for the organizers at Yale.
“This year we did not have any previous knowledge on how to run an online conference,” said YMC President and 2017 BHS Alum Mauro AcevesAcosta, “Nonetheless, when presented with an unforeseen obstacle, the YMC team was able to find a solution so that committees could begin Thursday.”
Though there were some difficulties regarding the long hours of committee sessions at home and the inevitable technological issues, there were definitely upsides like the easy access to technology and passionate delegates, said Jarvis.
“I was surprised how well it went,” said BHS Model Congress Advisor James Petela, the senior leaders stepped up and were able to present their experiences and expertise to help out their peers. I got some good feedback from the students so I was pleasantly surprised and very happy.”
But the virtual conference couldn’t replicate all the experiences of attending a Model Congress activity.
“A downside of a virtual YMC experience is that we were unable to experience all of the fun walks and lunches with friends around New Haven.” said BHS Model Congress Governor William Mollow. “I have fond memories of YMC last year, and I hope that sometime in the near future we will be able to experience those fun moments again.”
AcevesAcosta, Petela and Jarvis share similar sentiments, stating that the absence of the total YMC experience was a clear disadvantage of the virtual conference this year.
“The social aspect of [YMC] is just as crucial as the committee sessions,” said Petela. “The friendships, the bonding, the incredible memories are what make up the YMC experience.”
Mollow, AcevesAcosta, Petela and Jarvis were all in agreement that this conference was a clear success given the unforeseen circumstances that drastically impacted it.
With that being said, BHS had another successful conference this year at Yale Model Congress, bringing home three Best Delegate Awards to Bo Yun Brainerd, Madelyn Seward, and Sushant Kunwar; five Honorable Mention Awards to Alec AcevesAcosta, Ashley Doung, Hanna Bloomquist, Michaela Jean Ang, and William Mollow; one Outstanding Delegate Award to Ashley Doung; and one Best Legislation Award to Zoe Lee.
