Local youths win honors

Local students who participated in the Model United Nations Conference in Missoula walked away with several awards.

Flathead Valley home-school student Tyler Rasmussen, a delegate from the United States, was in the top 20 percent of the delegates in the General Assembly Plenary.

Flathead High students Accacia Gardner, who represented Brazil, and Emily Stoick, a delegate from Indonesia, were among the top 20 percent of delegates in the General Assembly First Committee.

Matthew Meuli, a home-school student who represented Serbia, was among the top 20 percent of delegates in the General Assembly Second Committee.

Hannah Anderson, an Indonesian delegate from Flathead High, was in the top 10 percent for that committee. Cassia Wagner, a home-school delegate representing the United States, was named the committee’s best delegate.

Kyrah Kirchner, a home-school student representing Serbia, was in the top 20 percent on the General Assembly Third Committee. Mikayla Meuli, a Myanmar delegate and Flathead home-schooler, was in the committee’s top 10 percent, as was fellow home-school student Sarah Kirchner, who represented the United States.

Each student at the conference wrote a position paper outlining the position the country they represented took on various issues. Home-schooler Sarah Kirchner received an honorable mention for her paper. Fellow home-schooler Cassia Wagner’s paper took first place.

The Flathead Valley Homeschool team representing the United States won the Global Gauntlet in the Americas and Caribbean region. The Global Gauntlet tests students’ knowledge of geography, world history and current events.

The U.S. delegation was named one of the conference’s Outstanding Delegations. The U.S. team was Tyler Rasmussen, Sarah Kirchner, John Michael Meuli, Cassia Wagner and Robert Putnam.

The home-school squad took honorable mention in the small delegation category, for schools with fewer than 20 students.