Our History

Andrea Flynn 

 

The following is an account of the genesis and history of HAMUN written by Andrea Flynn, HAMUN's founder, circa 1985. Andrea passed away at age of 86 in 1995.

 

"I taught World History at Memorial High School from 1962-1972 and was appalled to realize how uninformed students in my classes were about other countries and cultures. At that time the United States had begun involvement in Vietnam and only a few of my students knew where it was.

 

Looking around for a vehicle to challenge students interest, which would fit into a rigorous course structure, which required covering history from antiquity up to today, I hit upon the idea of students choosing countries to research. This was to constitute the 25% of their grade allotted to research skills. They studied their country's history, customs, economics, politics, arts and even dress and food. (they loved the latter - we always had a "tasting" party). Then they would represent their country in a Model United Nations held in the spring where selected students who were screened for major power roles, debated one or two resolutions. This began in my class but other World History teachers joined in and then we had a layered MUN structure in which there was a MUN every period of the day with three to five World History classes participating. It was a great success and many students acclaimed it their favorite activity for the year (some even for their entire high school years.)

 

It was a rewarding experience for me and I came to feel that retirement was no excuse to abandon a good idea. With the encouragement and help of the United Nations Associate, I set out to try and establish a high school model United nations in the Houston area. It took three years to find a sponsor at the University of Houston - Dr. Phillip Taylor of Latin American Affairs and a PR person for the University. Gerry Carleton, Peggy Chausse and I made a presentation to schools in Harris County  through an in-service session and we found several enthusiastic teachers who helped form our first HAMUN."