2024 JUNA Team Looking for a Bengali Speaker

Highlands will be sending two teams of exemplary middle-school students to participate in the Junior United Nations Assembly (JUNA). JUNA is a student-run model UN assembly. Since 1991, JUNA of Alabama has increased awareness of worldwide issues, demonstrated how the United Nations works, and emphasized the importance of diplomacy and problem-solving among nations, peoples, and cultures. This year, our student delegates will represent Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The delegates have spent several months researching labor issues in both countries and have completed their resolutions in which they describe the identified problem, propose a solution, and request assistance from appropriate UN agencies. In January, the Highlands teams will attend a two-day event where they will meet with other teams from across the state to defend their resolution and make decisions about other team’s resolutions. This event is an opportunity for our Middle School leaders to demonstrate their research, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and public-speaking skills.

As a part of their participation in JUNA, the delegates will present a greeting from both countries at the Opening Assembly, which is the very first activity at the two-day event. These greetings will be given in English, as well as in one of the languages of DRC and Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi delegation is in search of a speaker of Bengali. If you or someone you know speaks Bengali and is willing to help the students translate their greeting, please contact one of the JUNA sponsors: Tynley Baker or Shara Kernan.