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VOL. VII, No. 11;  Tuesday, September 25, 2007   

Dear Arthur,


Newest Member of Civitas Family

On Monday, Sept. 24, Middle School Coordinator Lisa Granich-Kovarik gave birth to her third daughter, Hannah.  She weighs in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces!  Lisa already has Hannah calling those teachers who do not respond to e-mails or phone messages.  She will be a very valuable asset to the Civitas community.  

To the right: Hannah with mother Lisa and father Frank Kovarik, an English teacher and co-Model U.N. faculty advisor at S.L.U.H. 


           Fourteen High Schools Participate in Country Draftourteen High Schools Participate in Country Draft


About sixty-five students representing fourteen high schools were at the Civitas Model U.N. Country Draft last Saturday.  Collectively they selected thirty-nine of the 192 countries in the United Nations General Assembly.  We are most appreciative of the students and teachers who came to the country draft and hope that all are satisfied with the country(ies) they will be representing.



The schools that had representation were:

C.B.C
Collinsville High School
Crossroads College Preparatory
Francis Howell North
Hazelwood Central
Incarnate Word Academy
Lindbergh High School
Maplewood-Richmond Heights
Parkway North High School
Rosati-Kain
S.L.U.H.
St. Joseph's Academy
Vianney
Webster Groves

Schools are still free to request additional countries.  We would still like to receive country applications from the following schools that have previously indicated interest:

Bishop DuBourg
Chesterfield Day School (St. Alban's Academy)
Parkway Central
Soldan International Studies

Information from the country draft:

  1. How the Country Draft Works Explanation
  2. List of 192 General Assembly countries in the United Nations
  3. List of 15 Security Council countries in the United Nations.

Please remember that we will have three committees in the General Assembly, each dealing with different kinds of issues and resolutions.  The three are (a) Political & Security, (b) Economic & Social, and (c) Human Rights.  Thus a country will need at least three students as delegates (one for each committee).  In addition, if a country is also on the Security Council, a fourth delegate will be necessary.  If you want to "double-up" delegates in a committee, you can do so.  However, the more "single delegates" we have the more countries we can have represented in each committee.



Our next discussion group will be on Saturday, October 13 at Crossroads School (map) from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM.  The discussions have been terrific this year; we hope to have a great turnout for this upcoming one.  We'll also provide time for students to ask questions about the model U.N. session.  If you want help in writing a resolution, we'll do that as well.  We'll also have computers available for research.  Hope to see you there!

Pulitzer Global Gateway Program in St. Louis this Week

Journalists David Enders and Jon Sawyer from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting are coming to St. Louis on Thursday - Saturday of this week to meet with students and teachers about the refugee crisis in and around Iraq.  The topic has become very timely as more people are becoming aware that of the twenty-six million people in Iraq prior to the beginning of the current war and occupation in March, 2003, some 4.5 million of them are now refugees or displaced.  David Enders had a most informative article on the situation in last Sunday's Post-Dispatch.  You can access it by clicking here.


The schedule of the actual workshops with Jon and David is as follows:

 School    

Date     

Time 

Parkway West High School     Thurs., 10/04   8:55 AM - 12:00 PM
at Soldan (with Soldan, Crossroads,
Rosti-Kain, and Maplewood-RH)
Thurs., 10/04  1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 
Washington University Thurs., 10/04  7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
St. Joseph's Academy Fri., 10/05   9:28 AM - 11:12 AM
Collinsville High School Fri., 10/05 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
 
Teacher Workshop at Channel 9 Sat., 10/06  8:30 AM - 10:30 AM 


In the way of review, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting was established two years ago to provide accurate reporting on global issues that often are not on the radar screen of the mainstream press.  Part of their program is an outreach project to St. Louis schools in which students get opportunities to communicate directly with journalists on the job.  In addition, reporters and videographers come to St. Louis three times a year to meet with students in St. Louis to further describe their experiences.  To the best of our knowledge, there is no other similar program in which students and journalists can actively interact in real time.

Three projects are scheduled for the 2007-2008 school year.  The first is the current one: Iraq: Death of  a Nation.  David Enders spent much of the past summer in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan meeting with Iraqi refugees who have been displaced both within their country and outside.  Other projects will be in January and April.

Blogs are available for each school to begin communicating with David Enders -- questions and comments alike.  The link to the blog web site is: http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/global_gateway_students/welcome/index.html.  Thanks to everyone who has already contributed; there is still time for others!


Finally for teachers, the Pulitzer Center is sponsoring a workshop on its resources and curriculum development for teachers this Saturday morning, October 6.  It will be from 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM (location to be determined).  Participating teachers will receive a $50.00 stipend.  If you are interested, please e-mail us at [email protected].  Teachers who are currently signed up are Kristen Collins (Parkway West), Liz Morrison (Parkway Social Studies District Coordinator), Amber Booth (Parkway South), C.J. Kinney (Kirby Middle School), Margene Jerrolds (Lift for Life Academy), Jane Garvin (St. Joseph's Academy), Ronni Zagora (Lindbergh), Kelly Krejnik (U. City), David West (Soldan International Studies), Kelly Moore (Soldan International Studies), Dawn McClain (Soldan International Studies), Dr. Hamid Azimi (Soldan International Studies) and Christine Marshall (John Burroughs School).  We still have room for a few more teachers if they are interested.

By the time of the workshop, a blog will be open for any and all teachers who are interested in the activities of the Global Gateway program.  We'll have more details Saturday morning!

You can access more information on the Global Gateway Project by clicking here.


While many of us like candy and the other trappings of Halloween, the United Nations has sponsored the UNICEF program for over 50 years to encourage trick or treaters to collect money to help needy children throughout the world.

Civitas is looking for someone who would like to initiate an outreach effort to participating schools as well as individual students in our program to organize a UNICEF effort on our part.  We will provide considerable support for the effort.  If you are interested, please e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (314) 367-6480.

You can find more information on UNICEF by clicking on http://www.kintera.org/htmlcontent.asp?cid=75109&tr=y&auid=3031591.

Two Essay Contests

We want to keep students informed about essay contests with interesting topics -- particularly when there are attractive incentives.  Here is information on two:

Ron Glossop
and the local chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions is once again offering an outstanding opportunity for high school and college students in the St. Louis area to attend an all-expenses paid conference in Minneapolis in October.  The topics of the conference cover a host of United Nations related issues.  In order for a student to qualify for the trip, he/she must submit a thoughtful essay.  Click here for more details.

Kenya Madison from Vianney High School has informed us of the Greg Freeman Memorial Essay Contest on "Improve St. Louis -- Build Racial Harmony."  The deadline for submission of this 750 word contest is February 8, 2008.  One contestant will receive a $500.00 savings bond.  Click here for more details.


Upcoming Civitas Events

(Preliminary Version; actual events in bold -- always subject to change when change occurs!)

Black: High School                                             Blue: Middle School


DATE

TIME

PLACE

ACTIVITIES

 

 

 

 

Thurs. 10/04 -

Sat., 10/06

Varies

Varies

Pulitzer Global Gateway Program with high school students, high school teachers, and university students

 

 

 

 

Sat.,

10/13/07

9:00 AM -

11:00 AM

Crossroads

Discussion Group #4

 

 

 

 

Mon., 10/15/07

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Richmond Heights Community Center

Middle School Teacher Meeting #2

 


Rev., September 24, 2007


See complete Civitas calendar for 2007-2008 by clicking here.

 


Civitas now takes donations and payment of fees with credit cards and PayPal.  If you want to make a tax-deductible donation or pay a fee, you may do so by clicking here.

 


ADDITIONAL LINKS

Civitas Home Page

Photo Gallery

Civitas Calendar for 2006-2007 

Civitas Intranets Site

Civitas Blog

Maps & Directions

Previous Newsletters

General Assembly Countries

Security Council Countries 

Conference (Feb., 2007) on "The Nuclear Club"  

Checklist for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution

Resolutions (High School U.N.) for 2004-2006 

Make donation to Civitas 



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