2023-2024

by 28jackm

My fellow classmates and I went to the United Nations Building in NYC. It was tremendously enormous and filled with many interesting artworks and rooms. The tour guide was very nice and very detailed in her explanations. 10/10 would recommend. The guide explained the purposes of every room, such as how The General Assembly is used for discussing international issues of all kinds. I would also like to mention the rooms had very nice, soft carpeting. Although the trip did not have a large impact on my group’s topic, we did learn that the military budget of every nation combined is almost 1.8 trillion dollars. Overall 10/10 trip that I would recommend to tourists and NYC citizens alike.

by River Garrison

We first started off our trip to the United Nation by looking at statues that were gifted by other countries to us One that really stood out to me was one that was about the transatlantic slave trade this one really touched me because it showed the struggles that the Africans had to go through during the middle passage of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. What was then really cool was how they let us go inside the room were the actual UN meets and we got to sit in some of the chairs we saw multiple room like this but one of them were particularly huge after that we learned about how the Un takes action in certain countries that need their help for example the would go to a country that had way to much plastic pollution and they will remove the plastic. In conclusion i think that this was a very fun and very interesting and productive trip.

by Samuel Isbell

the UN is home to many gifts from many places in the world. They all meant something to me but the one that stuck out to me the most was a sculpture named non-violence this sculpture was originally made to pay respects to the late john Lennon and to protest all the violence in this world. this sculpture was made by john Lennon’s friend after he died and was placed in central park then given to the UN after the government of Luxembourg bought it. another interesting thing i learned was what peacekeeper operations are. A peace keeper operation is essentially when the UN security council decides that a rising or consistent problem is large enough to send task forces out to help settle disputes and keep peace. there are many of these task forces around the world and they are a big part in what the UN does to work towards world peace.

by Cooper Hofmann

On January 12 the eighth grade and I visited the United Nations to kick of the social justice project. While we were there we saw where the most important people in the world make some of the most important dissensions in the world. We took a tour of the office in NYC and it was very interesting. We saw many different meeting rooms, exhibits and more. Something very cool about the United Nations is that the decor of the office is a collaborative design from all of the countries in the United Nations. During our tour we saw an exhibit on nuclear weapons and different type of bomb used around the world. there was a very interesting artifact that was from the blast site of Hiroshima, a stone statue around 5 foot 7 inches that was found face down outside of a destroyed church. What was cool is the back of the statue is chard showing how powerful the blast really was and how destructive it came to be.

by Jules Lentz-Tawil

I found the UN visit to be really interesting, especially visiting the Security Council Chamber. There I learned how the blue seats were where countries on the council sat with their assistants behind them. Every month the president of the Security Council rotates (right now it is France). The red seats surrounding the main circle are for non-council member countries that want to spectate. Another thing I learned is that the open seats at the table are left for any countries involved in a conflict that the council wants to discuss. Overall, I really enjoyed the visit and hope to learn more about how the UN functions in the future.

by Kian Jordan

When visiting the United Nations, our class met with a tour guide that toured us around the United Nations complex. We toured three main assembly halls while they were empty: The Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the General Assembly hall where leaders from all countries around the world meet annually. In front of the Security Council room, there was a mural that caught my eye called “Mankind’s Struggle for a Lasting Peace.” On the left portion of the mural, there are people suffering and dying in war, representing the past, before the United Nations was founded. In the middle they are reconstructing, representing the founding of the United Nations. On the left, there are healthy people and prospering people. This represents the United Nations goal: to save the world from hell, and to have a better future.

by Elias Markee-Ratner

The United Nations is definitely an amazing place to visit: it’s crazy to know that just about every world leader we hear about in the news (as well as those who aren’t so often heard about) meet in this one place each year to make choices that affect our entire world.

When visiting, it was interesting to learn about just about every country takes place in this flawed but important system: whether it’s sending delegates to participate in the General Assembly or sitting on the Security Council, all countries have means of participating. However, what was alarming was the level of power given to certain countries and the Eurocentric perspective of the United Nations. For instance, while several seats on the Security Council rotate between countries, the United States, France, Russia, China, and the United Kingdom all get permanent seats and ‘veto power,’ giving any one of these mostly European countries the ability to stop any potential decisions.

Besides learning about the General Assembly and Security Council, I really enjoyed seeing the absolutely spectacular art pieces gifted to the United Nations by its member states. I especially loved seeing the Iranian rugs that depicted all of the United Nations’ secretary generals, as well as Thailand’s elaborate model of a canoe—beautiful! The international art and retro architecture were definitely among the highlights from the visit.

But while seeing art and the places where diplomacy happens were interesting and special, perhaps the most important part of the visit was seeing how the United Nations makes change. A common criticism of the United Nations (that has some truth) is that it’s ‘all talk and no action,’ so seeing how the United Nations helps out in critical situations by providing peacekeeping delegations, resources, and aid in dire scenarios helped me understand the value of having this global center for diplomacy. An example that relates to my topic of plastic pollution is how the United Nations partnered with Conceptos Plasticos, a Columbian organization, to reuse plastic in polluted communities in the Ivory Coast to build schools. They were able to crush the plastic into bricks, making a stable and long-lasting structure.

All in all, our visit to the United Nations was informative and eye-opening. Especially during this time of constant turmoil, seeing how countries are coming together was a timely and valuable experience.

by Harry Davenport

Today we went to the UN, and we went to the majority of the meeting rooms and saw how they organize them, sometimes based on the color of the chairs, and sometimes based on the rankings of the people. We saw some artifacts from the Nagasaki bombing. We also saw some artifacts that had been salvaged from the bombing, including a statue of a woman. it was face down, so if you looked at the back it was completely melted. One of my favorite things that we saw was a brick that had been made out of compacted plastic. it was really cool to see on the screen that they had managed to make a building for the children to learn in and be safe. for some reason, it kinda reminded me of the hunger games or the perge.

by Cove Stanton

At the UN we saw a lot of gifts from other countries that symbolize something important. My favorite gift was a gift from Russia. It was a moon rock which i found surprising, i did not think i would be seeing a rock from the moon in the UN. The moon rock symbolizes how Russia and the united states were in a race to go to the moon, which i found kinda funny that they put it in the United states. Another cool thing i learned and saw was something related to my social justice project. It was a timeline of all the different countries testing nuclear bombs in the cold war. i learned that the united states tested the most bombs out of all the countries being 1032 bombs between 1945 and 1992. 216 of those of the tested bombs were underwater and in space.

by Sasha Mitchell

Today we went on a tour of the United Nations. On our tour, we saw the General Assembly, the Security Council meeting room, and the economics and sustainability. I personally found it fascinating to see these meeting rooms where world leaders meet and discuss real problems, on our visit I saw some amazing things such as gifts that were given to the U.N by other countries such as one from Italy called Sphere within a sphere, and one commemorating the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the middle passage.

by Ryder Brownell

I toured the United Nations and got to see the seats where many world leaders sit and meet. I found the statue of the gun to be very important and related to my topic.

by Juju Pepe

Put in later

by Emmett Rapp

Today I joined my class in going to the United Nations Building that is located near NYC. I visited the General Assembly, the Security Counsel, and the Economic and Social Counsel. Afterwords we visited the hall where they provide history on nuclear devices and incidents.