Small School Big Achievements

Last weekend a small privately run school in Hazlet, NJ was able to tackle what schools with larger staff and even much larger budgets are still yet unable to overcome. The Baytul Iman Academy was able to win an honorable mention and THREE resolutions passed out of a possibility of six in the 2014 Global Classrooms Middle School Model United Nations Conference! This Model United Nations conference differs from other conferences in that this is  an international conference with 1600 delegates from all over the world; including thirteen countries (Australia, Japan, Italy, Turkey, and Ghana to just name a few)!! It also includes schools from all over the United States (fifteen states besides New York)! All of the delegates are divided into twelve committees, ranging from 258 to 68 students. Out of the six committees that Baytul Iman students were in, three were in rooms of 150 plus student delegates! The conference ran over three days (March 27th, 28th, and 29th) and was extremely exhausting lasting from eight to twelve hour days. Due to being on a budget, the students commuted each of the three days from Central Jersey to New York City via mass transit. There were a variety of schools present at the conference; ranging from privately run institutions, Islamic schools, magnet schools, charter schools, public schools, and even high schools! Each delegation had a chance to win one out of four positions per committee.This was BIA's (as it is referred to by its students) second year entering the conference, and having won three honorable mentions and one resolution passed last year, the small team of twelve students went into the contest quite vary of what to expect from an even more actively participated event. The team was assigned to represent the country of Sweden this year. Led by faculty advisor/Language Arts and U.S. History teacher Ambreen Ahmad, Baytul Iman was entered into six separate committees giving them a meager chance of: (Four positions, one per delegation per category) ◾General Assembly Third: 2 out of 206 delegates (Topic: Access to Education for Persons with Disabilities)
◾International Atomic Energy Agency: 2 out of 68 delegates (Topic: Future of Nuclear Power)
◾United Nations Development Programme: 2 out of 64 delegates (Topic: Eradication of Extreme Poverty: What’s the Next Step?)
◾Economic and Social Council: 2 out of 94 delegates (Topic: Access to Clean Water and Sanitation)
◾United Nations Environmental Program: 2 out of 258 delegates (Topic: Protecting the Arctic)
◾United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: 2 out of 150 delegates (Topic: Environmentally Displaced Persons and Social Vulnerability)The delegates representing General Assembly Third won an honorable mention, while the delegates from International Atomic Energy Agency, United Nations Development Programme, and Economic and Social Council were able to get their resolutions passes; a feat for this rarity hardly occurs in the real body of the United Nations itself.  It requires diplomacy, political know-how, as well as great interpersonal skills to have your whole committee agree to a peaceful and cohesive resolution; and this was done by mere twelve and thirteen year olds at this International Model United Nations Conference. Baytul Iman Academy is new on the educational community stage, but has already started to make its mark and leave a legacy of achievements. 2014 is also the 5th consecutive year of the school's graduates have being able to gain admissions into Magnet schools such as the Academy of Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences. Just this week,  their Boy/Cub Scouts just attained the "Scouting's Journey to Excellence" Award - in the BSA's performance recognition program. Other competitions that they have been winning in the last few years, include the NJ Science Olympiad, Math Olympiad, John Hopkins University Talent Search, the North Star Poetry contest which will take place later this year.
Looking at this small schools strife to excellence, one is reminded that in order to achieve ones goals one need not have the right resources but in fact the will to achieve it. Good Luck Baytul Iman in all your endeavors!

*For more information contact Baytul Iman Academy at 732-787-7002 and 732-858-1786