Front row: Natalie Jones, Amelia Putnam, Lewis Fitzpatrick, Kelley Jiang, Allison Hanby and Rachel Knowles. Back row: Read Mills, Ben Jackson, Hayden McDaniel, Hannah Mouyal, Jacob Kimes, Zijie Yin and Noah Crawford.
Several Mountain Brook students attended the YMCA’s Youth Conference on National Affairs (CONA) at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, N.C. this summer.
During the week-long event, almost 600 delegates from more than 30 states debated a wide range of national and international issues. Prior to the conference, each student spent time researching, writing and preparing a proposal to present to the other delegates.
Zijie Yin, a 2013 MBHS graduate, was selected as one of six presiding officers for the conference. In 2014 he will preside and serve as a role model for the conference participants. He also served this summer’s conference as a committee chairman. Yin’s proposal to create a drug consumption facility advanced to the Third Committee. He is studying international political economy and minoring in international business diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Yin is the son of Dingmin and Li Li.
Yin and Ben Jackson were both recognized for their exceptional debating skills along with their poise and tact and were each selected as one of 35 Outstanding Statesmen among the 574 delegates. Jackson, the son of Ben and Susan Jackson and a rising senior at MBHS, also served as a committee clerk and was recognized as having one of 12 Outstanding Proposals at the conference. His proposal to abolish the U.S. Department of Education made it to the conference’s General Assembly, although the body did not pass it.
Lewis Fitzpatrick, the son of Kelley and C.T. Fitzpatrick and a junior at MBHS, also wrote one of the 12 proposals selected by a panel of adult resource advisers as the most outstanding at the conference. His proposal encouraging federal investment in port deepening projects advanced to Third Committee.
Other Birmingham area delegates, whose proposals advanced to Second Committee, were:
2014 Alabama Youth Lt. Gov. Hannah Mouyal, a MBHS senior, sought to limit appeals for death row inmates. She is the daughter of Helen Moore and Gil Mouyal.
2014 Alabama Youth Speaker of the House Amelia Putnam, a senior at MBHS, proposed eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing. She is the daughter of Mike and Leigh Putnam.
Natalie Jones, a junior at MBHS, proposed providing federal funding for research into infectious diseases living in coral reefs. She is the daughter of Angie and Martin Jones.
Kelley Jiang, a junior at MBHS and the daughter of Zhiyong Liu and Wei Jiang, also attended the conference.
