Harvard Model Congress Europe, and Beyond

 

Attending the Harvard Model Congress Europe (HMCE) in Brussels was both exciting and nerve-wracking – I had little time to prepare, and had never been to Europe – but I quickly realized that I was just overthinking it. Over the course of the trip, I received constant reassurance and support from my teachers and peers. 

 

Upon arrival, we were wholeheartedly greeted by Jean-Claude, who kindly drove us to all our destinations, and Yan, our tour guide, who shared his deep passion for the land’s history. 

 

In the three days of the conference, the HMCE team, made up of Harvard undergraduate students, never failed to reassure us by offering help and encouraging us to engage in debate. As a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, I debated the effects of deepfakes, debated national immigration issues, and took a position on a global energy crisis. At the end of my conference experience, it was former U.S. president John F. Kennedy’s words that stood out for me: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.”

 

Beyond the debates, we spent the nights wandering the streets of Brussels, experiencing the culture of the city, sharing interesting stories from the day, and tasting the wonderful cuisine of the area. I built deep connections with my peers, created many unforgettable memories, and interacted for the first time with a student from Greece.

 

 

After the conference and a much-needed half day of rest, we had two days before we flew home. On the first day, we toured some of the First World War battlefields of France (The Somme, Vimy Ridge) and Belgium (Passchendaele and Ypres). At Beaumont-Hamel, we could see small cemeteries dotting the landscape. At the actual site of the battle, we walked among the trenches, trying to fathom the horrors that had taken place at that exact spot over 100 years ago. It was haunting to walk between the British and German trenches, knowing that at one point in time, we would have been gunned down immediately. There was a petrified tree between the two trenches called the “danger tree,” because if you had gotten that far, you were as good as dead.

 

Vimy Ridge, a significant historical place for Canada, was one of my favorite stops. We had learned about it in our Social Studies 10 classes and thus it was incredible to actually be there. We were told that we couldn’t walk between the trenches because there is still unexploded ordnance from the war. However, we could go to the beautiful white marble monument that was built after the war. It was a very solemn experience looking out from the monument knowing that at one point, the ridge was taken from the Triple Alliance but that the cost was 3,598 Canadian lives and over 7,000 wounded.

 

In the evening, we went to the Menin Gate, where a ceremony has been held at 8:00 p.m. sharp every single day since 1928, except for when it was occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War. The names of over 55,000 Commonwealth soldiers, whose bodies were never recovered, can be found on the panels, including that of Horace Leslie Ravenhill, whose father sold his farm to C.W. Lonsdale the year after his son was killed, and that land became the site of Shawnigan Lake School. Three Shawnigan students had the honour of laying a wreath on behalf of the School as part of the ceremony.

 

The next day, we went on a tour to the cities of Bruges and Ghent. We walked around the cities and saw many famous cathedrals, including Saint Bavo’s Cathedral, which houses the Ghent Altarpiece, also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. Afterwards we went on a boat trip through the canals, and saw many amazing buildings and landmarks. It was a great opportunity to immerse ourselves in culture and debate, and we are eternally grateful to Mr. Klassen and Ms. Carballo for making this trip a possibility.