After hours of debating, discussing and drafting, the council had reached a consensus on how they would handle current public health threats the world is facing. This council, however, was not the real World Health Organization (WHO); they were not representatives of the United Nations (UN); they were a group of teenagers. A group of teenagers who want to change the world. 

From Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, three White Station High School (WSHS) students, Danny Huang (12), Navya Naik (12) and Douglas Scarboro (12) attended a program in Geneva, Switzerland through the University of Memphis’ (UofM) public health program: the Global Model WHO. This conference is held by the WHO in collaboration with the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and is open to high school and university students.

The UofM’s public health program is a dual enrollment class at WSHS that students can participate in outside of school. They attend meetings 27 weeks per year for about 15 hours per week. The program requires students to work on a range of assignments such as research papers and graphic novels. These assignments and the program allow students to gain a deeper understanding of public health and how it affects the world. 

“The program is an initiative to introduce high schoolers to just the whole field of public health,” Naik said. “Basically, what they’re trying to do is stir interest in public health and get people to join the public health workforce.”

Rather than filling out long, tedious applications to attend the conference, it was simply offered to Naik and Huang by the UofM. The pair had to attend meetings so they knew what to expect from the trip and make sure their travel documents were in order. Most affairs, however, were handled by the UofM — including fees.  

“The University of Memphis actually paid for everything, so for a place to stay, they paid for the flights, the meals while we were at the WHO … and then the transportation was provided by the hotel,” Huang said.

The Global Model WHO is an educational model of the WHO committee in which students act as delegates from different countries and come together to discuss global problems and their possible solutions. In the Global Model WHO, participants are split up into three different committees with different topics that they must consider. These topics include climate change, pollution, health, mental health and youth, and global health and peace initiatives. 

“Basically, you pretend you’re in a WHO assembly and kind of just simulate their meetings,” Naik said. “We all had different committees — there was A1, A2 and A3. Mine was on environmental health and climate change … We had to pass a resolution on that whole topic. Basically, you have to work together with all of the countries and kind of just come to a consensus of like, ‘Hey I agree that,’ let’s say, ‘It’s important to protect the biodiversity,’ and you make that whole resolution document … and it passes at the end.”

In the conference, Naik represented Germany, Huang represented South Africa and Scarboro represented Japan. Each student was a delegate for their respective country in their committee and explained how any decision might affect their country and its people. Each issue that the conference focuses on are topics that the WHO has on its own agenda, as well, so students are able to interact with current events that might affect them. 

“Working with different people and going through line-by-line, there was a lot of collaboration going on in that moment,” Huang said. “It was definitely stressful but we all just kinda came together to tackle a problem and make sure that our opinions were heard.”

The 2024 conference was the second-ever Global Model WHO and the first time it was an in-person event. Previously, it was held virtually in February 2024. This year, the conference lasted four days with each day having a detailed schedule. Day one consisted of registration and welcoming ceremonies, while days two and three focused on the simulation itself. The final day concluded the simulation before hosting a closing ceremony and individual high school and university delegate socials. After the ceremony, there were two socials: one for high schoolers and one for university students.

“It’s honestly just meetings for most of the day,” Huang said. “We’ll have our lunch break, and then we’ll go back to the meeting, and if it’s a day that we have to stay later, we’ll do dinner. Otherwise, we’ll be free to go. There were times we had to come back after dinner, as well.”

Over 350 students from around the world traveled to Geneva to participate in the program. These attendees came from 52 different countries, but the official language of the event was English. With the massive range of attendees, there were a few challenges with communication, like debates over grammar and trouble understanding one another’s speech. However, the group was still able to come to a common understanding and reach a consensus on each issue. 

“We couldn’t really understand each other’s accents as well,” Naik said. “It was hard, like people didn’t understand my accent too well, so I had to learn to slow down my speech, but after the first day, people were fine. We understood each other.”

Many students who attended the conference have an interest in public health but each for different reasons. Some intend to make it their career, some simply enjoy the concepts and some hold personal stakes in the matter. 

“I have more of a personal interest in public health because I am diabetic, so it’s always just been interesting to me, like how the healthcare system works, and also just — not only getting proper care but being able to afford proper care and places that don’t have access to this,” Huang said.

Although the group spent multiple days in Geneva, they did not have much time to travel anywhere outside of Geneva. However, Naik’s parents and Huang’s sister traveled with them to Geneva for their own vacation time. Naik’s parents even purchased a goat stuffed animal for her as a keepsake. Participants of the program were also allowed to keep their now-deactivated badges that allowed them to visit the WHO and UN buildings. 

“We were kind of just in awe that we were actually at the United Nations and then the WHO and just the time we got to spend together as a group was definitely memorable,” Huang said. “We had a group dinner on our last day there, which was nice to all go out together.”

The Global Model WHO allows students to develop their leadership, negotiation and public speaking skills and an increased understanding of how the WHO functions. Participants are also able to use the knowledge they have acquired outside of the program and in real-world situations. Someday, these students might become the next big names in public health. 

“I will say [the program] is a big time commitment,” Naik said. “You have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of your time. Overall, I really like the people that are in the program, like we have fun; it’s not just always work. I would recommend it for other people, just keep in mind there is that time commitment too.”