Hello, everyone! Thank you so much for reading the James River Academy of Diplomacy’s second monthly newsletter. I am Aditi Inamdar, Chief Information Officer and Director of Education for our nonprofit. 

In our previous newsletter, our chairwoman, Anandi Sarkar, introduced J.R.A.D’s primary goal: to improve the class disparities visible in our community when it comes to Model United Nations, or MUN. She also went over J.R.A.D’s accomplishments (including our 2024 summer camp and AMERIMUNCE travel team), as well as our goals for the future, like our own Model UM conference and 2025 summer camp. 

This is where I come in. Since around this time last year, I have been drafting and putting together the curriculums for all grade levels, ranging from 4th grade to 8th grade, for our summer camp. To be clear, I can hardly take all the credit, since I had a team of hardworking and eager instructors to back me up. As an effect, we were able to hold our 2024 summer camp with around 40 attendees and a mock conference at the end of the week. And once those 5 days were over and we were able to reflect on our accomplishment, we deemed the lessons and camp a success. 

However, there was much to do, and still plenty to be done, before we are ready for our 2025 summer camp. Therefore, I am dedicating this newsletter to a quick run-down on what we have already accomplished for our summer camp, changes we are making, and what we still need to get done. 

This year, I decided to take a different approach to curriculum drafting: I made one giant document of what lessons I wanted to be taught for each grade level, as well as notes for which slideshows I would need to create. This was a bit of a contrast to what we did last year, where I gave a general overview of each grade level and allowed all of the instructors to create their lesson plans. In the end, I made this change purely because our summer camp was missing the cohesiveness that kept the end goal and purpose of the week in mind. 

After creating these detailed lesson plans, (with the help of the wonderful Saanvi Sambangi), I turned them into a color-coded time sheet that clearly and concisely marks what activity or lecture takes place when. This way, instructors are able to follow exactly what needs to be taught when, which allows for the curriculum to move along at a steady pace. This schedule is also available on our website, so that parents, students, and anyone interested can clearly see what will be taught in each grade level. 

Here of some of my favorite changes that have been made to this year’s curriculum that last year’s attendees haven’t experienced yet: 

• Emphasis on Critical Thinking: It is no surprise that most 4th and 5th graders don’t have an abundance of knowledge on the United Nations. It also shouldn’t come as a surprise that most students of that age are unable to fully wrap their heads around the concept of a “mock” United Nations. This is why, in our 4th and 5th grade class, we will ladying heavy emphasis on building strong critical thinking and problem solving skills. Now, does this mean these students are not going to learn what Model UN is? Absolutely not. But any MUN delegate can confirm that, at the core of this extracurricular, critical thinking skills and habits are necessary. In order to build better and more competitive MUN delegates, we need to instill these foundational practices in our younger students. 
• Synchronized Mock Committees: Most delegates can confirm that Model UN is best learnt when doing it. This is why, this year, we will be organizing in-built mock MUN committees, so that our 7th and 8th grade delegates can put their newly learnt skills to the test. Our 4th, 5th, and 6th grade delegates will be able to listen in to these committees and, depending on their comfort level with the content, can participate and change the flow of these committees.
• Socratic Seminars: In my opinion, this is the most exciting addition to our 2025 summer camp: socratic seminars. Our 8th graders will be participating in History and Ethics-based seminars, where they will be given prompts by our instructor and the freedom to have thought-provoking conversations on pivotal historical events and issues. This builds an interest in history in our students, which is another crucial aspect in being a competitive Model UN delegate. In order to be able to thoughtfully speak on historical or current events, a delegate must have a foundational knowledge of global history and the ethical implications of our past leaders. By giving students the opportunity to find their passion in history and allowing them to research their own topics, our camp fuels a safe environment for delegates to express themselves and their opinions. Apart from our 8th graders, our other grade levels will be using socratic seminars to reflect on the mock committee and conference, letting them give themselves feedback and figure out the best way to improve. Reflection and learning how to grow on your own is another way our summer camp fuels independence and teaches life-long skills.

So, what’s left to do? As of this newsletter, the curriculums and schedule have been completed and finalized. Now, I among our other members will be creating the actual slideshows, note packets, and interactive activities that will be used as tools to teach these core lessons. 

If anything in this newsletter or summer camp interests you, do not hesitate to register for our 2025 summer camp, being hosted on July 21st-25th. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to send us an email at [email protected]. 

Thank you so much for your interest in our nonprofit, and I’ll see you in a month! 

~
Aditi Inamdar

Chief Information Officer and Director of Education 

The James River Academy of Diplomacy