ACES Student joins National High School Model UN Conference as Staff

Abolee Raut ‘22, a member of the ACES LLP, recently went to the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference as a staff member after attending in high school and competing on the University of Maryland’s Model UN team.

Abolee is a computer science and economics double major. She chose to join ACES because of the unique cybersecurity classes that it is able to offer, such as Cyber Policy and Reverse Engineering. After taking Cyber Policy, she was able to do research with Dr. Charles Harry, Associate Research Professor in the School of Public Policy, which allowed her to learn more about the intersection of cybersecurity and policy.

Abolee chose to be on the staff of NHSMUN so that she could teach international relations to students through simulation. She says, “There is a focus on education and providing highschoolers a level of information many other conferences do not provide.” The conference attracts high profile speakers and students from around the world.

At the conference, she served as an Assistant Director for the International Crime Court. She says, “My job was to ensure high schoolers were able to conduct a high-quality debate on international law in relation to the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar. This included knowing about the relevant articles in the Rome Statute which apply to this situation in Myanmar, having valid evidence on both sides to consider prosecuting those involved in Myanmar and ensuring students use international law in order to support their claims. Throughout the school year, I had projects leading to the release of a research paper giving a summary of the updates currently happening in Myanmar in relation to international law.”

Her involvement in Model UN lies at the intersection of her interests in computer science and economics and international law. Even though she is interested in the technical aspects of computer science, focusing on cyber policy allows her to pull from multiple passions and bodies of knowledge. She hopes that more students who don’t want to be computer science majors will still apply to ACES and know that there is room for them and their interests while they learn about the importance of cybersecurity overall.

She says she would tell future ACES students, “Apply to ACES regardless if you are a computer science major. Cybersecurity is important to any field and any knowledge of it will help deter future cyber events from occurring.”

Published April 5, 2019