Six Henry Ford Early College students were among 16 Dearborn–Dearborn Heights delegates who returned from Harvard’s flagship high school Model United Nations conference with new skills, new confidence, and at least one major award. Their trip—made possible through community fundraising—shows what happens when Dearborn invests in young people learning diplomacy instead of doomscrolling it. [1]
Dearborn has always been a “world city” hiding in plain sight—built by industry, strengthened by migration, and constantly translating between cultures. This week, that global DNA showed up in a very Dearborn way: students doing the work.
According to a school update shared with families on February 4, 2026, the Dearborn–Dearborn Heights Model United Nations (DDHMUN) team just returned from Harvard’s MUN 2026 conference, with six of the team’s sixteen delegates coming from Henry Ford Early College (HFEC)—and one student bringing home an award described as “incredibly impressive.” [1]
That’s not just a nice headline for proud parents (though yes, it absolutely is that). It’s also a signal flare: Dearborn-area students are walking into rooms where global policy gets simulated, debated, negotiated—and where future careers (and future values) get quietly shaped.
What conference are we talking about?
Harvard’s high school conference is Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN)—the 73rd session, held January 29 through February 1, 2026. HMUN describes itself as the oldest, largest, and most prestigious high school Model UN conference, and notes it was held in person in Boston at the Sheraton and Marriott Copley Place hotels. [2]
HMUN’s own “About” page says delegates at HMUN 2026 could interact with more than 3,000 high school students from hundreds of high schools worldwide, tackling major issues through debate and negotiation. [3]
So yes—students may say “Harvard,” and they’re not wrong (it’s Harvard-run), but it’s also very “real world”: thousands of teenagers in committee rooms, turning research into speeches, speeches into alliances, and alliances into resolutions… all while trying not to lose their placard or their voice.
HMUN 2026, by the numbers
- Dates: January 29 – February 1, 2026 [2]
- Scale: 3,000+ student delegates, hundreds of schools [3]
- Reach: thousands of students from dozens of countries (HMUN cites “over sixty countries”) [2]
- Local pride: 16 DDHMUN delegates total, 6 from HFEC; at least one major award brought home [1]
The Dearborn–Dearborn Heights team: built locally, competing nationally
DDHMUN isn’t a single-school club. It’s a regional “team sport” version of Model UN—students across Dearborn and Dearborn Heights practicing global diplomacy together, then traveling to compete at major conferences.
Local reporting in 2023 noted DDHMUN was created in February 2021, with Bilal Hammoud as advisor, and described it as a group (then) of 40+ members giving students a chance to model UN-style debate and highlight world issues. [5]
The team has also publicly described itself as a 501(c)(3) hosted by Don’t Be Shai, competing at conferences including Harvard and Michigan State, and collecting awards along the way. [11]
Fundraising has been part of the story from the beginning. A GoFundMe fundraiser connected to the team emphasized reducing the financial burden on students, listing participating schools and identifying the fundraiser as run through Don’t Be Shai (501(c)(3)). [6]
That matters, because Model UN can become “pay-to-play” if communities don’t step in. Dearborn stepped in.
A moment worth quoting (because it’s the whole point)
“…thank you to everyone that supported their fundraising efforts to make this trip possible.”
HFEC school community update (Feb. 4, 2026) [1]
HFEC and NCPA: why this is a uniquely Dearborn story
This trip also highlights something special about where these students come from.
Henry Ford Early College is part of Dearborn Public Schools’ early college model—located on the Henry Ford College campus and built as a collaboration with Henry Ford Health. The district describes HFEC as enabling students to graduate with a high school diploma while earning an associate degree, certificate, and/or substantial college credit. [7]
Meanwhile, the school post that shared the HMUN news was published under Henry Ford Early College/Dearborn Newcomer Prep Academy. That pairing isn’t random.
Dearborn Public Schools describes Newcomer College Prep Academy (NCPA) as an alternative high school designed for students (often 17 or 18) who have interrupted schooling and a language barrier, located on the Henry Ford campus alongside the early colleges to help integrate students into a post-secondary environment and provide time and support to graduate. [8]
Put those together and you get something powerful:
A city where students are simultaneously navigating college credit, healthcare pathways, language acquisition, new-country adjustment—and then stepping into a room to debate international policy.
That’s not “extra-curricular.” That’s future leadership training.
What Model UN actually teaches (beyond the suit and the gavel)
Model UN is a simulation of the United Nations: students represent countries and debate global issues through formal procedure, research, and negotiation.
UNA–USA (United Nations Association of the U.S.A.) describes Model UN as a simulation where students perform an ambassador role while debating topics like gender equality, climate action, and global health. [9]
Harvard HMUN leadership echoes the skill-building side too, describing Model UN as an activity that strengthens public speaking, debate, and collaboration—skills “not normally learned in the classroom.” [2]
And the academic research agrees: a 2025 peer-reviewed article argues Model UN helps students practice negotiation, public speaking, and critical thinking—skills relevant to sustainable development and building real-world capacity for cooperative problem-solving. [10]
In other words: Model UN is where a teenager learns how to disagree without dehumanizing the person across the room. In 2026, that’s basically a superpower.
A Dearborn reality check: Model UN doesn’t magically fix the world. But it teaches the muscles you need to fix the world: research, listening, persuasion, coalition-building, and the patience to write policy instead of just posting about it.
Dearborn values in a global room: climate, peace, and human dignity
Dearborn Blog is proudly aligned with a Green Party worldview: peace over militarism, climate justice over corporate extraction, and human rights that apply to everyone—or they’re not rights at all.
Model UN is a surprisingly practical training ground for that worldview.
Why? Because it forces students to wrestle with tradeoffs. A resolution about climate action isn’t just “we should do better.” It’s: Who pays? Who transitions first? What happens to workers? What does a just transition look like for the Global South and for industrial communities like ours?
That’s a straight line back to Dearborn—a city that knows what it means when corporate decisions rewrite people’s lives.
And yes, Palestine belongs in this conversation
Being pro-Palestine isn’t a vibe; it’s a commitment to human dignity, equal rights, and self-determination—the kind of values that should survive even when the news cycle tries to grind them into dust.
Model UN gives students a structured way to discuss humanitarian crisis, occupation, refugees, and international law—sometimes even when their assigned country position is uncomfortable. That tension can be educational: it teaches students how power talks, how institutions respond, and how advocacy becomes policy language instead of only moral language.
Dearborn students—many of whom come from families shaped by war, displacement, or diaspora—bring lived seriousness into those committee rooms. They aren’t cosplaying geopolitics. They’re practicing what it means to build a world where fewer people get erased.
The biggest takeaway: community funding turned into community representation
This trip happened because people chipped in—families, neighbors, supporters—so students could travel, compete, and learn.
WDET’s earlier coverage of DDHMUN captured that community-powered model: fundraising, local support, and students experiencing their first major out-of-state academic trip. [4]
That same theme runs through the HFEC update this week: gratitude, pride, and a reminder that a community can literally fund a future. [1]
And here’s the real flex: when Dearborn helps students reach rooms like HMUN, those students don’t just represent themselves—they represent a city that refuses to be reduced to stereotypes. They represent a community that believes young people belong at “the international table,” not just in someone else’s headlines. [6]
What comes next: make it easier for more students to go
Model UN works best when it’s not reserved for students who can afford flights and hotels.
Research is increasingly blunt about that: Model UN can and should be more inclusive, because the skills it builds are exactly what the world needs more of. [10]
So the next step for Dearborn-area institutions—schools, nonprofits, donors, local businesses—is simple:
Keep funding these experiences. Expand scholarships. Normalize support for students who are new to the country, new to English, or new to believing they belong in elite spaces.
Dearborn doesn’t need permission to be global. It already is.
Closing: Dearborn’s future looks like this
A few days in Boston won’t solve the planet’s problems. But it can change a student’s trajectory—and a student’s trajectory can change Dearborn.
This is what community resilience looks like in practice:
Students learning diplomacy. Families showing up. A city investing in brains, not bombs. And young leaders coming home with sharpened skills—and at least one shiny, hard-earned award in their bag. [1]
That’s a win worth celebrating, and a model worth scaling.
Source List
[1] Henry Ford Early College/Dearborn Newcomer Prep Academy community post, “HFEC Students Attend the Prestigious MUNC 2026 Conference at Harvard University…” (Posted Feb. 4, 2026). Text provided to Dearborn Blog.
[2] Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN), “Harvard Model United Nations — The Seventy-Third Session (Jan 29–Feb 1, 2026)” (conference dates, location, and conference description).
[3] Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN), “What is HMUN?” (conference scale and participation details, including 3,000+ students).
[4] WDET 101.9 FM (Detroit), “Dearborn, Dearborn Heights Model UN Club students head to Harvard for conference” (Jan. 26, 2023).
[5] The Arab American News, “The Dearborn/Dearborn Heights Model United Nations Student Club is heading to the Harvard Model United Nations Conference” (Jan. 28, 2023).
[6] GoFundMe fundraiser page, “Dearborn & DBN Heights MUN Harvard MUN Conference” (fundraising goals, participating schools, and organizer details).
[7] Dearborn Public Schools, “Early College” (HFEC program description and outcomes).
[8] Dearborn Public Schools, “Newcomer College Prep Academy (NCPA)” (program purpose and campus location).
[9] UNA–USA (United Nations Association of the USA), “Model UN” (definition and sample issue areas like climate action and global health).
[10] Springer Nature (Sustainable Earth Reviews), “Beyond diplomats: why Model UNs should be for everyone” (2025) (skills and inclusion arguments).
[11] Bilal Hammoud (LinkedIn post), description of DDHMUN as a public 501(c)(3) hosted by Don’t Be Shai and competition history (post visible in LinkedIn feed).
Disclaimer
This article is published for general informational and community journalism purposes. While Dearborn Blog aims for accuracy and fairness, details may evolve as schools, organizations, or participants share additional information. Dearborn Blog does not provide legal, educational, or financial advice, and any interpretations are offered in good faith based on the sources cited and information provided.
For corrections, clarifications, or comments you would like added to this article, please email info@dearbornblog.com.
Dearborn Blog 