Countries from all over the world gathered to duke it out in Chicago. The twist? The fate of these countries was in the hands of high schoolers.

Model UN is a club that teaches responsibility and how the government and world works. Senior Connor Wilcox, leader of the club, describes how it all works.

“The best way to describe Model UN is that we go to these conferences, get assigned a country and have to represent them,” Wilcox said. “Most of the speaking times are pretty limited but you have to assume the role of the country. It’s usually about 20 hours worth of time at each conference. It’s a big time investment.”

Starting February 1 and ending February 4,  Model UN was in Chicago for their annual conference. At this conference, students from all over the country and even the world met in Chicago to sit in different committees and sort out the separate problems their assigned countries had.

Senior Addison Henson said she’s excited for the team to develop.

“What was I looking forward to the most was seeing the progression of how we ended up dealing with the situations in front of us,” Henson said. “Outside of that, I looked forward to hanging out with my teammates.”

Sophomore Abbey Klein was eager about this trip because it was a chance to meet new people from across the globe.

   “It was really cool to interact with people from other schools because there were people coming from not just all over the country but from all over the world,” Klein said. “It was like a real deal United Nations,”

In Model UN, it can be hard to find the right issue to discuss.

“In these conferences everybody is in different committees,” Henson said. “I was in the one that’s about educational issues. You had two possible topics you could talk about. At the beginning you started talking about which topic you wanted to debate about and try to solve. Then once you decided that, it’s about figuring out how you’re going to solve the problem in front of you.”

With all the excitement, there was also a little fear.

“There were some uncertainties with this conference because I’ve never been to the University of Chicago and competed there,” Henson said. “I’ve been in a general assembly setting so I know how to handle myself and how it all works. I was a little bit uncertain but ultimately pretty excited to go with a new partner into a new committee and just try it out.”

With all of this, Model UN also had new members who were ready to show off the skills they’ve polished all year.

“We had a bunch of new kids in the club that we were really excited to take on Chicago with us,” Henson said. “We were trying to match more experienced people with some of our new members so we had them introduced into how you do properly compete in the general assembly setting.”

Work or play, this trip to Chicago was surely something to look forward to.

“I think I can speak for most of us when I say we were all really excited,” Wilcox said. “This was a trip not a lot of people get to go on and it’s something a lot of us looked forward to all year.”

The trip ended up in triumph for a couple of groups. Juniors Evan Nelson and Abby Maloney were awarded and honorable mention for their work as delegates from Bulgaria. Working closely alongside them, juniors Aidan Whipple and Grace Johannes received a verbal accomodation for their work as Bulgarian delegates.

Interested in joining? Get more information at the Clubs page or talk with a member or Club Sponsor Jordan Moree.