Model United Nations forms at FAHS

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November 24, 2009 • Marta Kotz
Filed under Local, News

This year, a new club has formed at FAHS in the form of the Model United Nations.

Model United Nations, more commonly referred to as Model UN, gives high school students a chance to literally model the United Nations. It’s simply representing a nation in the setting to come up with conflict resolutions.

The Model United Nations experience brings to life the problems that face the real world, and provides a unique education in politics, diplomacy, and foreign affairs.

For now, the club is preparing by doing research on their country and learning as much as they possibly can about it.

The goal of Model United Nations is to have students partake in solving international conflicts effectively.

Model UN is an academic club, with similarities to Future Problem Solving, or Destination Imagination. It focuses on a hypothetical situation where students must brainstorm and think of possible solutions for the country they are assigned.

“It is a very broad, national event. It’s very common to see Model United Nations in academically inclined schools, but it’s very popular for High School students because there’s a number of established organizations around the world which host conferences at low prices for High School students, which makes it easier for them to participate,” Model UN member Arjun Dhillon said.

The Model UN will begin serious preparations in the near future, as their first competition approaches in early February, the Model United Nations of the University of Chicago (MUNUC) conference. The conference is 4 days long, beginning Thursday night, all the way to Sunday.

“We will probably have public speaking lessons, just to make sure students are capable of speaking in public. We will be discussing a variety of current events and other political on goings on the global scene,” Dhillon said.

The advisers are Social Studies Teachers Patrick Hatlen and Dennis Schwedrsky. Members include Dhillon, Erica Vandermause, Alyssa Jones, Ramsey Statz, Tyler Jorstad, Brennan Waller, Luc Messmer, Chali Pittman and Alec Schweiger.

Plans for the future of the club are undecided, but hopeful.

“It is very likely that we will be going to a second conference at some point, whether that’s the University of Marquette conference, or the Wisconsin State conference in Milwaukee, or possibly another, we’ll see,” Dhillon said.