From Friday, December 6th to Saturday, December 7th, students of South Windsor High School participated in the annual Model United Nations Conference, which was held at the University of Hartford. With over one-hundred members in the club and being one of the largest clubs at the school, Model U.N. is run by Mrs. Simcik and Mr. Richards, with the help of other teachers. At the end of the day seniors Armina Sarin, Joanne Biju, Van Anh Tran, and Sophia Chin came home with a win and a plaque. 

One of the many students involved in Model U.N., Senior Joanne Biju who has participated in MUN for the past four years, said this year she represented Russia in the World Health Organization’s Opioid Crisis Committee. She and her committee members ended up getting an award that was “the best delegation award, which my group is extremely proud of, since we’ve been building up to this point for the past four years.” Biju explains that being a member in Model U.N. allows her to build communication skills while also learning how to work with others. Her favorite thing about the club is that “it forces you to take a look at the many perspectives of the world,” instead of just focusing on a one sided opinion. Model U.N. for her is one of her favorite clubs and is definitely going to miss participating in it when she goes to college next. 

Another one of her delegation members, Senior Van Anh Tran, takes a look back towards her years of participating in Model U.N. She too, was part of the World Health Organization’s Opioid Crisis Committee. They deal with how the Opioid Crisis spread to other countries through increased technology and internationalization. For Tran, it was an exciting experience for her seeing that this year, she was able to be in the same group as her friends while also taking home an award for best dressed, which she thought was really cool. “It is super fun being able to make other people mad,” she says laughing, “and debate and argue and also to pass resolutions because they were basically the only delegation to pass a resolution during the crisis and the rest of the simulation.” Tran and her friends said this year was “bittersweet because it was their [their] year and [they] won’t have a chance to be together again to debate on spicy topics.” 

Sophia Chin, another team member part of the Opioid Crisis Committee, decided to join Model UN back in freshman year because “it seemed more fun than debate.” She knew that she wanted to do a public speaking type of club, and the Model UN’s description caught her eye. Since freshman year, Chin’s favorite part of the club has remained the same. She explained that her favorite part is “the energy at the conference” and how everyone gets to play a role in the parliamentary procedures. She feels like she is a part of something bigger, especially when she is debating, which is connected to her goals in her future. She is planning on pursuing a career in international law “…and an aspiration of policymaking,” which is the act of creating laws for a government or company. With a promising future, Chin really wanted to win the award because “we wanted to end our high school Model U.N. off on a high note.” She won an award last year but explained that this award was different, “It was like coming full circle with my delegation from freshman year.” 

Armina Sarin, the fourth and final member of this dynamic foursome has also been doing Model UN since freshman year. She started because she thought it looked very fun. “…my sister was in it so I decided to join too.” Since joining the club, Sarin’s most favorite part is the energy and teamwork at the conferences. Sarin explained that although everyone is trying to win, “at the end of the day, everyone becomes friends.” The team works hard together, and that’s what Sarin loves that about this group. As far as dynamic and teamwork goes, Sarin explained that Model UN has helped her and others prepare for their futures because teamwork and being able to communicate well with your peers is an essential part of being successful in any workplace. Sarin and Chin were in charge of networking, collaboration, and compromise in order to win other delegations over and get them to vote for Sarin and her delegation. The team worked so hard that they got their resolution passed unanimously. 

The Model UN members recently went to New York City to talk to two representative specialized in climate change for the Russain Embassy in order to gather more information to help them for further debates. The group is excited for the upcoming field trips and are working hard to prepare.