Latin’s Model United Nations club is hosting the first-ever Latin School Model UN conference on November 16.
Model UN works throughout the year in preparation for conferences, where members learn about international relations and diplomacy by simulating United Nations committees.
This year, through the collaboration of student Model UN heads and faculty advisors, the club organized the inaugural LSCMUN conference. More than 200 students from 10 different schools in the Chicagoland area, including Francis W. Parker, St. Ignatius, and Walter Payton, will attend.
“We are hosting this event because we want to transform the club,” senior Andres De Marco said. “We want to make Model UN something serious, something that people commit to.”
Model UN has grown considerably in popularity at Latin in the last few years, and the six co-heads—seniors Andres De Marco, Kayley McCutcheon, Kai Gosebruch, Sofia Grimm, and Shiv Opal, and juniors Ellie Falk and Graham Snyder—have worked to ensure the club is enjoyable for all students who participate.
“We met in January and we just [decided that] we want[ed] to do this. Nobody forced us to do this,” Andres said. “Last year we had a really strong group of heads, [and] we had a really strong group of students, and we just thought it was the moment to really implement something that would make sure this club is something serious for a long time.”
“Essentially, delegates [will be] debating on whatever topics that the committee has,” Kai said. “Delegates will work together and create resolutions to solve some of those topics.”
As the event approaches, preparation has become more complicated. The club met with their faculty advisors and the administration to approve the event’s date and ensure there were no conflicts on the date they picked. Once the event was on the calendar, Model UN participants had to train for the conference.
“The heads wrote a 30-page procedure guide, which details everything they need to know about all the different motions. That is what people call parliamentary procedure, which is the fancy stuff that they have to be doing in committee,” Andres said. “We’ve had training sessions where we’ve been working to train our chairs and make sure they’re as prepared as possible.”
Once instruction was underway, the Model UN student heads recruited the help of one of their faculty advisors, Upper School history teacher Milena Sjekloca, to decide classroom assignments and create a signup form for the teams they invited.
“You have to think about all those things in the background so that it looks seamless and flawless on the day, but there was a lot of work before and during,” Ms. Sjekloca said.
Through their diligent planning, the Model UN heads had a few bumps along the way.
“It was really difficult at first because our conference was originally scheduled for a September date, but there were a lot of conflicts with that because schools didn’t have their Model UN teams ready,” Kai said. “We’ve spent the last few months just being in contact with schools, advisors, and also student heads just to make sure that they’re really committed to our conference.”
Additionally, a few previously committed schools backed out of the conference, altering some of the heads’ plans.
However, organizers say that all roadblocks have now been figured out, and the teacher and student Model UN heads are adequately prepared for the event and the challenges that will come with it.
“There’s a lot of good energy and good vibes,” Ms. Sjekloca said. “Everybody’s on board and everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing, so it’s good. The leaders are really outstanding.”
The Model UN team continues to move forward with their training, looking forward to a successful conference.
“I think that the most important thing is that we actually have a fun conference where people are actually debating and making resolutions,” Kai said. “We want to set the foundation for the newer heads. We want this to be something that the future Model UN heads of Latin are continuing to do.”
