Recently, two freshmen made the brave choice to start up a Model UN club. Here is a Q&A with one of the prospective leaders, Romir Patel.

Who runs the club?
James Freshwater and I (Romir Patel) are the founders. Although we have a couple of prospective moderators, we are waiting to finalize the teacher leadership in the club.

What is Model UN?
Model United Nations, more commonly known as Model UN (MUN), is a simulation of the real-life United Nations. It is a research-based activity where students learn to solve problems with diplomatic negotiations.

What made you interested in Model UN?
There are a lot of opportunities for other similar activities such as forensics and mock trial. We were curious as to why a Model UN group didn’t exist, and so we decided to make one. We know that there was one in the past that ended, but we talked to some people and it seems like there’s a lot more interest now.

What has your experience been with the process for creating a club? Is there any advice you can give to prospective founders?
First, you need to come up with the idea. We created a presentation about what Model UN is and pitched it to prospective students and teachers. Once we saw that there was substantial interest, we emailed Mr. Ruebling to get the information and application form. As of right now, we’re finishing up with sending in the appeal. Hopefully, we will get approval soon so we can start up in the Fall and be in the Activities Fair. As for advice, I would suggest advocating for your club and making sure that there is a lot of interest. It’s no use if you make it and no one shows up. It is also very encouraging to see that you have support.

What will the format of the meetings be?
We will have weekly meetings that last about two hours each. Hopefully, they will be in-person, but we will provide supplemental options such as online office hours if people are unable to make them. If a lot of people can’t attend, we’ll turn to zoom, but with luck, that will only be in reserve.

How do you plan on balancing this with other activities?
We’ve made sure that there are varying levels of commitment. People can just come once a week and it doesn’t have to be competitive. If people want to, we can do competitions, but this can also just be something fun for people to do on the side.

We’ve also developed an 8-week cycle to make sure everyone can participate. Each cycle fits into sports seasons where we assign new countries and start research explanations each season, as we do not want to impede on students’ other sports and clubs.

Are there any requirements for joining?
There are no requirements to join.

Why should people join?
Model UN improves negotiation, leadership, and communication abilities. It helps with public speaking, as you have to engage in several discussions with multiple people and carry on a conversation. Furthermore, the core of this activity is research on countries, so this can help to develop your research skills to apply in class.