In its first year, the Model United Nations Club went to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee to attend a Model United Nations Convention. They went March 20-22 and represented the United Kingdom.

The Model United Nation Convention works to allow students to take the role of a non-governmental organization in which they can converse with other delegations. Therefore the program resembles other government mimicking programs such as Boys State and Girls State. The group meets in social studies teacher Matt Kiedrowski’s room on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The Model UN Club is primarily student-led. Seniors Jack Batterton and Jack Maloney attended a Model United Nations conference with the Woodbury YMCA and felt they should start a similar experience they could lead. Organization of the club played a key role in running smoothly.

“As the head leader of the club, I crafted schedules for our twice a week meeting to best prepare our delegation,” Batterton wrote. “I also went through the extensive process of organizing our trip to Milwaukee which involved hotel booking, organizing rides and a whole fiasco with the athletics department at SAHS relating to the status of our conference as a school trip.”

Many of the delegates of this club are also involved in programs such as Amnesty International, Speech and Debate, BIZAA and AP Government classes. These programs develop useful skills in the Model UN Club such as communication and understanding of international issues. These international issues are the primary focus of the Model UN Convention.

Senior Olivia Walsh said, “I’m in Amnesty International, so that does focus on a global perspective. I do learn a lot from Amnesty International, but this was more on the political side. Now that we’re all going into college, we’re going to be active voters. We have to know what is going on.”

Wanting to choose a nation involved with many of the committees available at the conference, their options consisted of larger countries. Their final choices were between China, the United States, and the United Kingdom; they decided on the United Kingdom.

Kiedrowski explained, “its power and its relevance,” was a large factor in choosing their nation for the Model UN Club.

When it came to having to choose a nation to represent, the Model UN Club wanted to make it as accessible as possible for its members to be able to go along to the convention. Teams can have a certain number of delegates based on their nation.

Kiedrowski added that the team, “can have up to 15 members, and at the time they had 15 members going… so they thought to choose a country where they can potentially have up to 15 people going.”

The club works well to ensure students are welcomed and able to participate. Some of the work done by student leaders helps the members of the club to contribute and be able to do their part.

Kiedrowski spoke on what student leaders have done well this year and said, “When you have people keep the momentum, and to encourage the momentum you have to be organized, so that people can kind of understand the direction and understand the process and understand their role. Everybody needs a role, right?”