Lawrence North’s own Model UN is preparing and getting ready for a big conference this upcoming February in Chicago. With lots of hard work and preparing that has been happening they are ready to defend their country and come up with resolutions. Senior and also a president of Model UN Malia Clark looks back on how Model UN has helped her in the real world.

“In terms of learning how to lead others or to stand up and have my own opinion it’s [Model UN] helped me to do that,” Clark said

Model UN is a club that prepares for mock United Nations conferences. The students part of Model UN are first given a country and committee. For this conference, the students were all given Guinea-Bissau with exception to those in a special committee. They are then given a list of topics about real world problems. Afterward they begin to prepare and start researching in a way that would support or go against their issue.

Many teenagers today like to voice their opinions and try to make resolutions to problems. Some problems are minor or major but all issues have all different types of opinions and resolutions. Senior Jackson Layman sees the importance of Model UN and its club purpose.

“I think It’s pretty cool you get to pretend to be a country and care about real issues, you can argue with people but in a way that’s beneficial,” Layman said

Although Model UN usually has a lot of conferences they go to Chicago is more work and very important just because it is a bigger conference.

“Chicago’s a bigger one, so they’ve got  thousands of students from all over the Illinois and Indiana area that are going to it,” Couch Said  

Students have had to do a lot of preparation. The officers have been preparing with mock simulations to help prepare everyone on what to expect at the conference.

Also fundraising has been a very big factor in planning for the Chicago conference because of the cost. It is a bit more expensive due to transportation and lodging. They’ve sent out letters to local businesses, sold candy, sponsored a movie night and also are still looking for fund

Although Model UN is a mock United Nations, students in the club get to experience the hard work and dedication that goes into higher positions of world leaders and the people who work around them. That takes a lot of dedication and commitment to your work, and students get a first hand experience with that.

For example, Clark is one of the presidents of Model UN and her committee is Disarmament and International Security also known as DISEC. The committee will be trying to disarm nuclear weapons in countries and space molutriation. For Guinea-Bissau, her position is against space molutriation and for the disarmament of nuclear weapons. She’s had to prepare her own argument for her country and has had to prepare to debate with other students at the conference and try to justify her opinion and her resolution.

Club sponsor Rachel Couch believes Model UN can help her students out in many ways. One way it could help her Model UN students is with academic habits.

“They have to do research and prepare in advance which will help them out in college and they also have to speak out loud and be able to present their ideas which helps with public speaking and confidence,” Couch said

Couch doesn’t view Model UN as just a academic club. She also views it as a way to help the students in their personal lives. To Couch, Model UN “helps them tremendously” on different aspects in their life.

“It helps them in terms of figuring out how to negotiate, how to work well with other students, and they learn to put their differences aside to resolve a topic” Couch said.

Clark also noticed a difference that Model UN has made on her life. She has gained the confidence that she believes she needed to be apart of Model UN and also confidence in her own personal life.

“It definitely helped me learn how to talk to people more and how to persuade them” Clark said