Model UN Travels to Chicago for Two Day Conference

In-person conference provides opportunity for interaction

Steven Cao | Staff Writer

Model UN is one of the many clubs that has been affected drastically the past few years, especially by COVID-19, when many in-person conferences were canceled and everything was moved online.

Model UN is a club that aims to simulate a United Nations general assembly. The group traveled to Chicago on Feb. 2 for a large in-person conference. The conference provided a great opportunity for members to travel and participate with students from different schools all over the country, to meet and work with.

Model UN leader and member Sam Leslie ‘24 who has participated since he joined Blake in 9th grade believes, “last year there was little engagement because of virtual conferences, which was not a very viable op- tion, but this year we’ve had more members because of the in-person options, which give the opportunity to interact and meet with different people from across the country.”

Leslie continued, saying, “The schedule [In Chicago] is pretty filled, however they do give you time in the morning or afternoon to go do something.”

So far in this Model UN season, the main topic has been overfishing, with many conferences relating to finding solutions to overfishing.

Currently their topic is the Simun conference, hosted by Saint Ignatius College Prep, which is a simulation with 10 committees based in 1982 and 10 based in modern day. The committees will be interacting with each other on different world issues of those different times.

For some people

Model UN is already something familiar, with some in the club who have done Model UN in middle school. Max Unglaub ‘26 , a current member who participated in the middle school club, believes that “It’s a new experience, I did Model UN in middle school but high school is very different because there are more in person conferences and everything is a lot larger.”

Bears to Care Provides Child Care Service for Families

Student-created program excels

Mackenzie Higgins | Online Editor

Last year, Jackie Wethington ‘23 and Ivy Besikof ‘23 noticed that there was a disconnect between parents and babysitters within the school community, so they looked for a way to close this gap. Now, they’re looking for someone to take over their project. Their creation, Bears to Care, “is a networking program to connect Upper School students with Lower School families,” says Wethington. Besikof explains that interested students fill out a form with “their name, contact information, and then a description about themselves.” Wethington and Besikof compile this information on a Google Doc, which is sent out by the Parent Association. Parents then peruse the list of students, get in contact with a babysitter, and decide on the details of the job. Both avid babysitters themselves, Wethington and Besikof “thought that by making this program, it would be easier for parents to find sitters and students to find families to baby- sit,” as Besikof explains. Wethington recalls some of the struggles she witnessed parents having.

“[Rebekah] Johnson is my advisor, and she was saying several times how it was kind of annoying or frustrating because she was always looking for a babysitter but she wasn’t able to reach out to people, unless they [had] reached out to her [first].”

The process of creating the program was quite extensive. Wethington explains, “There were a lot of hurdles because [the program] couldn’t be Blake sponsored because of liability stuff.” She continues, “We contacted the Parent Association (PA) and went back and forth with them.” They wanted the list to be on Veracross so parents could have easy access, “but the PA was saying that because it wasn’t Blake affiliated, [the program] couldn’t be on it,” Wethington explains. Instead, the list is sent out periodically by the PA. Wethington adds, “So it kind of had to be word of mouth.”

Now that it’s up and running, however, “it’s not a lot of work to run the program. [We] just update the list once or twice a year and keep contact with the PA,” Besikof says. They are hop- ing that the program will continue next year. Besikof adds, “We’re looking for a sophomore or junior who would be interested in taking it over.”

If you have any

Katie Lattin

questions about joining the program or running it, reach out to either Wethington or Besikof at jrwethington23@ blakeschool.org or ilbesikof23@blakeschool.org.