model UN secretary FEATURES

FEATURE | clubs Secretary of Model UN brings awareness to members

Sahana Rajagopalan takes on leadership role

By Olivia Archer

Imagine researching any country in the world. There are so many to choose from, and many people do not know about countries such as Estonia, Guyana, or Nauru.

Model United Nations Secretary Sahana Rajagopalan helps people do just this and is ensuring that the club runs smoothly and according to the schedule for the school year.

Model UN is a club that researches countries around the world to understand their social injustices, culture, and economics.

Students then answer and debate questions regarding topics of their country. The club travels to different competitions where participants take turns answering questions and are graded against other schools.

Model UN has gained a lot of new members, especially underclassmen. According to Rajagopalan, there are not many upperclassmen who are in leadership positions, such as herself.

“I just kind of expressed my interest,” Rajagopalan said. “[Mr. Swartzloff] asked me if I wanted to do it.”

Of course with her response as “yes,” Rajagopalan had some new duties to accomplish.

“I update the Haiku page, make sure everything is moving along, organize what’s happening, [and] keep track of who was there and who isn’t attending the meetings,” Rajagopalan said. “[It’s my job to] make sure everyone knows what they’re doing.”

The Secretary of Model UN club is an important role to fulfill. It is challenging to fill the shoes of a leader and become someone who can guide their peers toward success.

Some of these outcomes are not so recognizable. There are competitions and live debates, and Model UN creates well-spoken students and keeps them mindful of current issues around the globe.

“[Members] debate, speak up, and demonstrate their opinion on it,” AP U.S. History teacher Todd Swartzloff said.

Rajagopalan, with help of the club president and vice president, is teaming up to create a fun environment to learn and speak their minds.

In fact, according to Model UN member Anthony Ciuleba, many participants bring food from different countries to share their culture and eat a treat.

“Every meeting, someone comes in with food. Most of the time it’s usually food from a specific country of origin,” Ciuleba said. “[At] the first meeting, we had food from Mexico.”

Everyone agrees that bringing cultural foods is beneficial and fun for club members. In addition, it continues the research of backgrounds for different countries. Model UN is also planning a holiday party for festivities to come together with more foods from across the world.

Besides the tasty treats, Model UN is a great opportunity for students who are looking to improve their presentation and speaking skills, coupled with debate and research. Rajagopalan ensures that members are included.

Though she plans on pursuing medicine, her newly learned skills will become useful for her in the future.

Model UN is accepting new members. Rajagopalan, Swartzloff, and Ciuleba all agree that more members would create more dynamics and new learning experiences.

“It’d be cool to fill up an entire classroom with representatives,” Ciuleba said.

The awareness of what is happening in the world beyond America is an important part of living among multiple cultures. With the help of Model UN and Rajagopalan as secretary, HHS students can stay up to date with worldwide issues.

Sahana Rajagopalan works on her own research for her given country, India.

G. Watt G. Watt

The Morgans’ household zoo

Junior cares for a multitude of exotic animals at home

By Lauren Courtney

In Illinois, roughly 50% of families own a pet, usually having one to two dogs or cats. But what about having about 30 pets of all shapes and sizes?

Junior Joy Morgan goes home each day to what the average student would call a zoo. She owns three parakeets, a rat, a painted turtle, a 10-year-old catfish, a Russian tortoise, a crested gecko, three cats, two axolotls ,and nearly 20 axolotl babies.

Each animal has a specific diet and some require constant monitoring and arduous caretaking, especially the axolotls.

“You have to do everything for them because the [axolotls] are delicate and dumb,” Morgan said.

Axolotls initially lived in streams and canals in Mexico, but because of climate change and pollution, they can no longer live in the wild and are currently only known to be found in captivity. Even the slightest changes can be detrimental to the health and safety of the axolotls.

Morgan often uses a chemical testing kit to ensure that levels of iodine and other chemicals are at a safe level. If iodine is too high, some axolotls have a small chance of morphing into salamanders.

“When breeding axolotls, scientists wanted to introduce the albino gene. They took genes from tiger salamanders, which are a very similar species, but the difference is [that] tiger salamanders don’t stay as axolotls. When introducing that gene to axolotls, they have a very slim chance of losing their gills and may just become a normal salamander,” Morgan said. “So, it’s really important to know these things, or else your axolotl is going to change into something that breathes air and then drowns in its own habitat.”

Fungal infections in the gills are also common. Axolotls are susceptible to stress, which can hinder their immune systems and shorten their lifespans. Unfortunately, many axolotl owners adopted them simply because of their growing popularity on social media sites such as TikTok and in video games, so they do not recognize or know about the intense care that goes behind the animals.

“A year after we got them, [axolotls] began to explode in popularity. They’ve been put in Minecraft [and] a bunch of other video games, and a lot of people probably don’t realize really how much work they are to take care of,” Morgan said. “The only gene pool of axolotls is the gene pool that is sold to people, so if people are taking really bad care of them, it not only hurts the axolotl but hurts the species itself.”

This issue not only affects axolotls but also other pets that are considered to be “out of the norm.” Taking care of all of her pets requires a lot of responsibility, which Morgan’s boyfriend Luke Wickman feels that she fulfills.

“I think a lot of the responsibility Joy has–and she is pretty responsible–comes mainly from how she was raised,” Wickman said. “To be an owner of all these pets you’ve gotta have a lot of responsibility, [and] I think she had it going in. It overall did increase a lot as she got used to taking care of [her pets].”

Due to the number of pets, they can also be relatively expensive to take care of because of their varying dietary and basic needs. Morgan’s mom, Lisa Franklin, especially knows about all of the money that goes into the animals.

“It has been difficult [to pay for the needs of the animals]. Running a private zoo is expensive. I probably spend $100 per month or so on all of the animals,” Franklin said.

Due to the intense care and stress that goes into her baby axolotls and other pets, Morgan feels that she will not be able to care for all of them, especially when the babies grow up. So, she plans to rehome some of her pets to others in the community.

However, before sending them off to their new families, she intends to make sure that all of the new owners will be responsible and ready to handle all of their needs.

“It’s really important to me that people are informed about their actual care and that before they get one they’re really going to step up to the block to properly take care of them. I just want them to be happy,” Morgan said.

Morgan and her rat Checker. M. Vazquez

Morgan takes care of all types of animals that require special attention.