Model United Nations Club in Middle/High School

BY Zhihan He

Student at Skyline High School

Everyone has an activity or community that they love and has been a great influence on who they are. For me, that activity and community has been Model UN.

I first became a part of the Model United Nations (Model UN/MUN) community at the end of 7th grade, when someone else at Pine Lake Middle School (PLMS) wanted to start a Model UN club so we could meet every week and practice together to prepare for competitions. I joined on with the mentality that it would just be a fun new hobby. The next year, I was appointed as co-director of PLMS Model UN, and I’ve stayed on this extracurricular rollercoaster ever since.

People always ask me what Model UN is when I tell them about my experiences in the activity. Simply put, Model UN simulates the debate and meeting style of the reallife United Nations. The activity began in the 1920s in colleges (which simulated the League of Nations when it was still around, making MUN 20-something years older than the actual UN) and trickled into high schools around the world in the following decades.

In MUN, participants are called delegates. This has become kind of a ‘community name’ for those who do MUN now. Competitions are called conferences since committee debate is more like a massive discussion (or what the students call a Socratic seminar) than the traditional debate we’re used to. Conference topics are chosen by student staffers (judges or moderators) and posted 2-3 weeks before registration opens.

Most delegates practice as part of a school club or team, but many participate as a part of non-school clubs (such as the MUN club I founded, Sammamish Youth Model United Nations) or by themselves. Delegates sign up for each conference either as a group (delegation) or as an individual (independent), then choose the specific sub-group (committee) and specific country they want to represent. Even though delegates often sign up in groups, they represent different countries individually.

As for MUN debate, there’s three key parts: moderated caucuses (mods), a set time for delegates to speak on a specific subtopic of the chosen topic; unmoderated caucuses (unmods), a set time when delegates can get up to talk with other delegates and network; and procedural motions and points, which push debate forward when delegates aren’t speaking – they’re how delegates give formal suggestions on what to do or voice any concerns they have. If you want to learn more in-depth about these rules, many sites like Bestdelegate provide great detailed guides and other resources on Model UN rules used in the US or UNA-USA MUN.

A common misconception by students who do not participate in MUN is that the activity is very serious. That’s actually not the case – despite all of us having to maintain a formal tone while speaking. Outside of the ‘we’re here to do a job’ speaking and negotiating and resolution writing, there’s plenty of space for memes and jokes, too.

In the four conferences I’ve attended, I’ve personally seen delegates argue about using manga as a form of public outreach and education for the UN (thanks, KINGMUN 2024) and also experienced a joke Crisis committee with the topic of “What would happen if Santa’s workshop in the North Pole got burned down?” (PACMUN 2023, it turns out the elves did it; the poor Russian delegate (me) was framed four times.)

So, the point is that delegates do MUN because it’s fun, and they love the friends they make along the way. I personally have a 5-page-long doc on my phone as a ‘Model UN quotes hall of fame.’

Model UN greatly improved a lot of the soft skills I learned from debate. Before MUN, I was very reliant on word-for-word scripts for speeches, but participating in conferences taught me to improvise and use lists and summaries. Another valuable skill I learned from MUN was how to research more efficiently in online databases, which not only helped in committee prep but also in researching for essays. UN digital archives are notorious for being user-unfriendly, so thanks, Boolean operators. In addition to that, I’ve also made many new friends. After being in the MUN community, you start forming a little family with delegates that you meet in committee. I have a dozen people in my contacts named as countries. It feels weird at first, but you get used to it eventually.

The biggest challenge I faced on my Model UN journey was definitely getting used to working on a time crunch and trying to find a good support system. For the first one, it comes from an unspoken rule that you shouldn’t start researching until the Dais team (moderators) publish the background guide for your committee –but they typically don’t do that until less than a week before position papers (which is a document detailing your country’s past actions and current viewpoint on the topic) are due. You need to submit a position paper if you want an award, so writing a position paper soon becomes an extreme speedrun as all delegates, including you, are trying to get it in on time (some people just give up at this point). The second one comes from the fact that Model UN isn’t a very well-known activity at Pine Lake Middle School or Skyline High School. I couldn’t find other delegates to practice with, and many of the ones I did find either quickly quit or never went to conferences. That led me to start SYMUN so I could provide a ‘practice group’ for both myself and other delegates.

As for why I stuck with Model UN, I continued because I found it really fun (yep, it’s that simple). Before MUN, I had done around three years of debate, but high school debate felt too intense for me. MUN struck that perfect balance between confrontation and negotiation. Another reason was because I had developed an interest in international relations during COVID times, and Model UN was a way to channel that interest and answer some of the questions I had (for example, how exactly countries came together to negotiate treaties).

As a humanities and social sciences student in a very STEM-focused district, I hope that Model UN gains more publicity, especially in schools. Delegates need a community to improve together, and school groups can help do just that. This can help prospective delegates find a place to start, as navigating the world of MUN as an independent delegate can be scary (as someone who did that myself).

I also hope, and am working towards destigmatizing Model UN as a ‘rich kid extracurricular’ because the reality isn’t like that at all – with passion, perseverance, and the right support, anyone can start their MUN journey and stand out in conferences. Many of the delegates I’ve met in conferences are from areas with less available educational resources, like Oregon or Idaho.

I want to end off with a quote from Jackson Browne: “The future’s there for anyone to change.” If you really think MUN is your thing, you can become a Model UN delegate at any point of your journey – you just have to take the first step into that future.

Zhihan He is a sophomore at Skyline High School. She has been a dedicated MUN delegate for two years as the former co-director of PLMS MUN and the founder and current president of Sammamish Youth MUN.

(contact sammamishyouthmun@outlook.com if you are interested in joining).

ISF FY24 High School Club Funding

The Issaquah Schools Foundation provides funding for high school clubs that create opportunities for future career paths at the District’s three comprehensive high schools. For the 2023-24 school year, we provided $30,000 to 22 high school clubs that impacted nearly 1,500 students. The funded clubs cover a wide range of activities, from STEM, like Rocketry and Engineering, to community service through the Key Club. Financial support for competition costs and materials at clubs like DECA, Sports Medicine, and Robotics Clubs help to expand opportunities for students to pursue their interests and build community. Speaking about the Junior States of America Club, an IHS student said, “I’ve gained so many valuable life experiences, and I can’t think of a single club that has a better community. With the grant, we’ve been able to put together several scholarships and allowed so many people to experience this amazing community.” This year, the Foundation is continuing to support high school clubs to broaden student access in exploring various interests and career opportunities.