Since work began this past winter, those participating in Model United Nations have been working on choosing committees, researching, and writing position papers in preparation for the annual conference hosted at the University of Northern Iowa. This conference, hosted by UNI’s Model United Nations Club, brings together schools from across the state and one from Wisconsin.

“Model UN is a simulation of the real UN. Students and schools are assigned countries to research and represent at our MUN conference, where we discuss current issues facing the real UN from the perspective of our assigned country,” Natalie Michelson ‘25 said.

Each school taking part in the conference usually gets one or two assigned countries, and then all schools get students to represent those countries in specific committees at the conference. Some committees include political and security, humanitarian, and a legal council. Within committees, students work in pairs, each addressing one of the two issues assigned to them. 

“I really enjoyed the conference this year. This was my first year doing Model UN, so I really had no idea what to expect. I had already done my research and written my paper on my assigned topic, so I generally knew what we would be going over, but I wasn’t familiar with the format of the conference or what would happen. So after the first few minutes of meeting with my committee and not really knowing what was going on, I began to feel a little more comfortable with the proceedings and the structure of the meetings,” Michelson said.

At this year’s conference, three City High students won awards. Tobiah Collins ‘26 won an award for his work at the conference, speaking and acting as a delegate in his committee. Both Natalie Michelson and Chauncey Parker ‘25 won awards for their position papers, the two papers scoring well on the rubric of the Model United Nations Club and UNI.

“I won an award for Outstanding Position Paper. It felt really good to win, I really was not expecting it at all. Seeing as I had never written a position paper before or done Model UN at all, my expectations for this year were really low. So it was a nice shock to hear that I won an award for my paper,” Michelson said.

While Model United Nations is over for the 2023–24 school year, students looking to join next year can talk to club advisor Jenna Eastman in room 2305.

“I would encourage [students] to join Model UN. It really is enjoyable; it’s pretty low commitment during the school year, there aren’t too many meetings; and you are only working on the paper, which really isn’t challenging at all to write. The UNI website and Ms. Eastman offered great guidance and resources on the whole process. Plus, the conference is pretty engaging and fun.” Michelson said.