For the second year in a row, South’s Model United Nations (Model U.N.) competed and won best large delegation at the Boston University Model United Nations conference (BosMUN), Rahm Sheinfeld, Model U.N. Member, said.

Alongside South’s members, students from schools around the world attended the conference from Feb. 2-4, Jesse Sisler, Model U.N. Advisor, said. After winning first place at the conference in 2023, the team was excited to return and match their past performance, Sisler explained.

“We wanted to come back because we had such a good time last year and [hoped to] give other people an opportunity to experience it,” Sisler said.

As fun as out-of-state conferences are, due to rising prices of airfare and hotels, traveling has become more difficult, Sisler explained. The team was originally going to attend The North American Invitational Model U.N. (NAIMUN), a conference in Washington D.C., but due to expenses, they decided to go to BosMUN, Sheinfeld said. In an effort to increase affordability, Model U.N. looked to fundraising, Sisler said.

The fundraising done this year contributed to minimizing the trip’s cost for each student, senior Kylie Sutton, Model U.N. Director of Speaking, explained. When deciding which travel conferences to attend, Model U.N. considers prices, cost-efficiency, and other clubs’ schedules, added.

“[Deciding where to go is] a collaborative process, and we all agree on which one we’d rather go to or not,” Sutton said, “A lot of it [comes down to] money.”

To raise the funds, the team has turned to activities such as auctions and bake sales, senior Ana Arzoumanidis, Model U.N. Fundraising Director, said. Although the team’s successful efforts led to subsidization of traveling costs, students still need to pay the majority of the money out of pocket, Arzoumanidis explained. Fundraising is essential for the club to allow students from different economic backgrounds to attend travel conferences, Arzoumanidis said.

“It’s very important to improve the accessibility of [Model U.N.],” Arzoumanidis said. “[Money] doesn’t need to be a factor that drives [students] out because they aren’t able to afford the conferences.

Although Model U.N. did not go to NAIMUN, they had a successful conference at BOSMUN, Sheinfeld explained. South’s members won 13 individual awards, along with winning the whole competition, he said.

“[Winning] was really rewarding, especially after we spent three whole days debating,” Sheinfeld said. “We were super happy about defending our two year streak [as best] large delegation.”