South’s 70-member Model United Nations team (MUN) has excelled this season, especially at their two conferences: Carl Sanburg High School and Saint Ignatius High School, Jesse Sisler, Special Education Teacher and sponsor said.
The performance at these conferences showcases MUN’s new style of preparation, adding in-group preparatory sessions before their conferences, Sisler explained.
“The extra prep sessions have been hugely beneficial,” Sisler said. “The workshop environment encourages collaboration among our students, which not only helps from a content perspective, but also builds team camaraderie.”
This year, MUN had about 30 to 40 freshmen and sophomores join, senior Sarina Harjani said. MUN prioritizes building up the younger generation through research and individual preparation before conferences, then they see how they perform, Harjani said.
“Before our local conferences, all the people who are attending meet together and discuss different ways to research,” Harjani said. “It [is] a really good way for newer members to get to know the veteran members and be able to talk about strategies [that] will work best during a conference.”
Because of the number of freshmen and sophomores in MUN, utilizing team meetings is important, since MUN is looking to practice their speaking and collaboration skills, senior Iris Do said. The team had many strong members graduate and are enforcing good skills for their newer members to build up for the future, Do added.
“We’re finding out how the dynamic of a new team can have success for more years to come,” Do said. “We’re hoping to build a strong group for the future, even after my grade graduates.”
Collaboration with others is important in MUN, Sisler said. Not only do students work with other members at South, they also meet MUN participants from other schools, Shah said.
“You are going against other schools,” Shah said. “You have to work with them when you’re writing your resolution paper, so it’s important to collaborate [However, you] also [need to] be wise because you have to beat them.”
