The Model United Nations (Model UN) Club is preparing for an eventful year, as students gather to discuss global issues and spread awareness on important issues. The club’s first meeting will take place Friday, September 29th at lunch, and the host Mr. Torres offered a peak into their ambitious agenda.
Mr. Torres explained the essence of Model UN as an organization that is based on the United Nations. Admission is free, and the goal of the club is to deal with global issues and try to create scenarios that are as realistic as possible.
One of the club’s primary focuses is the upcoming International United Nations Week towards the end of October. Mr. Torres highlighted their intention to commemorate this event uniquely. He also noted the club’s dedication to addressing critical global challenges such as climate change, resource exploitation, poverty, child labor, and human trafficking. A new addition to their discussions is the controversial issue of domestic violence.
“There’s a lot of mistreatment towards women and men. We want to address and raise awareness of that.” Mr. Torres said.
The topics the club is planning to bring to light represent parts of the harsh reality we live in. Students may feel uncomfortable with some more than others; however, the club doesn’t abide by any filters.
“When you come into Model UN, you know what you’re going into. We give a disclaimer saying there are no filters here, this is not like in the classroom where there are a lot of things you can’t say, we’re just going to go out there and say it. We’re thinking we might want to sign some sort of Affidavit with the members, so that they agree to speaking on things in a very different way no matter how harsh they are.” Mr. Torres said.
Most of the discussions taking place are involving mature topics that most high school students aren’t generally discussing; however, Mr. Torres believes the students who are interested in the club are the right audience for these serious issues and that the topics benefit them.
“They make the students more cognizant; they make them more aware of the problems we have. They make them think about them a little bit more. Some students don’t even understand the full extent, for example, human trafficking.” Mr. Torres shared.
Looking ahead, the club plans to organize an end-of-year conference, building on the success of the previous year’s event.
“We’re hoping to have an end-of-year conference the way we did it last year where we rented the fine arts and established a court session that lasted about 8 hours. We’re supposed to train for that event all year, then we send our associates and our officers into it.” Mr. Torres explained.
Overall, this year Model UN is gearing up for thought-provoking discussions and a commitment to addressing pressing global issues. In addition to community service hours and improving debate techniques and public speaking skills, as students participate in these conversations, they are destined to accumulate valuable insights and contribute to a more informed and aware global new population.
