Hundreds of high school students filled Norris University Center this week for the annual Northwestern University Model United Nations conference. With legal pads and placards in hand, delegates spent four days debating hypothetical issues both global and local.
“I like the strategic nature of it,” African Union delegate Madeline A’Hearn said. “Everyone’s learning with each other, and it helps me feel like I’m more connected to the things going on in the world.”
A’Hearn, a senior at North Shore Country Day School, was one of over 500 high school students from across the country to participate in NUMUN this year. From Thursday to Sunday, delegates discussed various hypothetical crises that spanned history and geography.
The conference featured 14 UN committees, and topics ranged from the death of Alexander the Great to a 1919 molasses flood in Boston and modern-day Korean pop culture.
“We’re trying to think about issues that are both relevant to delegates and very exciting,” said Weinberg senior and NUMUN Chief of Staff Sam Kliss. “It helps open doors, helping them realize there’s policy behind everything they love.”
NUMUN’s undergraduate staff members pitched committee topics in Fall Quarter, Kliss said. Staffers then researched and compiled an extensive 30-page background guide for each committee, a process Kliss said took months of hard work.
She added that staffers went through training on parliamentary procedure, expectations for delegates, scoring practices for awards and club policies in preparation for the four-day event.
“I believe in these committees and these staffers,” Kliss said. “We’ve been waiting for this all year long, and now it’s happening.”
One NUMUN committee was set in ancient China, and its delegates navigated the fall of the Han dynasty and the rising influence of competing warlords during the Three Kingdoms period. Over the course of six committee sessions, students formed rival factions, negotiated territorial control and even staged a mock wedding.
Weinberg sophomore Henry Fleck acted as crisis director for this committee. His role involved processing delegates’ directives and introducing new crisis scenarios for them to address.
“It always really excites me when (delegates) take things in a completely unexpected direction,” Fleck said. “There’s always these bursts of creativity that are just really fun to work with.”
Another committee, the Press Corps, tasked delegates to act as journalists and report on the crises unfolding in other rooms. The conference also featured NUMUN’s second-ever Ad Hoc Committee, and its mystery topic — the Varsity Blues scandal of 2019 — was only revealed to delegates at the start of the conference.
Delegate and Carl Sandburg High School sophomore Kate Kanagy spent the conference navigating the aftermath of the 1982 Falklands War. She said NUMUN offered an exciting chance to sharpen her Model UN skills, as well as an interesting peek into college life at NU.
“A lot of us are actually looking to go to this school,” Kanagy said. “It’s a cool opportunity for us to not only compete here but also get to look at the school and look around the campus.”
Besides committee sessions, NUMUN organized a college Q&A session for prospective students Friday. The conference also included a performance from NU percussion group Boomshaka, a keynote address by political science Prof. Karen Alter and a delegate dance Saturday night.
The conference’s efforts extended into Evanston as well. NUMUN partnered with Rainbows for All Children, an Evanston-based nonprofit supporting youth navigating grief and trauma. The conference staff set various incentives to raise money for the charity, from merch sales to candy grams and the prospect of staffers jumping in Lake Michigan.
The charity holds a personal significance for Kliss, who said she looked forward to helping the local community with NUMUN’s donation.
“It’s a lot of fun for the delegates and fun for us,” Kliss said. “And I’m personally very excited to see the impact we can have.”
Email: s.reddy@dailynorthwestern.edu
X: @siriii_r
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