M.H.S. students take on international diplomacy at Model UN

Seventy-eight Mundelein High School students participated Feb. 2-5 in the Model United Nations conference organized by the University of Chicago and held at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

Assisted by faculty advisers Andrew Hirshman and Stacey Darcy, the M.H.S. model UN participants joined over 2,500 other high school students from 100 schools around the world in representing the member states of the United Nations.

M.H.S. students represented the United Kingdom, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. They discussed the merits and complications of nuclear nonproliferation, offered proposals to deal with ongoing environmental crises, and debated the root causes and solutions for terrorist activities and armed conflicts around the globe.

Student delegates to the conference work with one another on topic-specific committees to produce mock resolutions on global issues. The purpose of the model United Nations program is to educate high school students in the art of debate, negotiation and public speaking, and to introduce them to the complex realities of international relations.

"The experience at the conference allows students to see the potential of the United Nations in resolving international problems while also revealing the institution's limitations," Darcy said.

M.H.S. students found the conference both exhilarating and exhausting, and several stated that meeting students from around the world was one of the best and most educational components of the experience.

"It is worth noting that M.H.S. supports one of the largest student delegations in the state and in the entire conference," Hirshman said.