On April 10-11, the Wayne Hills Model United Nations club attended a virtual conference at Seton Hall University. The conference was large and several high schools around the nation competed at and attended this event.

The conference started with a beautiful speech and Q&A session with Dr. Jane Aronson, who specialized in adoption medicine through her practice and helped over 20,000 orphans around the globe.

The conference was filled with several different zoom meetings for several different committee topics for students to participate in. The students were able to choose any topic they wanted to discuss at the conference. There were two major types of conferencing: General Assemblies (GA) and Crisis Committees (CC).

The GA conferences consisted of topics like the World Health Organization discussing issues with vaping, the trial of Kim Jong-Un, and a historical re-enactment of the U.S. Senate during the Cold War. The CC conferences were also very interesting, and some took place in fictional settings. There was a conference that centered around the world of Avatar, and another that revolved around Percy Jackson. There were also some historical conferences, like the one that tried to figure out how to build a Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S..

The most difficult CC, the Ad Hoc, or improvisatory committee, did not reveal the topic of the committee to the delegates until the day before the conference. The Ad Hoc turned out to be about establishing a stable settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, and was very exciting and challenging for delegates.

The Model UN club was very excited to participate in this event, for it has been planning for almost two years to participate in it. It was originally planning to participate in one last year, but plans were canceled due to COVID-19.

There were some fears that the delegates from WHMUN would be unable to adjust to the Crisis Committees since they have never done things like that before. However, they were able to quickly adapt to new situations and the helpful Chairs of each committee were able to guide them along.

“I was so proud of everybody and I thought it was really cool to see everybody grow,” says Nikki Belenkiy, the co-President of the club. “This was not only an educational moment for me but a very proud moment. I was proud to see where our club started and where it is now, going to such a big conference. Thanks to Model UN, I want to do a lot of international stuff and study abroad because what this club gave me will always be a part of me.”

The other officers of the club share similar feelings.

“This was both rewarding and super fun with lots of twists,” says Jessie Lu, the other co-President of the club.

“It was a great experience not just for individuals but for the club as a whole because it opened our eyes to what we can do and where we can go with our club. It’s a great opportunity for the future of Model UN at Hills,” Jay Ferreira claims excitedly.

The club’s advisor, John Terry, says that he is proud of how much the club has grown.

“We kind of had a slow burn with the club getting started but by the time we go the conference, we were ready to go! It opened up the world of what Model UN looks like to the club members, and we’re gonna come out of this a much more strongly club than we’ve ever been. I’m really grateful for this experience, and it looks like everybody had a lot of fun!” Terry cheers.

Let’s all give a round of applause to our Model UN club!