Courtesy of Model UN Club

Model United Nations works to understand the process of the UN’s conferences.

Model United Nations is a club that started at Benilde St. Margaret’s in 2020, where students represent a country in an imitation of a UN conference. Representatives support their country’s views and create bills for the conference to consider. The club is run by advisors Matthew McMerty-Brummer and Anne Marie Dominguez.

According to Model UN advisor Matthew McMerty-Brummer, Model UN started at BSM as part of a Spanish class in 2016. They attended a Spanish Model UN conference to help students improve their research and public speaking skills. The activity was later expanded to a club for the whole school, and BSM began attending an overnight trip for three days run by the Young Men’s Christian Association. “[BSM] has been going to great conferences organized by the YMCA. It’s a… three-day event that has 400 plus students from all around the state,” advisor Anne Marie Dominguez said.

The advisors mostly let the students do their research and preparations on their own, while team captains and presidents give them pointers. Representatives write a status report, which is information on a country’s current situation. This includes finances, military, and allies. They also write a position paper, which is their country’s stance on the given topic, such as security or poverty. “We write our status report, which is a general summation of our countries, like finances, allies, military situations. For the International Court of Justice, we have to write memorials,” club member Jason Broin said.

The advisors prepare for conferences by organizing dates and schedules on a Model UN Schoology page. They register for the conferences and help students… participate in the activities. “Señor McMerty Brummer and I make sure that they have a space to do that and help them organize. We set up a Schoology page to make sure that dates for meetings are posted and updates and links to things that the kids need to know and all of that… we were like support for the kids, but we try to…let the kids run the show,” Dominguez said.

There are many benefits that come from participating in Model UN, such as helping with research and political knowledge. Even without offering any proposals or resolutions, it still helps students research and understand what happens in the world. Students learn how the United Nations operates so that they become more aware of real-world issues. It can also help improve speaking skills. “Being part of small discussions with other students about real-life issues that affect countries globally… is just eye-opening, and it just helps you become a person who has more depth of knowledge because you’ve gone through the process. It helps you cooperate with people who are pretty much strangers at the beginning of the process,” Dominguez said.