Thirty-eight students and four chaperones crammed onto an American airlines flight, set to go to The Windy City for the three days of seeing how the United Nations works.
On Thursday, after a delegate banquet, the students file into their respective committee rooms for the first three hours of discussion. Note passing, laughter and coming together to solve topics all happen throughout this meeting.
There are many different committees, such as the Historic General Assembly (HGA) and the General Assembly (GA). There are also many different sub committees. The HGA and GA have about 100 or so representatives ranging from 45-50 different countries.
This year, the three topics were improving the economic state of developing countries, the use of WMDs, and apartheid. Each topic takes about a day to discuss, or less if the meetings are efficient. Throughout each meeting, delegates work in unison with other delegates to draft working papers in order to solve each respective topic.
Throughout the three-day trip students are able to get realistic experience on how the UN actually works. They are exposed to different means of problem solving and collaboration techniques.
The Model UN trip also serves as a way to forge bonds between grades. Within your committee, you might have six to ten other students from your school, so you have the opportunity to not only work with them, but also get to know them.