NEW — 1:12 p.m. Dec. 23, 2015
It’s midnight at the Westin Hotel in Seattle and more than 400 delegates are buzzing with adrenaline.
Suspected terrorists sank an oil tanker off the coast of China and world leaders must spring into action. Countries offer aid, local nations plan a response and delegates adapt to an ever-changing news cycle.
By Andrea Antrim
The Liberty High School Model United Nations Club sent a small, but award-winning delegation to the 2015 Pacific Model United Nations Conference at the end of November.
This is the “Midnight Crisis” at the 2015 Pacific Model United Nations Conference. The “delegates” are high-school students from Canada, Idaho and Washington.
“The reality of the U.N. is that things happen at the moment,” said Liberty High School teacher Peter Kurtz. “All of the sudden you’ve been called in the middle of the night. You have to work with the situation as the news comes to you.”
PACMUN, as the conference is known, is completely student-run. Liberty graduate Allegra Messina helped organize the inaugural event last year.
The 2015 conference was held in November, when Liberty’s small, but talented, Model U.N. Club picked up a few awards, continuing its recent tradition of excellence.
“We’ve won an award at every conference we’ve gone to,” said Kurtz, the club’s adviser.
Model U.N. events allow students to role play as world delegates and work together to solve international issues. At conferences, students break into committees, write position papers and function as the real United Nations would.
Charisma is a cherished skill at these conferences, said Liberty student Megan Bui. Students with strong public speaking skills, even if the delegate represents a small country, tend to do well.
“It struck me how many good speakers there are,” Bui said. “You see these students making long speeches and just control the room. It was so cool to watch.”
Students pick up networking skills, too, as they flood the conference floor looking to create allies and partnerships.
Many of the students that attend these events are at the top of their classes, Liberty student Sabrina Suen said. That’s why it can definitely be an intimidating environment, she added.
“These people know what they’re talking about,” Suen said. “If you want to be the vocal person, it really takes a lot of pushing, because everybody is competing to be that person.”
In that respect, PACMUN is exactly like the real United Nations, Kurtz said.
“If you’re not getting involved, if you’re not saying anything, then you’re not part of the decision,” he said.
Liberty’s Model U.N. Club meets after school. There are about a dozen students in the group. They try to make it to a few conferences a year, Suen said, but the club’s real value is in the weekly meetings where they gather to talk about current events.
“How many of us are actually going to sit in the U.N.? Probably none of us,” Suen said. “But you are going to be a member of this worldly community and I think it’s really important that through Model U.N. you get to know these skills and these things that are happening.”