On Feb. 25, York’s Model United Nations team went to Lyons Township to participate in a Model United Nations conference.

At the conference, York was able to firmly compete and win several awards. This was York Model UN’s last conference and is considered a happy end to a strong season.

“A usual MUN [Model United Nations] day involves getting to the host school early and hearing a very credentialed guest speaker talk about the importance of the real UN, and how MUN is so important in helping students understand how diplomacy works,” said John Clugg, senior and co-president.  “We then spend the whole time debating and solving current world issues acting as the country we represent. We check personal opinions at the door.”

Although the York Model UN team is always able to compete and usually win awards, this past conference seemed to be particularly impressive.

“York did very well in the competition,” said Clugg. “We earned best delegate awards, outstanding delegate awards, and honorable mentions!”

This last conference acted as a good punctuation to the great season. Each member was able to have fun and practice vital skills for the future.

“It was a good finish to the season,” said Cambria Khayat, junior and executive committee member. “I had a lot of fun, learned a lot about my topic and got the gavel, a trophy for best delegate in a given committee.”

The Model UN sponsor, Mr. Gearing, agrees with members that this was a particularly outstanding season for the team.

“I think we’ve had a really successful year,” said Mr. Gearing. “We’ve earned awards at pretty much every conference we’ve been to. The LYMUN conference [their most recent one] was also very successful, we had the equivalent of the best delegate and we had a bunch of honorables there. It was a good one. It’s not an easy thing to be recognized at one of these things. There are a lot of kids there so you really have to stand out. It really says something about the club that we did as well as we did this year.”

The difficulty of competing at these conferences, as stated, really requires a lot of work. York Model UN has consistently worked hard and prepared for these conferences every single time. This hard work is evident in the success the club has had this year.

“In order for someone to be successful and benefit from the experience, they have to be able to do a number of things,” said Mr. Gearing. “That includes preparing and researching their country and the issues that are going to be before the committee. They have to prepare effectively and create a position paper, so there are writing skills involved. Of course, there are speaking skills in public speaking and being involved in the debate and drafting resolutions so it’s a real mix of talents.”

York’s club, considering its relatively small size, being able to win the awards that it does really shows the effort and skill of the students themselves.

“It is really a student-centered club,” said Mr. Gearing. “It is what they do at the conferences that make it successful. The success of the club is largely dictated by the quality of the effort that the students are putting in. That’s been really, very good. It speaks volumes that we’re as competitive as we are considering the size of our club.”