Our school offers many opportunities for students to engage in activities and groups that they enjoy.
With over 30 clubs and the ability to start new ones if interested, students are able to connect with others and do something they might not be able to participate in outside of school.
Model United Nations is a well-known organization. It always has a few dozen members, although many of them are not able to make the conferences.
Although this club is similar to mock trial, Model UN is drastically different from any other club because of its competitive aspects. Within conferences, delegates are assigned a country to represent and must debate issues and worldwide problems in respect to their country’s policies and regulations.
Delegates take turns stating their position on the topic and arguing for or against policies. They must establish “alliances” with other countries in order to gain more power when creating resolution papers. These resolutions are a list of specifications regarding ways to fix the problems addressed.
“In this club we research topics and issues which affect people all throughout the world. We prepare to talk about these issues and form resolutions for conferences where club members are put into different organizations, which deal with different sets of issues,” explains co-president Sam Kwon.
Participating in Model UN equips students with many life skills that are important, as well as educating them on topics that our school does not teach. It also gives students the opportunity to meet people from across New York and even other countries.
“Model UN gives club members an opportunity to improve analytical research skills, writing skills, and commun- ication and oral presentation skills. It also presents the opportunity to learn more about issues surrounding conflicts between nations, or issues like poverty and oppression which affect people globally. The club also gives opportunities to members to travel and meet like minded people at conferences,” says Sam.
This year the club traveled to Syracuse for the Manlius Pebble-Hill conference and the Central New York MUN conference which was held at Syracuse University. Normally, Model UN travels to New York City for the international conference, but this year they decided to travel to Rochester for the United Nations Association of Rochester conference.
The club meets every Tuesday during the first half of lunch in Mr. Prokosch’s room to discuss upcoming conferences or for informational presentations on how to write position papers.
Mr. Prokosch has a long history with this club. He explains, “Model UN has been a part of my life since I was an 8th grader at Perry. I was on the NH MUN team throughout high school and later during my undergraduate education, I joined the Ithaca College MUN team. Once I started teaching at Ithaca, I was the advisor there. I really enjoy working with the students who choose to join this club. They have a passion for history, politics, and learning in general.”
Besides being a member of the club, Mr. Prokosch has also been an advisor for several years. “I started advising the New Hartford MUN team in 2022 but I was the lead advisor for the Ithaca High School MUN team from 2015 until 2022 when I came to NH,” he explains.
This club is led by four officers who take care of organizing, planning, and delivering material. Sam Kwon and Aishaanya Kaushik are the co-presidents, Cooper Borelli is treasurer, and Emerald Abdallah is secretary.
Elections occur once a year after all of the conferences have been attended. This year the elections occurred March 26 in Mr. Prokosch’s room. There were nine people running for the officer positions. Imaad Maqsood was elected president, Felicia Huang is now vice president, Nicole Zuniga ran unopposed and is now treasurer, and Aahana Rustagi ran unopposed for secretary.
Next year these officers will run meetings and attend the conferences along with other members. They will attend the same conferences and hope to have more people willing to attend.
If students are interested they can either reach out to any of the current officers or attend next year’s club fair.
Overall, Model UN is an extracurricular activity that most people should be a part of. Learning about world problems and being able to travel with your friends is all just a plus to this fantastic organization.
