Model UN readies for state conference in Des Moines

Get your pens out, put your thinking caps on and prepare to put your debating and problem solving skills to the test. Model UN is kicking off and looking for members. The club meets every Thursday between 2:50 and 3 p.m. in Tim Kangas’s room, a.k.a the ALPHA room, 147.

Model UN is a “simulation on how the United Nations works in the real world,” Kangas said.

The group discusses timely topics and goes through the process of making amendments. In the spring, their meetings shift as they discuss specific countries that they will take on the role of becoming.

This past Monday, the Model UN competed in its regional versus Hudson, in which they took on the role of acting as though they were the real United Nations. The club will go on and participate at State in mid-October versus all of the other schools in the state and debate topics as a whole at the state capitol in Des Moines.

In the spring, the group travels to an event at the University of Northern Iowa where they debate as their specific countries. They will debate timely topics, and, although they are all Americans, vote and act as their countries.

The spring goal is for the “students to learn about their countries,” Kangas said. He noted they’ll also learn their country’s “different views and customs. [Hopefully they’ll] come to agreements.”

It’s never too late to come and join the Model UN. “The more people’s additional voices make it interesting,” Kangas said. Participants don’t have to be in Model UN in the fall to join in the spring and vise versa. So, if debating on governmental issues and topics, as well as debating as if one represents a different country, is exciting, come and join the Model UN.