Sophia Hawkins

Model U.N. students discuss plans for the IUPUI conference. At the competition on Feb. 22, 19 out of 41 delegates who attended were recognized for awards.

On Feb. 22 to 24, students from CHS Model United Nations competed at IU, and 19 out of 41 were recognized for awards.

“That was actually the highest we’ve ever gotten in our history,” said Model UN adviser Sandy Gardner. She also mentioned plans to create a display case, which Model UN and the other social studies competition groups will be able to use to show off their achievements. “We’ve got three (group awards) now, so I think we can put something up there,” she said.

Gardner attributes part of their success to switching to weekly meetings from bi-weekly meetings. “I think it’s really helping because some of our new students even got recognized,” she said. “I think what we do in here every week really really helps to prepare people. It gets them talking and comfortable with public speaking, and what to say, and how to talk about topics.”

Now, students are preparing for the upcoming conference at IUPUI on March 15.

Rather than work solo as in the past, participants must coordinate with other members of delegations from various countries. Although the members of each delegation will be in a different committee — such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Security Council — they must make sure that they stay in agreement with the views of the rest of their country’s delegates. It is tough, but Gardner said they have won awards working like this in the past.

According to Adam Munshi, student leader and senior, the students are “doing preliminary research and scheming together” to get ready.

“But it’s really just root preparation that we do,” Munshi said.