After the final Model United Nations conference in March, the club is now preparing for next year by merging the beginner and advanced committees and searching for student leaders to replace those who will graduate in May.

Now that students have had almost a full year’s experience with the parliamentary procedure, they are working with the advanced group, participating in simulations that go beyond the boundaries of the mostly reality-based simulations of the conferences. For example, students at last week’s meeting took the role of characters from the movie “Inside Out.”

“Those beginners from this year will hopefully be the advanced group next year. We hope that they feel confident enough in their parliamentary procedure skills, as well as their general speaking and communication skills, to move up to that next level,” said Hannah Kosc, Model U.N. president and senior. Next year a new group of beginners will take their place.

Model U.N. adviser Sandy Gardner also spoke of an outreach program in the works to get middle school students involved in the program before they enter high school.

Gardner said that these combined simulations are helping her and the current student leaders look for leaders for next year. “We try to see who would be best to continue the culture we’ve created, and the demeanor of the leaders that we like to see. Typically we like to pick leaders that are all-inclusive, that appreciate the competition (even though) it’s not at the forefront — so we want it to be about growing as an individual instead of win-win-win — somebody who’s very nurturing, and hardworking and approachable,” she said.