William Sexton, Reporter
On May 26, the Sophomore Simulation made its comeback after two years of being held on Zoom. The event, run by members of the Model United Nations club, invited students to take on roles as diplomats and discuss international affairs. This year, the simulation was held in-person for the first time since the start of the COVID pandemic.
The event took place in various rooms throughout the school, with each room representing a different event or situation. “Participants were put into rooms related to the history curriculum,” sophomore and co-chair of the Sophomore Simulation, Kevin Zuo, said. “A group of delegates in the sophomore class worked together to solve the issues that they were assigned to.”
The Model UN club spent several months preparing for the Sophomore Simulation. “We have to book the rooms that the event is going to take place in, let the faculty know, identify who wants to be a chair for the committee, and see what ideas they have to help the planning process,” history teacher and senior advisor to the Model UN club, Paul Phillips, said. “Finally, we have to read and study the briefing packet to see if everything falls in line with the plan.”
Another chair provided a different perspective into “The preparation process consisted of proposing our room idea and positions, then writing the briefing packet and setting up the room on the day of the event,” junior and Alien Crisis Room chair Kira Titova said. “Overall, it was pretty well-organized but writing the briefing packet required quite a bit of effort as we had to research each of the positions and the historical context; also, we had to be creative in coming up with the alien invasion portion of the crisis.”
According to Kira, the in-person component of this year’s simulation greatly contributed to the experience. “I participated in a crisis room during last year’s Soph Sim as a delegate myself and I think that everyone was a lot more engaged,” Kira said.
In the simulation, students challenge themselves for an entire school day by finding solutions to difficult situations. “It’s a really fun opportunity for sophomores to use their knowledge on topics they have learned in history to figure out how to resolve these historical situations that they were placed into,” Kevin said.
According to Kevin, participants were able to easily adapt to the routine and procedures of the simulation. “I was honestly pretty nervous initially because it’s difficult to introduce Model UN to a whole class of people who haven’t heard of it before,” he said. “I was taken aback by how easy it was for the sophomores to pick up on the structure and routine, and I was really happy about the enthusiasm they showed towards the event.”
