Jack Ludtke
Business Manager
Dear Reader,
Last week, I went with nine other NCHS students on a trip to the Netherlands to participate in THIMUN XLV, a five-day long international Model United Nations event. For those of you who don’t know much about the club, Model UN is a debate club which focuses on international events through attending conferences in which each participant, or “delegate,” is assigned a country or viewpoint for the purpose of opening discussions on issues of historical or current importance.
For the club, going to THIMUN this year was a huge deal. Our club, which was really started in earnest little over five years ago, had never gone to an international conference. Though we had done well enough at American conferences to merit a top 25 ranking in North America, being invited to a conference which only had six American schools participating was our first big step towards competing with the big boys of MUN.
On Friday, Jan. 24, my fellow seniors Charlie Freyre, Olivia Hompe, Alison Ockasi, Eric Persky, Molly James, Isabelle Herde, Steph DeClue and I, as well as juniors Alejandra Zamora and Andrew Penchuck, reported to Mr. Phillips’ room with our bags and passports. Mr. Phillips, NCHS’ own MUN advisor, and his wife Mrs. Phillips, were the trip’s chaperones. Having lived in the Netherlands for many years, the pair were more than up to the task of showing us all around Amsterdam and The Hague. After a quick pep talk from Mr. Vehslage, we set off for Newark, flew to Amsterdam that night, and arrived in The Hague late on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The following day, we had the pleasure of exploring Delft, the “Romantic City” of the Netherlands. We toured the Royal Delft Blue pottery workshop, walked around the canals of Delft, and even had some time to tour one of the open-air markets the city is known for.
The next day was the opening festivities of THIMUN and lobbying day in each one of our rooms. Lobbying in European MUN is basically this process where you figure out who you should work with in your given room, and what are the best solutions you can think of for a given problem. All of the delegates from NCHS were put in different rooms, and given the position of Mauritius to represent. If you are like the majority of people in this world and have no idea what or where Mauritius is, I can tell you that it is a small island off of Madagascar, is the home of the dodo bird, and not much else. Despite this seemingly inauspicious position, I myself found a great group to work with, and proceeded to write a stellar set of solutions to promoting peace in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivorie), cemented in a paper called a “resolution”.
For the next four days, we as a club underwent individual experiences in each of our committee rooms. All of us debated and made speeches regarding resolutions, and eventually voted on each one that was presented to us. During the week, we met people from all over the world, and learned a lot about what the perception of America is outside of the country. On top of this, we saw many great sights, ate at fantastic restaurants, and watched multiple movies.
The THIMUN week closed out with the closing ceremonies, which featured an Argentinian percussion group and emotional speeches from the high schoolers running the conference. The next day, we left The Hague and went to Amsterdam, where we had a chance to explore the city, see the Anne Frank House, and eat at an excellent Indonesian restaurant. After staying at the Amsterdam International Airport Sheraton, we flew home the next day, arriving in plenty of time to see the Super Bowl last Sunday.
I can honestly say that my experience at THIMUN was truly unparalleled, and will always be something that I look back on fondly. Everything, from the sights to the debate, was incredible and is really something that everyone should experience once in their lifetime. This being said, the description above does not do the time I had at THIMUN justice. That’s why in the coming weeks, I will be going back and downshifting on different parts of the trip and really give it the attention it deserves. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you will look for future posts on my THIMUN experience.
Sincerely,
Jack Ludtke
Co-Captain, NCHS Model UN
