Emma Shullman, Executive Editor
@eshullman1
May 30 marked the 11th annual student-run Sophomore Simulation. The simulation is a mock Model UN conference for sophomore students to participate in throughout the course of one day.
Students discussed issues in rooms that focused on the genocide in Yugoslavia and Bosnia, the occupation of Japan, international truth and reconciliation, the European Union issue of Brexit, and the JCC in North and South Korea. Each room varied in amount of students and depth of the issue.
The day is run by MUN students with the help of history teacher Paul Phillips, who has been a part of the Simulation since the beginning. “One of the things we decided to do different this year was to focus on more recent historical issues,” Mr. Philips said. With sophomores learning about some of these events in the classroom, the simulation team agreed that including similar topics would be beneficial.
Junior Thomas Suthons, who is on the MUN team, participates in the club because he finds it’s a great way to meet new people. “One of our trips is over seas and there are people who come from all over the world. Especially from Europe and Asia, and even some countries in Africa which is really interesting,” Thomas said.
Although some people find Model UN boring, Thomas said participating in the simulation is still vital. “I think one of the main purposes of the Sophomore Simulation is to recruit people to do MUN who haven’t tried it out and are not sure what it is, or even think that it’s just going to be boring,” Thomas said.
Sophomore Imogen Smith, who isn’t a MUN member, admits she only took part in the simulation to get out of class, but still took something away from it. “I learned a lot about Brexit which was good and definitely entertaining,” Imogen said.
“For a lot of kids it’s a different way of learning, it’s students teaching students which is certainly different for a start,” Mr. Philips said. By giving students the opportunity to take part in something new and exciting it attracts them to something unlike anything else.
MUN is always open for new students to join with lots of beneficial attributes for your personal well being. “Overall, the whole day went way beyond my expectations,” Thomas said. “I think it was interesting how willing everyone was to participate.”
