Mahika Ralhan ’26
Last month, EA’s Model UN club participated in the 41st Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC). Model UN simulates the activities of the United Nations, allowing students to gain insight into its operations while debating real-world issues.
Ninety students represented EA at the conference this year, making it one of the largest teams in attendance. Participants prepared by honing their research, public speaking, and debate skills. David Mercante, Upper School History teacher and faculty advisor for the club, discussed the team’s preparation to ensure they felt confident in their abilities, sharing, “We organized and traveled to a one-day conference to give people an opportunity to practice Model UN before the big conference. We also hosted our own day of workshops and a mini-conference to give people time to practice. We had a meeting that was a crash course on Model UN for people who are new. In the future, we’d like to build on those things…It’s like anything else, the more you practice the better you get at it, so we’re going to try and give students who are interested an opportunity to get a little more practice.”
Photo courtesy of @ea1785
Each student is assigned a country to represent, conducting in-depth research on its profile including foreign policy, culture, and economy to better understand its stances on global challenges. Students are also assigned committees where they discuss more specific issues and attempt to develop possible resolutions. This year’s committees included the economic and financial committee, legal committee, and United Nations Human Rights Council. Given the vast array of issues plaguing the world, these committees provide the opportunity for students to dive deeper into specific topics. Gabbie McKithen ’27 shared her committee experience, saying, “I thought it was very fun to debate and talk to other people about their stance on the topics we discussed. My committee was AI so we talked about how we were going to implement it in each country, and I thought it was a good way to see how other people feel and how people make decisions.”
The conference offers an insightful learning experience for students to gain important skills and converse with like-minded peers from around the world. Olivia Graber ’25 also described her experience, saying “It’s very engaging, and it’s interesting to hear everyone’s different standpoints on the issues that we talk about, especially from a different perspective of a different country that we’re not used to having a perspective from.” She went on to share how Model UN contributed to her growth as a student, expressing that she, “gained public speaking skills and the ability to just talk to different people. It breaks you out of your shell because you are talking to new people and exploring topics you wouldn’t normally talk about.”
Echoing Graber’s sentiments, Elizabeth Hershey ’25 explained why she continues to attend this conference, adding, “Model UN is a great opportunity for students to get together from different schools, different backgrounds, different countries even, and really learn how to interact in a professional sense. You get the opportunity to practice leadership qualities like public speaking and just asserting yourself in a very fun weekend conference. Also, I’m interested in studying international relations so Model UN is a great precursor to that.”
Additionally, Mercante elaborated on the various benefits of attending the Model UN conference, stating “I think the trip does a couple of things. There’s the more academic side of stuff, you’re assigned a country and you’re assigned a couple of topics. The conference provides a motivation for you to learn about them a little bit more deeply, so there’s an educational benefit. But just the act of kind of coming to the conference, interacting with students from all over the country, in some cases all over the world, learning how to talk with people informally in groups and make your voice heard, how to give formal speeches, all those more soft skills are something people learn here too. I think it has a lot to offer both in terms of more tangible academic benefits, but also things that are a little more on the periphery too.”