Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Across the country politicians are born everyday and what could better strengthen them for their future, than a model club?
The Model United Nations Club is a part of many high schools in the U.S. There are conferences in different states each year that prepare students for the real world of politics, The United Nations.
Williamston High School, along with its middle school, has a Model United Nations Club of its own and they’re looking forward to helping students reach their goals through the organization.
Senior student and secretary general of Williamston’s Model U.N, Lia Bommarito, said their club of 40 members meet every Wednesday and they’re almost always preparing for conferences.
The club travels across the U.S. to about five conferences each year and the biggest event is where they get together with other high schools to debate policy, representing different nations.
Bommarito has been apart of the Model U.N for six years and her most valuable experience is being able to meet different people each year.
“When I was a freshman I was involved in many groups but I didn’t have many friends that were outside of my age group,” Bommarito said.
“Going to conferences with people and being in the club with people that were older than me and basically making connections with them, helped to establish connections and friendships that is long lasting,” she said.
Bommarito said she is still very good friends with seniors that she met in her freshman year of high school.
One of the two advisers of Williamston’s Model U.N, Megan O’Rourke, said anyone in the high school is able to join the club as long as they are willing to work hard and attend meetings.
“We try to be as inclusive as possible and gather many different students because it’s important to have a variety of views and representation of different values,” O’Rourke said.
Adviser Anne Wade said Williamston is not very diverse in terms of race and socioeconomics so going to the conferences exposes them to different ethnicities that aren’t within the school.
The outside of Williamston High School Photo by: Honda Carter
“They’re better prepared for college and people they will meet in the college setting,” Wade said.
O’Rourke said the students do have to pay for some of the conference expenses, but it is a great experience because they can apply these skills beyond high school and actually become a part of the U.N.
Bommarito said as a member of the club they learn many skills such as learning how to interact with a variety of students regardless of their background.
“They learn how to analyze and think critically when it comes to policy. Not only policy issues but their everyday life,” Bommarito said.
Bommarito said a lot of Williamston students have furthered their political skills by demonstrating them in college, such as her older sister, and she thinks she will do the same after a recent acceptance letter from MSU.
“Model U.N has definitely impacted my plans for the future because when I started I was definitely not interested in anything that had to do with policy at all,” she said.
Wade said as an adviser they love seeing the growth of running the organization for 10 plus years, especially as they watch their former high school students transition to college.
“They get to apply what they learn in the classroom and then bring it to real life and some of the solutions that they come up with actually match with what the U.N. has done in terms of policy,” Wade said. “That’s pretty exciting to see their creativeness.”