Written By Ridhi Gopalakrishnan
With alumni delegates ranging from Barack Obama to Ryan Seacrest, conferences held in countries around the globe, and a wide spectrum of issues hotly debated by student delegates, Model U.N. is perhaps one of the most diverse and unique extracurriculars out there. With the aim of simulating the actual proceedings of the United Nations and allowing students the opportunity to debate and reach decisions via the use of diplomatic processes, this activity is undertaken by hundreds of thousands of students worldwide. Most recently, the Woodlands has become home to our first Model U.N. chapter, with delegates attending the year’s first conference, the Secondary School Interactive Crisis Simulation or SSICSIM in early November.
For many of the Woodlands’ delegates, this was the first conference they had ever taken part in, and it proved to be a great experience from start to finish. Students were placed in one of nine committees -- Brexit, The Republic of Pirates, 1762: The Battle For Russia, The American War: The Last Battle For Freedom, Metro 2033: Ascension, Heike Monogatari: The First Samurai, Star Wars: Aftermath, Legacy of Weltkreig and Ad-Hoc -- and assigned a character whose perspective they had to represent for the duration of the conference. Each delegate had the overall goal of not only protecting their own personal interests, but also those of the committee as a whole, be that to return peace to the Moscow Metro System (a fictional settlement established after the conclusion of nuclear WWIII), balance power dynamics in 12th century Japan or combat the supernatural forces that were wreaking havoc on the small community of Havenwood. Intertwined with regular committee proceedings were crisis updates -- wherein an unexpected turn of events would interrupt the debate and potentially change the flow of the committee -- that had to be incorporated and worked around in order to successfully attain the end goal specific to each committee.
That being said, every committee definitely had its share of interesting stories, including the development of a freedom religion in the piracy realm that was rejected a multitude of times
before finally being approved, a surprise American defeat by the Coca Cola Company in the American War, and a heroic sheep who saved a minister from two assassination attempts in Brexit, to name a few. Furthermore, our school’s chapter was quite successful, winning five awards at the closing ceremony. Suffice it to say that SSICSIM, in all its glory, will certainly not be forgotten and marks a great start to the first year of Model U.N. at the Woodlands.
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