On December 5 Archer’s Model UN club attended their first conference of the year in San Diego.

Juniors Hollis Dohr, Eloise Rollins-Fife and Marine Yamada lead the club. Yamada serves as president. The club’s advisors are history teachers Margaret Shirk and Johanna Greene.

Yamada assists members with preparing for conferences by teaching them how to write papers, conduct effective research and navigate registration for future conferences. Dohr focuses on recruiting new members to the club.

Greene was not surprised by the club’s success. “Archer well prepares them for public speaking, and I knew they were all going to do great,” she said. “I was sort of the cheerleader and just supported the girls.”

The novice students were able to learn and build skills for more advanced conferences in the future. At the conference, they discussed a range of topics, from the upcoming presidential election to “The Hunger Games.”

“When we got there, we were part of a crisis committee, so they would give us crises that could happen on Bernie Sanders’ campaign and we would come up with solutions on how to fix it,” Nellie Rouzroch ’18 said about her first Model UN experience. According to Rouzroch, they were asked how they would handle a situation on the campaign trail in which Sanders contracted HIV.

The Model UN club has grown since last year and with only two years left at Archer, Yamada wants to continue recruiting students with Dohr.

“This was our first team field trip. We used to do carpools but this time we took a bus all together,” Yamada said. “I think that was a major bonding moment for us. They said that they had fun and that’s the most important thing for me.” 

Yamada won a delegate award which was based on quality of speech, level of participation, validity of ideas and research paper.

Both Rouzroch and Yamada believe Model UN is a useful club to participate in while in high school.

“I think it’s really important to educate girls about these global issues because someday they’re going to be out of this bubble, and I think it’s really important to know about these current events and potential ways to solve these problems,” Yamada said.

“I think it’s so cool that we get to come together and solve national problems for the United Nations. Also, it’s interesting to think that we will be the world leaders one day,” Rouzroch said.

“I think that one of the most important things you can get from an activity like this is to gain another perspective on the same issue and see how that can work with your own to create a solution that can get a good response,” Yamada said.