High school leaders prepare to simulate world leaders at the Model United Nations conference taking place in late March at the University of Northern Iowa campus. On the past three Mondays students interested in Model UN entered room 2311 As the chatter rises, the students’ eyes scan the room for both familiar faces and new faces. Model UN teacher sponsor Steve Dodge calls the room to silence and the meeting begins.

“I joined Model UN because I like to think about the international issues in our current state and how they directly impact us where we are,” Kate Becker ‘24 said.

Model UN is mostly a self-directed club according to club sponsor Steve Dodge, an economics teacher who has been leading the program since 2002. This year, Dodge accepted an early retirement package and this 21st year will be Dodge’s last.

“For the most part Model UN is self-led because the people that are involved with us are also involved in a lot of things. And so we don’t have a lot of group meeting time just because it’s difficult for the people who take part in this to make a time that works for everyone,” Steve Dodge said.

This Monday, club participants signed up for councils that they will be representing at the conference at the end of March. Due to the number of students interested, Dodge decided to expand from one country to two countries. City High will be representing Belarus and Albania.

“We’ve won Outstanding Delegation, but not recently due to COVID. Although we do have a lot of people that win outstanding papers that they put a lot of good work into. It is common to have people that after a couple of years of experience, really get into the debate and have won outstanding delegates,” Dodge reported.

Dodge contributes the previous successes of Model UN conferences to the participants who excel academically and work hard on position papers.

“Normally we have a lot of top students at City High. They’re involved in a lot of activities such as mock trial and other things that prepare them well for Model UN. So it’s a natural activity for the students that are here and I think that all of our delegates represent City High well at the Model UN conference,” Dodge said.