As March nears, the IHSMUN (Iowa High School Model United Nations) has assigned each school their countries. Due to the number of students participating in the club, City High’s Model United Nations has recieved three countries for this year’s conference: Spain, Portugal, and Namibia. When getting ready for the conference, students and their advisor Jenna Eastman start early.
“As a group, we prepare for conference by having weekly meetings on Monday mornings and afternoons. In these meetings, we go over our topics for the year, give input for country selections, give input for committee assignments, and work on different parts of our position papers/performance at the conference,” Eastman said.
Something unique about Model UN is that each student is assigned to a specific committee that focuses on social issues, environmental issues, legal issues, and everything in between. Before attending the conference, all participants are required to write a position paper based on their countries and committees.
“Within these committees, background guides are released that give students further information on the topics they need to research. Once students have researched their topic and their country’s position on that topic, students prepare a two-page paper stating their country’s position and knowledge on the topic,” Eastman said.
After the position paper is written, Ms. Eastman uses the weekly meetings to guide the club’s members on what to do during the conference. There are specific actions and vocabulary that you should know before attending in April. While it’s not necessarily necessary, it’s to ensure that the City High Model UN members can be successful leaders during the two-day conference.
But before students can find success at the conference in Cedar Falls, many things need to happen behind the scenes. That is a big part of Ms. Eastman’s role as advisor.
“I organize our meetings, our travel, committee/country assignments, and anything else necessary to help the students have all they need to prepare for the conference. We have nearly 20 students as part of our organization, so it is important that I can get them countries/committees that are close to their preferences and also make the travel safe and enjoyable,” Eastman said.
She took on the role of the club’s advisor last year after former advisor Steve Dodge retired. With a year of experience under her belt by having attended the conference, Eastman is confident in her abilities to help students in any way they need.
“She’s a great advisor and helps us out with our position papers if we are struggling to understand our country’s opinion on a certain topic,” Layla Lovan ‘25, a member of Model UN, said. As the club finishes preparing this next month, both Ms. Eastman and Model United Nations students are excited to continue helping the club grow.
