Taking on the world’s problems, the Model UN club debuts Wednesday

Trisha Dasgupta

Pictured: Sister organizations, Youth and Government and Model UN gather at the Dallas Urban Youth Summit. Meeting for the first time in-person since 2018, Model UN Texas will be gathering at the statewide convention this weekend, beginning Friday evening and ending Sunday.

“Students participate in a mock United Nations Summit,” club sponsor Sarah Wiseman said. “They learn about global issues, research how different countries feel about those issues, write position papers, and then work collaboratively on committees to craft resolutions to deal with real problems.”

Already sponsoring Youth and Government, Wiseman saw a natural fit with the Model UN club. 

“Model United Nations is hosted through the YMCA and is the sister-club of Youth and Government, which I have sponsored for a few years,” Wiseman said. “The officer team asked me if we could bring Model United Nations to campus, so I said yes. I love how it teaches students to be involved in the world and also how to act with good character.”

President of Youth and Government, and an officer in Model UN, senior Sam Mills is ready to work with both clubs.

“I think that they’ll work well together because they both simulate political institutions with realistic parliamentary procedures and we’ll have a large number of students who will be participating in both organizations,” Mills said. “We’re really lucky to have Mrs. Wiseman sponsoring both clubs, so that makes it easy for us to coordinate and live up to the title of “sister clubs” that has been designated between these two organizations. I’m really excited for this year because I get to lead a large new generation of members and leave these clubs in a better place than where I initially found them.”

Sophomore Shrika Guda is looking forward to joining and partnering with Youth and Government.

“I’m excited about learning just how it works, and how I can be apart of it because it’s something I really wanted to do when I started high school,” Guda said. “I was really disappointed when they didn’t have the club, but I’m really grateful they have it now. I think it will be pretty collaborative since many members interact with each other, and most of them are in both clubs.”

Global concerns and good times are why Wiseman says students should join both clubs.

“Students should join Model UN and Youth and Government in order to meet others interested in finding solutions to real world problems,” Wiseman said. “We learn a lot and have fun. The best part of each year is going to state conference. Model UN is three days at the Shops at Legacy in April, and Youth and Government is four days in Austin in January. We work hard and play hard.”