From November 29th to December 2nd, Royal Oak High School’s Model United Nations Club attended the annual Great Lakes Invitational Model United Nations conference, also known as GLIMUN. The conference is a three night event that involves student participation from several schools, with an average attendance of 300-400 students. About 30 students represented Royal Oak High School this year, along with English teacher and ROMUN adviser Gabrielle Buttazzoni. English teacher Catherine Miller, stepped in for ROMUN co-adviser Brittney Laurent, who was unable to attend this year.
Each day of GLIMUN was very busy, but productive. The first day of the conference involved becoming familiar with the topic, the people that students would be working with for the next few days, and the problems that they would have to solve together. The days spent in committees were rigorous and lengthy.
“We are usually all in committees by 7:30-8 a.m, and then they go until 11 p.m. that night,” said Buttazzoni. “We open up the first topic of debate in all of the committees and students have the chance to collaborate and network and meet the students that are representing other countries.”

The second and third days of GLIMUN allowed a chance for students to apply their knowledge to the situations that they were presented with, and begin to put the solutions they had been brainstorming in place.
“They debate both of their topics within their committees on the second day, and prepare for the third day, where all three committees work together as a delegation to vote on the resolutions that each committee passed,” Buttazzoni said.
The last day of GLIMUN was filled with closing ceremonies, which acknowledged some of the student members who were very accomplished and had outstanding leadership throughout the conference. Highlights included the presentation of awards, along with a few speeches from some of the members.
While the conference includes staff members and teacher advisers, GLIMUN is a very student-led conference. The staff and advisers mainly serve to ensure that everything in the conference runs smoothly. For Buttazzoni, GLIMUN is a common conference to attend, and this year was considered a success compared to the other years.
This was the first conference for sophomore Brody McDonald, and it likely won’t be his last.
“The conference was very enjoyable, and I was able to make a lot of new friends and connections with people while I was there,” he said.
For a lot of students, GLIMUN is an event that is typically the pushing point for many students to commit to joining Model UN, and a collaborative experience the can really give students a glimpse into what Model UN is and how it runs.
One major accomplishment that came from this year’s GLIMUN Conference involved ROMUN President of Assembly Haley Berry, who earned the “Best Delegate” award for her work in the special political committee. Berry, a senior, explained that she was able to enjoy this year’s GLIMUN more than the one she attended in her sophomore year, since she had more experience and was able to be more prepared.
“It was very exciting to receive the award. I’ve received awards before for Model UN, but this is a higher award since GLIMUN is a much bigger conference,” said Berry, who described her experience as “very eventful and busy, but a lot of fun.”
GLIMUN is typically one of the most hands-on and productive conferences that a ROMUN student can experience, and it allows students to get insight as to how real world United Nations conference runs.