Royal Oak High School’s chapter of Model United Nations has been around for nearly thirty years. The main initiative of Model UN is for students to come together at conferences and serve as ambassadors for different countries and tackle world issues. Students of all grades can join and participate in Model UN’s conferences and activities throughout the year.
“Model UN offers an engaging and supportive environment in which students get to learn more about the world, its current events, and how humanity is attempting to work together to solve important issues that affect us all,” said Model UN co-adviser, Brittney Laurent.

The idea of Model UN might initially seem intimidating, but sophomore Owen Krueger explained that the organization is eager for new members and makes the adjustment easy.
“We do a good job at helping out the newer members, making our club more welcoming,” he said.
Model UNs most recent conference, SuperMUN, was hosted at ROHS on Saturday, October 20th. The event was largely organized by seniors Lillian Navin and Julia Malone, with help from the advisers and other officers.

“I started planning this last May and continued over the summer and into this year,” said Navin. “It was definitely a lot of work, but it has paid off.” SuperMUN was different from events that Royal Oak has hosted in the past.
“This conference is actually the largest conference we have hosted, with an 80% increase from last year,” said senior officer Max Podmokly.
Seventeen different high schools participated in this year’s SuperMUN conference. During this specific conference, delegates representing a number of countries came together to solve three major world issues.

“Our beginner delegates tackled child labor, our intermediate delegates tackled the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-saharan Africa, and our advanced delegates tackled the situation [political conflict] in Myanmar,” said Gabrielle Buttazzoni, ROMUN co-adviser, “The levels are tiered based on the difficulty of the subject. It gives delegates an opportunity to practice at the beginning of the year, getting back into their debate skills and speaking in front of other people.”
The approach of different levels helps newer members of Model UN sharpen their skills before tackling hard to grasp issues. Beginning members are challenged while also testing their knowledge.
With 325 students attending SuperMUN, it meant more committees, with over 18 classrooms being used. ROMUN members performed different roles within their committees.
Senior Katie Macey said her favorite role is to “chair committees and facilitate the flow of debate.”
Along with Macey, nine other Royal Oak delegates chaired committees, with the other twenty-one ROMUN members served as delegates.
Model UN meets in room 136 on Mondays after school. “Our next event is called SEMMUNA (South Eastern Michigan Model United Nations Association), and it’s on Saturday, November 9th at Novi High School,” said Laurent.