The Model UN club re-opened this year and held its first member meeting on March 30. The club plans to hold meetings every Thursday from 3:45 – 4:30 p.m. in Room 2610.

“[Vice president Arjun Iyer and I] tried to restart the club, but this time implemented [it] in a way that would be long-standing and hopefully have more attention than previous times,” club president Srikar Kotha said. “[The Model UN] club [is] for students who [have] a large interest in geopolitical relations.”

Model UN is a geopolitical club that discusses political issues amongst different countries. Each member takes on the role of being an ambassador for a country and creates resolutions to solve global issues. The club went to the The Colony Cougars Model United Nations conference in The Colony on Feb. 18 and discussed the topic of providing equity in access to surgical care. 

“We want to expand so we can have as many people as possible, something like debate or DECA,” sophomore vice president Arjun Iyer said. “We want to have constant trips where we keep preparing and sending people out to get as many awards and experiences as possible.”

The club initially started in the fall when the club was able to find a sponsor: AP US History and AP macroeconomic teacher Heather Summers. Since then, the club officers have been attending conferences and gaining experience to be able to teach their members. Model UN was last open in the 2002-2003 school year, but the club was short-lived.

“My goal for next year is to do two things: [firstly, to] gain more membership and get people more interested in model UN,” Kotha said. “I think it is a great program that fosters public speaking skills, negotiation skills and skills that can be used regardless if you are thinking about going into national relations. Secondly, I would love to attend more conferences and make Hebron a name in the North Texas Area.”

The club members practice and do research for their conferences months in advance. To practice, the club has research workdays, mock conferences and practices writing resolutions. 

“I see the club growing because of how motivated the officers are,” Summers said. “I would love to see [the club become] a class period, because I think we could do so much more. It’s something I would like to see [happen] probably not next year but the year after.”

With new members, the club is planning to attend The Georges Duby Model United Nations event, an international virtual conference on May 27-28. On April 6, the club will pick which topic they will enter in for the conference: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees competition or United Nations Women competition. 

“I hope that next year we have a lot of people that are interested [in joining the club, like the] eighth graders that are moving into ninth grade [and] current ninth graders that didn’t have an opportunity last semester [to join],” Kotha said. “I’m looking forward to teaching them and showing them how model UN works.”