Model United Nations (MUN) is an extracurricular where students debate and negotiate at conferences, acting out roles as United Nations delegates.

The team’s first conference was on Nov. 6-7 at the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.

Freshman Vidula Jambunath won a gavel at the conference, along with Sophomore Neha Chellu receiving a position paper award.

Seniors Kfir Flank and David Novikov also won superior delegation and junior Nikhil Murali won excellent delegation. Senior Gabriela Costa and junior Stephanie Yen won honorable mentions.

The team leaders were pleased with the performance.

“We took a bunch of new people, and they were very confident,” Yen said.

“They start MUN at the Middle School now, so the freshmen come in with experience,” said Jared Zullig, who is a member of the executive board.

The upcoming winter conference is scheduled for Dec. 5 and 6 at Lorain High School.

There will also be conferences on Jan. 17-20 at Columbia University in New York and another on March 15-20 at MSU.

Students meet twice a week to practice public speaking, and to debate world problems. These problems range from human trafficking to sustainable urbanization.

“It’s a simulation of the United Nations,” Yen said.

The meetings are run by Executive Board members Costa, Flank, Novikov, Yen and Zullig.

These leaders teach underclassmen public speaking techniques, diplomatic skills and how to interpret current events.

There is always a debate topic that the students discuss.

During the meeting on Sept. 24, the library was completely full of students debating whether or not Puerto Rico should be the 51st state.

As students debate, Executive Board members judge and give them feedback. Each student is also timed; the Executive Board signifies when their time is up by banging on a desk to mimic a gavel in court.

At the last part of the meeting, the students meet in groups to discuss possible resolutions to the debate topic.

Olga Zullig, an immigration attorney who is also Jared Zullig’s mom, came on as the new adviser this year.

“There’s definitely a learning curve,” Zullig said. “It looks to be [going in the right direction]. I’ve seen improvements over the last meetings, and I look forward to these meetings because I hear very interesting things that I thought I would never hear.”

“It’s been interesting,” Yen said. “Obviously, without the old advisor, Sara Bargiel, the Executive Board needs to be more on top of things because we don’t have an adult that knows all the ins and outs. But we are learning our way to deal with it and we are figuring out the most effective way to run practices.