From March 18th through the 22^nd, forty-five Scituate students and five teachers traveled to the District of Columbia for the Washington Area Model United Nations Conference. This conference is hosted every year by George Washington University for thousands of students from all over the world. Scituate High School was the only high school represented this year from Massachusetts. The conference’s committees had schools from California, Texas, Florida, Wyoming, Mexico, and Greece — you name it! Scituate represented countries like Sweden, Bolivia, and Spain in general assemblies. Fifteen SHS students specialized or joined crisis committees, representing anywhere from a character in the West Wing to a member of The Russian Mafia.

Approximately sixty high school students are members of the SHS Model United Nations club. The advisors, Ms. True and Mr. Matisoff, really aim to make the club successful and give students a unique learning experience. Every year the club attends the conference at Brown University. Then toward the end of the winter the club attends a larger scale conference. In the past the club has traveled to New York City’s National High School Model United Nations conference. This gave SHS students the unique chance to be at the United Nations headquarters, in the actual U.N. conference room for closing ceremonies. Then in February of last year the club traveled to the windy city, for the Model United Nations University of Chicago.

This year, the club traveled to the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., and Scituate delegates were treated to the ultimate D.C. experience. Students toured the White House and all of the capital’s monuments. Students also participated in a guided tour (narrated by a very enthusiastic tour guide) of all of the monuments along the National Mall. Club members even saw Barack Obama’s dog Bo and had a casual conversation with the Secret Service. In addition, students listened to a United States diplomat talk about his time in the military and with the U.S. State Department at the United States embassy in Russia.

In the actual committee, students have their own experience. In General Assemblies students sat in committees of three hundred people discussing topics regarding peace keeping troops and international terrorism. In more specialized or crisis committees, twenty delegates sat at conference tables and took on various situations. Some crisis committees were pulled out of their hotel rooms at 12 midnight to address various crises that emerged throughout the night. SHS junior Bridget McCarthy had a unique experience in her West Wing experience. She said, “Crisis committees really keep you on your toes. There are three hour committee sessions of constant heart racing situations. I loved having this experience. It definitely showed me that crisis committees are something I want to do at every conference I attend.”

Every year Scituate’s Model U.N. club grows and sees brilliant new delegates who hope to have the experiences they hear about from their classmates. The club has the ability to tailor to specific student’s interests and qualities. SHS senior Hannah Nelson has been participating in Model U.N. for three years, and she has been the club’s head delegate for the past two years. She spoke of the truly unique experience when she said, “Model U.N. has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my high school career. Learning to debate international issues helped me to find my voice and succeed in cooperating with others, as well as develop great friendships.” Scituate High School gives every student who is willing to put in the work the opportunities that this unique club offers.