By Valeria Araujo – New Editor

Jonathan Law’s Model U.N. Club is ready for a year of fun and fundraisers.

Model U.N. currently meets every F day during common time and will start meeting after school on Fridays soon.

The club has started the year off with an abundance of new members.  So far, they’ve been bouncing off fundraiser ideas and electing new officers so that this year’s trip to New York is a success.

Their main goal for this year is to lower the cost of this annual trip, so that they can stay at the event for the full four days instead of three.

“The trip does currently run about $600 and if we want to stay the extra night we’ll be looking at $700,” senior co-vice president Katie Sabo said. “If we could raise enough money to have the extra day and keep it low instead of going up it would be great.”

Last year, the club fundraised by selling candy bars, and selling items at Cumberland Farms and Stop & Shop; however, they are always looking for new fundraiser ideas for their trip.

“It’s one of the coolest trips we have, I can’t say that any other trip gets to go to New York, meet with student around the world, and stay at a hotel and just have a great time,” junior co-secretary Jordan Negron said.

The club prepares students for the Model U.N. event in New York, during which students are assigned a specific country and role play as the officials of that country. They decided what their country’s positions are on different policies and propose solutions to certain international problems.

The event allows students to simulate the real United Nations in a fun and educational way.

“It’s extremely relevant because we try to pair students based on interest,” Model U.N. advisor Mr. Evanko said. “If students were interested in defense policies or the military we can put them on the security committee. If they are interested in medicine and being a doctor we can put them on the health committee. If they are interested in becoming a lawyer there is a legal committee.”

Evanko believes that if the students look at issues from the perspective of other nations it will broaden their ability to empathize with other people around the world.

“I joined because I was interested in the U.N. and wanted to be informed in global politics,” junior club member Sam Rossi said. “It broadens your horizons on what is really going on in the world.”

The club gives students the chance to meet with many new faces from all over the world.

“You not only get to know your classmates better – during the trip you stay in a room with three of your classmates – you also meet a whole bunch of people all over the world,” senior co-president Ian Hugo said. “I’ve meet people from Massachusetts, Utah, New York, Mexico, Germany, Ukraine, and it’s just an overall great experience.”

Not only does the club allow students to meet many new people and learn more about the world, it also looks great on a college resume.

“I feel like not enough people know about the U.N. what it does in general, and all the work it does, ” junior co-secretary Jordan Negron said. “Aside from just doing regular stuff like the general assembly or informing the security committee of emergencies, they do a lot to get clean water for Africa in addition to a lot of other projects making sure that certain diseases do not spread and stuff like that and it’s just a really extraordinary organization.”